Apron a symbol of repression

[LadyJaneGreyspen]

Or just a useful bit of clothing?

I use mine to keep my clothes clean. No one has forced me to wear one since DT classes in high school.

Is there a reference I'm not getting?

Everyone wears them in catering and always have. Men and women. Butchers etc have always worn them. Where's the repression? They just keep you clean and hygienic surely?

We have. www.margueritedeponty.com/home/2018/2/6/feminine-design-icon-or-symbol-of-female-oppression. Personally I always forget to wear one and end up a right state

The little frilly ones, yes.

I love baking!

Useful no doubt, but they are a metaphor in my opinion. People talk about children being tied to their mothers apron strings, meaning they’re being kept in the fold of the family home, whereby implication the mother must exist, and not allowed out into the world.
The apron in this case being a metonym for domestic duty.

Oh can we have another feminist cake chat?

Has anybody got a recipe for a feminist cake?

I think hot rocker that is the area I am actually interested in. Why the negative? Why apron strings as womanly? Why would it be seen as strange to walk round the supermarket in your kitchen apron rather than a catering apron......... there are cultural and societal views around what is essentially a piece of cloth to stop you getting dirty

Lol I want a piece so long as it isn’t a blueberry raspberry muffin

because there are cultural and societal views around every damn thing that's stereotypically associated with women

patriarchy innit?

personally discovering the apron changed my life, or made my clothes last longer at any rate

my mum always eschewed them, probably for the reasons behind this thread, but you'd have to pry mine from my cold dead hands

I wear one due to my profession. Males in the same profession also wear them. They are classified as Personal Protective Equipment.

I don't wear one in the kitchen preparing food and as a consequence am always getting food splatters all over me. My DP does wear one when cooking and therefore doesn't get splattered.

Sometimes a thing is just a thing.

Should have mentioned my DP is male.

How about this one ?

Or this?

Never mind an apron, I'd be happy to wear a nice drip-dry overall (do they still make them?).

Perhaps being sensible about stains is anti-feminist, and a cavalier attitude to splatters is more liberated, as it is usually the woman who has to deal with the washing (muses...).

In any case, I do not really see Nigella as a feminist role model because she cooks wearing a (most uncomfortable-looking) tight denim jacket.

What about sleeves though? Wearing an apron doesn’t stop you splattering tomato all over your arms. Maybe we need an apron rethink?
Maybe aprons are designed the way they are so they can go over a dress, but of course most people don’t wear a dress while cooking, so in that respect they’re not fit for purpose.

While I support the right of anyone to wear a frilly apron if they choose, and wouldn't judge them for doing so, I wouldn't be seen dead in one. Just something practical to keep my clothes clean.

Not all aprons have feminine associations anyway. The butcher's apron, for example, is a term for the Union Jack.

Hot you need a house coat. My nana used to wear them.

Naw.

Maybe a class thing, but when I think apron I think fishmonger/butcher/Carpenter/tattooer. Skilled jobs ending in -er that make you dirty.

Here’s a screen shot of a google image search for ‘tattooer apron’

My nan wore a housecoat, I always associate them with her. I've seen women wear them in other circumstances - we had a lady come to look after DS1 when we lived abroad who put one on the moment she came in the door, and the cleaning ladies all round here always wear them, and the school dinner ladies used to wear them too..

My MIL has an apron that she puts on in the kitchen. We spoke about it once, she works from home (various admin) and uses it as a separator in her own mind - when she puts the apron on, she's finished work, and isn't to think about it any more (mind you, that does mean that now she's thinking about the household stuff instead)

So useful. Not only do I have many aprons but I also have a lovely floral overall!

I just bought a lovely linen japanese apron from Muji, after a tough few months I treated myself to it because I was getting fed up of getting food all over me when cooking (I am quite clumsy, and short so my boobs rub on things)

Hotrocker ‘split leg’ aprons are a thing, for people who wear trousers and sit down to work.

Popular with welders and potters, as well as tattooers, apparently!