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?

So blutness, what if I said that some people are seeing something that isn’t there? Some people are harking back to the past and assuming a woman is impoverished or working for someone else becuase she is black?

Why is it hilarious and concerning Notevilstepmother? Namechangedname asked ..."are these words attributed to her colour, or is it the picture, as a whole?"

My answer attempted to describe the perspective of a white person living in a multicultural society (I live in a fairly integrated suburban area in the US where there is an ongoing conversation about race). A white person in my community would have to be spectacularly blind to all the issues swirling around in this particular community (and in the wider American community, and imo in the UK context too) to go ahead and display this print.

It is also the answer of a white person whose education included a good deal of study of segregation, Jim Crow, images/design, privilege and perception. Is the entire canon of studies on privilege to be deemed unmentionable simply because the person mentioning this is white?

The picture shows a black woman naked but for her baby, plus a book, plus a washing machine, plus a basket containing clothes. Not just 'a woman' and her baby. If the Danes are so free and easy about nakedness, why not portray a stereotypically white Danish woman leaning over her washing machine while her baby snoozes in a typically Danish cradle (maybe visible sleeping outside in the snow in a pram)?

I do my own laundry too. I have done housework with a baby on my back, often consecutive loads of laundry. I like to read. I can't in all honesty see this picture as anything but hamfistedly exploitative and in very poor taste.

It's not because of objecting to the colour of the mum that I would not hang this print. I would not hang a print of some Irish woman surrounded by her stereotypical fifteen 'Irish twin' children either, leaning on her washing machine trying to snatch a moment with her book while she does her laundry.

It's the stereotyping and the gratuitousness of the nakedness that I object to.

I dont tnink anyone can determine someone else's interpretation of art.

I agree, I don't think she's impoverished, or working for someone else. My issue as I've said all along and repeatedly is I don't like the gender stereotype of a naked woman child rearing, doing rhe laundry, displayed in isolation en route to thr laundry room. Her skin colour is secondary to me, and I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I am interested in why the artist has not painted images of white women doing chores. Naked or otherwise.

However, just because I don't see these things, doesn't mean someone else shouldn't. Or that my view is right. It certainly doesn't give me the right to be angry with the person who sees these things.

It's the stereotyping and the gratuitousness of the nakedness that I object to

Yes. This is my issue. And where it will be displayed, in isolation en route to thr laundry room.

You can't interpret images of black people without reference to the past that includes portrayals of black people in a very negative light. You really can't pretend only the present matters. Certain tropes express certain assumptions. They have their origins in past history (past history that has not been overcome).

Hence the furore about the Dove ad showing a black woman turning into a white one:
www.npr.org/sections/thetwo-way/2017/10/08/556523422/dove-expresses-regret-for-ad-that-missed-the-mark

And this previous Dove ad:
gawker.com/5804724/dove-body-wash-strong-enough-to-turn-a-black-woman-white
You can decide for yourself what you think is implied here.

And here, I’m feeling the same anger because I’m being told I should see racism or sexism in this picture, when I really don’t.

Seriously disingenuous.

People who find the image uncomfortable will have all sorts of reasons for doing so. As has been explained at length.

I'm imagining a slightly different image - a Māori woman, naked with a baby on her back, leaning over the washing machine. And me, as a white NZer, having it on my wall. On the way to the laundry.

Christ, the thought of it just makes me cringe.

Perhaps this is why I find - maybe not the image itself, but the idea of the OP hanging it in isolation - so inappropriate.

And I don't like it because it reminds me of those National Geographic photos/films which showed happy `natives', dancing or singing in a state of undress for the titillation of white people. I agree that my age probably makes me think of that but it does make me feel uncomfortable. I also don't think it is particularly good art and clearly that is subjective.I can think of lots of other prints I would be happy to have on my wall.

Ah, you are in America. Massive cultural differences.

I found it funny because it seemed like you were doing whatever the race equivalent of mansplaining is.

I wouldn’t think twice about hanging the picture. I also live in a multi cultural area, and while I haven’t formally studied race issues, I consider myself reasonably educated about them, mainly becuase I find history interesting and particularly I like to know what happened and why people can’t just get on.

I don’t think it would be easy for Americans to understand the utterly different attitudes to nudity in parts of Europe. Most British people don’t. In the context of the artist being Danish, female and body positivity being her thing I really don’t think there is anything gratuitous about the nudity.

As for why she did a picture of a black woman, who knows, maybe it’s one of her yoga students. I really personally feel you are reading too much into this picture. I don’t think any of the black women I know would see this picture as exploitative or in poor taste. I think things are different in America, I wouldn’t say it’s perfect here, but we didn’t have segregation in the same way and maybe that is part of the difference, I think also British people don’t take things quite so seriously as Americans (sorry for generalising!)

The Dove ad implied that being black is dirty and can be washed off. Obviously that is offensive. This picture shows a woman being a mum and doing the laundry and reading a book. Not the same.

I think you're off the mark stepmother and would prefer you didn't speak for British people. Enough of them on here have proven your theory wrong.

. I can also say that I wouldn't like this image to the same degree if the op wished to display the exact same image in isolation, of a white woman, naked and bent over with a baby on her back, doing rhe laundry, en route to her laundry room.

The yoga prints the artist does are very different, this woman is not doing yoga. I think that's fairly clear.

Maybe in the UK we have come a bit further with racial equality than some other countries.

Dowager, is it the norm to see well educated Māori women in the workplace and on an equal footing to yourself?

Maybe in the UK we have come a bit further with racial equality than some other countries

You really need to stop generalising. Seriously.

I haven’t spoken for British except to say that we aren’t generally as relaxed about nudity as on the continent. You seem a good example of that.

Context is everything. One persons body positivity seems to be another’s fetishising. I speak for myself, I prefer to look on the positive side. I like the sound of the washing machine.

Ok, I will stop talking. Clearly your view is much more important than mine.

If I had enough money to have a laundry room - and corridor - I'd buy something a lot better for my walls. (In fact, I don't have enough money for a laundry room, but I do have some gorgeous prints and watercolours.)

Ok, I will stop talking. Clearly your view is much more important than mine

Oh, right. A flounce. Sigh.

Hello. I'm the artist behind this illustration. I've read the first few pages in this discussion and I'll answer some of the questions. I can tell you the story behind the drawing and provide some context. I'm a Danish animator, illustrator and yoga teacher. I created an instagram called yoga prints a few years ago where I combine my love for yoga with my lifetime passion for drawing. My drawings show naked people in different sizes, shapes and ethnicities mostly with body hair doing yoga. After I had a child myself I've also done drawings of baby wearing and other art related to having a baby, e.g. Breastfeeding and not sleeping etc. The reason I draw the characters naked is because I want to show how we look underneath it all. Initially I wanted to go against the depiction of how a "yoga body" should look like. I was sick and tired of only seeing one body type "promoting" yoga and I wanted to make the "natural" (whatever that is? I don't know, but I'm exploring and learning constantly ) body less scary by simply drawing naked people enjoying themselves doing yoga. It is simple and relatable and most people on my account resonate and some people don't get it and that's just fine. So. That's why she's naked in this drawing. It's simply my thing drawing naked people.
This illustration in particular was a commissioned piece. The woman in the drawing is a Danish woman who contacted me to make a series of baby wearing portraits of her and her son in different every day activities. The illustrations are made from reference photos provided by her. Thank you for your thoughts and inputs on this illustration. Kind regards

Was this thread a set up, then? Does the OP know the artist?

Is this all an elaborate ruse?

Hmm.

I seriously doubt it's an elaborate ruse as the premise invites people to call the artwork racist.

More likely one of her instagram follwers pointed her to the thread and she wanted to address the ridiculous posts calling it racist.

Everyday activities such as leaning over a washing machine reading what other everyday activities has she commissioned you to portray?

You know that thought that if a comic has a woman in it, the comic becomes about the woman being a woman.

But if you use a male then the comic becomes neutral and the comic is about the joke

That's what this reminds me of.

If the woman had been white in the poster people wouldn't have read all the crap in to it. As though white is neutral or default.

Because it's a black woman, she's no longer just a woman doing the laundry... it must be about her being black.

Well I saw a really sweet one with the same woman brushing her teeth smiling at the baby.

That must also be racist.

@MarieJorgensen

I hope you haven't been upset by the posts. I've never seen your work before the thread and I really like the picture in the OP. And I especially like the tooth brushing one.