Bought a print I love, DH is worried it's racist

[NC4T]

Saw it on IG and loved it. Purchased it for the laundry room corridor, but it's arrived and DH is a little worried it might be racist. I can't see how. To me, it's a mum finding a few minutes of calm in the chaos and I love her babies little sleeping face.

We are white Jewish, for cultural context.

What do you think?

It’s such a beautiful serene image

It won’t be when the spin cycle starts...

X post Blunt 😂😂

Molly. Anybody can use a sling obviously. Are they usually worn on the back in the UK? No. Therefore the argument of everybody uses slings, including white people is invalid

Bollocks. Anyone who uses real slings, not the bjorn type harnesses, usually wear them on the back. In the UK. So yes, people of all colours use slings, on their backs. Its not even slightly invalid, its how it is.

I think people assuming she is poor are the ones who are racists

Why? they may also think a naked white/green/purple woman/man/whatever was poor.

What could be more British than carrying your baby around in something that looks like it was designed by the ramblers association

I think red socks and trousers tucked in would make it terribly English.

'I feel so serene when I'm leaning over with my weight on one leg and my arse sticking out and the weight of baby on my back and with no clothes on, while the washing machine spins round and around and around......'

(Said no woman in her right mind. Ever.)

'I feel so serene when I'm leaning over with my weight on one leg and my arse sticking out and the weight of baby on my back and with no clothes on, while the washing machine spins round and around and around......'

Yeah, me too. I think I shall just shove the washing machine on, strip naked, strap a kid to my back, and bend over my washing machine to read. It's the ultimate in loveliness and serenity.

If anyone doesn't have a kid to hand, just find something the right weight and strap it to your back. Get your under crackers off and go for it. Pure bliss. 🤣

It's not hard to imagine, is it? You must have seen it, unless you are blind.

Molly. Anybody can use a sling obviously. Are they usually worn on the back in the UK? No. Therefore the argument of everybody uses slings, including white people is invalid

That’s not what cultural appropriation is about.

I don't see her being naked as being a problem.

I often walk around the house naked, or semi-naked if I don't have anyone coming to visit.

She could also be naked for skin-to-skin contact with the baby on her back.

Does nobody do housework naked?

I love it. Moment of bliss- baby asleep close to her skin - that used to be an amazing feeling, she's go the washing on, book in hand AND she's confident enough to go naked whilst still post-natal.

I know many people who use slings front and back so love the image. There is one lady I've seen around who has the lower back sling and our babies were around the same age. Her baby always looked snug, comfortable and asleep! She is black and I am white. Both of us apparently middle-class and I would assume wash machine users.

Then I look back to the washing machine one and it looks even odder and more incongruous - the sling / pose / domestic appliance just looks like such an odd combination

I think the odd combination is deliberate, for interest and humorous effect.

** I'm not an expert but I don't think there's a washing machine involved in that story. Or a book, come to think of it.

Does nobody do housework naked?

Well I don't. I don't like the picture. I don't think it has any great merit and it just looks weird and uncomfortable.

Their negative stereotypes.

In what way?

I guess it just goes to show we are all different. I can think of many things I would say are blissful, but bending over my washing machine Stark naked reading with a baby strapped to my back isn't ever going to make my top 100 blissful things to do list.

In fact to be brutally honest, it's not something I plan on even trying. It's that lacking in apparant bliss for me. But if others find that a blissful thing to do, then crack on. Each to their own and all that.

Does nobody do housework naked

Well no, I've never felt the need to take my knickers off to clean the cooker, but you fill your boots.

*I'm not an expert but I don't think there's a washing machine involved in that story. Or a book, come to think of it

There isn’t. But maybe...”well obviously Leda was by the river and got mud on her clothes, so she took them off to rinse them - in the river. Then whilst they were..um....drying on a tree, Leda tripped over a bull rush onto a swan. I mean, who hasn't impaled themselves on waterfowl?”

And on that note, I've said enough as this isn't for me to speculate about. I KNOW it's wrong.

I'm black. I see it as a mum, taking five, while the baby is asleep.

I haven't looked into any 'hidden' meanings becauseI don't think there are any. But I may have a different take on it because I'm black, I dunno.

We've had:
fetishized
impoverished
sexualised
carer
maid
exotic

So, are these words attributed to her colour, or is it the picture, as a whole?

Not after a bunfight, I am generally interested.

I don't think it's about the colour of her skin for most, as the thread has clearly shown, but it adds to a lot of unease on how this woman is being portrayed in this isolated image.

Naked child rearer doing the laundry. The role of women in general or the role of black women or the role of this one woman? Whatever it is, most don't like it.

In addition the op is not black. It's not an image of a white woman in this pose she wishes to display in her home. It's an image of a black woman, naked, with a child strapped to her back, doing rhe laundry that she's choosing to display.

So whilst the colour of her skin is relevant, I don't think it's the primary issue here, it's the woman in general as a drudge thing. In addition her husband is concerned about appearing racist, because the op wishes to portray a black woman in this manner, not a woman with her own skin colour.

I suppose if the OP is white and Jewish the safest thing would be to look for an image of a naked white Jewish woman leaning over a washing machine with a baby strapped to her back.

Quite how you'd tell she was Jewish is a complicated one. Perhaps as a married woman, she should be shown wearing a sheitel?

However, traditional/orthodox Judaism is rather cautious about representations of the human body in art.

www.myjewishlearning.com/article/ask-the-expert-graven-images/

i'am black and African , this to me speaks of life as African in the diaspora, we bring with us a bit of our traditions as we also embrace western life. This is how I carried all my babies.

So, are these words attributed to her colour, or is it the picture, as a whole?

The picture as a whole. I was just suspicious of what the artist was getting at, not just the race aspect, but women’s role too.

Then we discover that it’s part of a danish naked yoga series or something, so okay, maybe the intent wasn’t too bad, but if it’s going to be hung alone (without that context or explanation), I still think it looks iffy.

Then we discover that it’s part of a danish naked yoga series or something, so okay, maybe the intent wasn’t too bad, but if it’s going to be hung alone (without that context or explanation), I still think it looks iffy

If displayed in context as part of a series of naked yoga with women of other ethnicities and ages and in different situations it might look ok. One its own it's just weird.

Agreed Lass