I've just started reading The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker about the history of embroidery and its association with femininity.
I am inspired to make my own sampler (never made one before!) but want to creative something really at odds with the traditional Home Sweet Home type of sampler.
To this end I am looking for inspiring quotes or feminist sound bites. I'm still new to this theoretical feminism stuff. I'm finding the book quite hard to follow e.g. 'The manner in which embroidery signifies both self-containment and submission is key to understanding women's relation to the art. Embroidery has provided a source of pleasure and power for women, while being indissolubly linked to their powerlessness. Paradoxically, while embroidery was employed to inculcate femininity in women, it also enabled them to negotiate the constraints of femininity. Observing the covert way embroidery has provided a source of support and satisfaction for women leads us out of the impasse created by outright condemnation of uncritical celebration of the art.' Phew!
So I'm not sure whether it is ok to like embroidery and celebrate it as art rather than just menial craft (women did embroidery for free while men were paid for their art such as painting) or not to and see it as a symbol of a life of leisure while men earned money and a stereotypically female activity.
Either way, I quite like crafting, and quite fancy doing as I suggested and making a sampler, but something subverting the stereotype. Any suggestions?