danger…strange women at work…
April 18, 2008 by sparklematrix
I guess there was a time in the not too distant Victorian era when the extent of women gardening would have probably limited itself to delicately weeding the pansy bed whilst kneeling on a silken kneepad. For the middle classes of course, but that’s another story.
You see, Sparks & Co have been doing a spot of minor landscape gardening - in public. Yes, “public” is the problem here - even though we often partake in landscape ventures they are usually hidden from the civic gaze. So, more often than not these are typically concealed projects, where we are usually left in peace to poodle around laying paths in secret gardens, or rearranging decorative stones and pots around a pond. We also do occasional work for an “estate,” (the landed gentry that is - not Scotswood Barbed Wire Hoystey Car* Estate) you know where Tories say “hoyce”** for house and you hear the occasional ‘the hunt’ mentioned as in yes the FOX sort. It’s fine actually, no bother to be had and there is a definite lack of sight seekers on their extensive ’estate’ So I guess what I’m saying is that apart from some visiting members of the public, medical / herbalist students and other various minor assortments to our main project, we don’t really do humans.
Anyway, this new venture - located next to a busy car park and serving a rather large rural town involved full public scrutiny. Raised up from ground level due to the steep incline of the road the garden served as a sort of ’stage’ for the ’oddities’ also known as women doing hard manual graft.
Every five to ten minutes a passer by (disproportionately male I may add) felt forced to offer some paragon of advice, disbelief, encouragement or hails of “can you do my place next pet?” These ranged from “Ha Ha you two will never get all of that cleared” or “sure you can manage those paving stones?” to “ He He have you buried him under there” (at this stage we did have a grave size heap of earth in the centre of the plot so I got the joke - for the fiftieth time)
Now let me introduce the electricians who worked in side the house doing electric things while we outside got on with garden things, all trying to pull the practicalities of an expanding business together (the client also owns next door and this is the point - the gardens have to match) Three of them in the team and the apprentice was definitely about twelve. It’s undeniably symbolic that this work is taking place at the offices of a child psychologist (who is also a friend of my colleague - yes nepotism is cool)
Mr boss lecci is fine and asks serious questions regarding which sort of plants would grow best in this terrain and what sort of membrane would we be using for the ‘decorative stones’ and so forth. However, little greenhorn insists in repeating that we should have used a rotavator. As if we were too dense to weigh up hire cost and cast a jaundiced eye on the freaking minuscule-ness of it all and not forgetting the quaint twisty steps needed for access…while he clutches his Zoo magazine.
While he clutches his Zoo magazine…
So, after about the fifth delivery of his superior dudely wisdom I reply “well yeah maybe you should read the Beano or maybe even the Dandy but yanno I‘m not in your face suggesting it” says she while calmly rolling another Golden Virginia feminine allusion destroyer. Young lad and his repeated suggestion scurry indoors never to be seen again while his mates laugh in a cruel manner. Poor boy.
Now colleague and I afforded no conclusive societal analysis as to how or why two women gardening in public should generate such interest from all sexes across an age range of about four*** to ninety. However, we did come to the decision that when heavy graft is involved men assume superior knowledge and cannot wait to dispense advice and wisdom whether it is asked for or not. On the other hand, as much as some of the ’suggestions’ deeply vexed my last nerve***** we did have some good banter and a few laughs. However, one important lesson was learnt by a barely out of adolescence lad… do not offer advice to Sparks when you are clutching a Zoo magazine.
Now that is just asking for trouble.
* Hoyce is different from Hoystey. The former is “house” in upper-middle class English language dialect. See ** for latter.
** Stolen car chase.
***Young boy of about four wanted to know if we were making a fishpond. No? Oh well, could he still come back tomorrow to watch.
**** “last nerve” - Twisty. No plagiarism here folks
Recently I replaced a window frame in my house, and having removed the old one, made the somewhat distressing discovery that there wasn’t a lintel above it - the so called builders having just propped up the wall/roof above (which fortunately wasn’t tall) on top of the window, with some half bricks.
So off I go to Wickes to buy a concrete lintel (very heavy). And because I haven’t got a car I ordered a minicab to take me back. The guy spent the whole journey back saying how unusual it was to see a woman doing this sort of thing. And then made me solemnly promise that under no circumstances would I lift the lintel myself. Presumably the DIY elves were meant to drop by and do it for me.
Anyway the upshot is that the lintel is now in place, holding the roof up, hoisted there by me - no I didn’t just lift it above my head wonder woman style, (because even a fairly hefty male would have struggled to do that single handed) I devised a system to lift it into place gradually - using my brains. But apparently you don’t really need brains to do this kind of thing. Because a penis is much better.
Oh and before anyone chips in, I did not use my brains to lift the heavy concrete object, I used them to devise the lifting method….
Funny you should notice this…
Maia and I have been digging up some land to make a community garden. It’s in a fairly public place next to a road and people walk past all the time. We’ve had a couple of old guys telling us what we are doing wrong, and LOADS of people asking why we’re not letting ‘the men’ do the hard work. The answer is “Because then it wouldn’t be a WOMEN’S community garden…duh!”
…and anyway…what men?? We don’t have a group of men standing by just in case we can’t lift something or need a jar opening.
Ah, Polly you make a useful connection between brains and brawn. I am naturally a very practical person and often develop systems in heavy gardening to get around my lack of brawn.
Erika your project looks totally fab and I am completely jealous (and wished I lived nearer) tho’ our project is purely a woman workforce too. We are all like-minded and there are no power-struggles and no hierarchies yet we work together like clockwork. Just an interesting observation to point out.
Gosh, I had a similar conversation on Thursday (with a manz) when I was discussing my house renovations. He made some mutterings about how I couldn’t possibly do all/most of it. I said I could, except where perhaps two peeps would be needed/required. I am impressed by polly’s lintel lift. I have done a few things whereby things get propped up and gradually positioned into place, I installed the fairly heavy kitchen (upper) cupboards at the old flat using this method.
Removal of the built-in wardrobes at casa stormy (and I’ve seen bomb shelters constructed less robustly) required crowbars and sledgehammers and leverage and a lot of swearing (at the dude who made them). I think the swearing was the key to the operation.
The crowbar is the perfect example of using a lever, which is the key to the whole thing. The force is multiplied by applying it from a distance. It’s basic physics. Whereas lots of menz would just try to lift the thing to prove their manliness and probably give themselves a hernai/slipped disc in the process. I am pretty strong anyway though.
Ah yes women are such poor weak little things are they not? How ever did you and your female colleagues manage Sparks without a male supervising proceedings? Of course if a man were to be in charge he would just stand there giving directions and advice, because after all it requires superior brain power. The female underlinings would of course carry out the manual labour, except it would not be seen as manual labour but simply engaging in something akin to a ‘hobby or interest.’ Work is for men only.
This link is about men’s superior knowledge (sic) being dispensed to women irrespective of their intellectual skills and abilities. http://www.commondreams.org/archives/2008/04/13/8257/
By the way, my father was a builder and decorator but despite my having a keen interest in helping him with interior painting - was I allowed to? No of course not or very rarely because apparently I would not undertake the work correctly. Now I wonder if my father suffered from that male affliction which is the presumption men are superior to women in everything except for domestic work!
Hm - link does not want to work so if anyone is interested here is another link which will take you an article Rebecca Solnit has written about ‘Men Explain Things to Me.’
http://www.feministpeace.network.org/2008/04/13/rebecca-solnit-men-explain-things-to-me/
Of course another reason why link does not work is because sadly I am female and hence am incapable of understanding anything intellectual or technical. Sigh - I wonder how I managed to live this long without crumbling away into insignificance due to a lack of male supervision!
Painting, have done a bit of that, am very good at the cutting in. Am also very good at tipping over tin of paint on the odd occasion! (Only the once really)
I have some exciting tools Polly. I am fond of the ones that do damage, like my crowbar
In my former het days, I always had more toolz than the manz. Also, even though I am a bit scrawny looking, I am far stronger than I look. Poor menz, they get a little worried sometimes.
NB sparks I hate to point this out to you, but one of the signs of ageing is thinking 16/17/18 years olds look 12. It happens to me all the time in pubs….
I know Polly, I know. A few months ago I attended the International Dream Conference and I kept thinking that the speakers were grad students or something. Wrong…half of them were ruddy professors who looked about 20.
Jennifer the second link doesn’t seem to be working too :/
As far as male care givers go my grandfather had the most influence with me growing up and he just encouraged me to help him do everything. My mother was also a very good DIYer and used to do electrics, plastering and all sorts. So I suppose this has been an advantage for me.
Just thinking here - my eldest daughter is also the DIY person in her home.
Looking like socialization folks.
This thread makes me laugh - oh, I know all about the DIY elves…
I take great pleasure in watching the expressions of random people as it starts to sink in exactly how much weight is in the jobs I’m doing - and yet very often there’s probably less exertion involved than in lifting a two year old child.
That’s the thing Sparks - you could have walked around all day with a kid balanced on one hip (and probably done all the other jobs as well) and no-one would’ve even noticed.
Jennifer, my Dad didn’t give explanations. Just said ‘no’ and ran away. Until I was old enough to be put to work… (because yep, the business needs an untrained teenager who’s been demanding information since she were knee-high to a grasshopper and hasn’t been given any). At least I got my own postage-stamp of a garden to play with.
This one might work.
http://www.truthout.org/docs_2006/041408I.shtml
Credibility is an essential tool for survival, is the line that resonated with me the most.
Your experiences with the menz is a classic example of denial of credibility.
Nothing you say or do is credible.
No matter how many times a man sees women accomplishing a task, they are always so shocked that the women managed it. Rather than adjust the mythology that is their world view, yours must be aberrant behavior that proves their world view correct.
Well, I feel like a useless lump of poo.
) and doing laundry and such is still a necessary and physical task. They also taught me to work hard and put effort into brain work and studies. I know how to keep my house damned clean and organized, and that’s a lot of strategic and physical work. But lifting a large block of concrete? Fixing pipes? Installing drywall? Eh, I’d need you stronger ladies to help me for now.
I have absolutely no clue of how to do just about anything as far as construction/maintenance/plumbing etc. goes. Hell, I don’t even know how to change a tire for Maude’s sake. My mom and dad raised me to not only be a feminine little girl, but to also focus all of my other energies on studying, reading, doing well in school. Absolutely no physical work, and no sports. Nada. Mefeesh haga. Nothing.
Granted, I highly value brain power (my mom’s weekly rendezvous with me at the library certainly helped me develop a strong vocabulary and made me more intelligent and analytical, thanks mom
It’s such a cultural thing too though, my parents are Egyptian and in Egyptian families parents are always super protective of their children, especially daughters. They don’t want me going too close to the ledge, too close to the waves, too close to the horse, yaddah yaddah yaddah. Physical work is considered work for “peasants” and the working class in our culture, so to get your kids to do lifting and heavy physical work around the house is to lower your class status.
Yeah, let’s just say I will not be continuing much of that tradition in my family :p Sorry if that was floating off topic or rambling. Now, I need to learn how to change a tire…
By the way I had been posting previously as “Lara” but because I just signed into WordPress to comment over at Polly’s I had to use my username “rychousmama.”
-Lara
Thanks thebewilderness this has given me a big “moment”
and this…
[...] billions of women must be out there on this six-billion-person planet being told that they are not reliable witnesses to their own lives, that the truth is not their property, now or ever. This goes way beyond Men Explaining Things, but it’s part of the same archipelago of arrogance”
From…my daughter insists that her partner was not verbally hostile towards me (he was and she wasn’t even there)
To…a friend of mine who is a woman scientist at the top of her profession. Who has over 200 published papers and is in the top 10 cited references for her specialty yet she still struggles with ‘credibility’ and that was the very word she used.
Lara - it’s interesting what you say about culture and “peasants”
My friend is married to a Romanian man and he will not as so much even pull up a weed from their garden as he considers it to be the work of “peasants”
Yes, I find that Anglos are some of the very few people who don’t really have a problem doing physical work in their own gardens, homes, and yards. It must come from the Protestant religious influence of this particular kind of work ethic: that one must never be idle, must always be working physically or with their hands lest they become “unproductive” and useless; then the idea, related to the first, that people have to “work for what they get.” It’s interesting. You see this attitude here with a lot of white Americans, a great majority of them Protestant or of Anglo-Saxon descent.
In my case it’s more that I am a peasant I think. Also we have a lot of TV programmes on DIY. But the fad has been going for ages. In the Diary of a Nobody, Mr Pooter paints the bath red, with hilarious consequences…..
I started reading and straight away knew what was coming.
Two hundred years ago and a few more, a teenaged Isobel Gunn shipped off from the Orkney Islands to work for the HBC in Rupert’s Land (land surrounding Hudson Bay in Canada). She did so pretending to be a man. She worked as a fur trader for two years until her delivery of a baby boy outed her. From that point on she was made to do the laundry of the men she’d worked with until she complained and was with her child sent back to the Orkney’s. There she was allowed to live out her days as a ’stocking and mitten maker”.
Oh I just remembered I didn’t have to do this from memory.
http://www.hbc.com/hbcheritage/history/people/women/isobelgunn.asp
The Orkney Lad: The Story of Isobel Gunn
The first employees of the Hudson’s Bay Company were true adventurers. Hbc needed *strong men, brave enough to venture into foreign territory and labour under harsh weather conditions in the Canadian wilderness.*
Wow sis - what a story.
WTF is this “possibly related post” stuff showing up at the bottom of posts? No, sorry WordPress this looks as though I’ve endorsed links.
Fuck that!
You can get rid of it. Go to ‘Design’ on your dashboard, click on ‘Extras’ and uncheck the second box. More info here:
http://wordpress.com/blog/2008/04/25/possibly-an-announcement/
Thanks Arantxa. They snuck that one in, didn’t they?
I’m a bit of a wordpress buff so I always read their updates under ‘What’s Hot’ on my dashboard.
Hey Sparks and friends, I just wanted to let you know that I and some other women are trying to do something about the Lilly Ledbetter issue. I started a campaign on thepoint.com. This isn’t spam, I think you’ll remember I’ve been a contributer and reader here (still a reader) and I just want to get this word out to everyone. You didn’t have an email on here so I’m leaving this in a comment, but feel free to delete it once you’ve read it.
The gist is that we’re trying to get 10,000 supporters to join the campaign at https://www.thepoint.com/campaigns/goodyear-needs-to-make-good-on-unfair-pay-treatment-towards-women-starting-with-lilly-ledbetter/headquarters
by Mother’s Day to boycott Goodyear Tire Co until they make good on the pay disparity a jury awarded Ms. Ledbetter. This has huge political implications, and of course we want to get way more than 10,000 people, but it’s a start. With only two weeks, we need momentum and fast!
I’m hoping that you will help me out in getting the word to spread fast across the internet. You can digg and stumble the actual campaign at the link I gave above. That alone would help. Even better, as you know, if you use all social media to spread the word. The idea here is that corporations can hide behind their lawyers and legal loopholes, but they can’t hide from consumers and social media.
Anyway, I’ve posted the briefest of blurbs on my blog for now because I spent my free time yesterday creating the campaign. I’ll be posting a more comprehensive story, as well as keeping readers updated with other blogs sharing the story. Others are doing a much better job for me
like below:
http://telecommutingjournal.com/2008/04/whats-the-point/
Email me if you have any questions, or suggestions! I do hope you don’t mind that I’ve posted this here. Like I said, if it strikes you as spammy, or you’re not interested in the campaign, feel free to delete it. (As if you wouldn’t anyway ;))
Keep on keeping on!
Hi VV and thanks. Very interesting and I’d not heard of it. Why does it not surprise me that supposedly progressive countries are still trying the pull this shit? I’ve signed the doohah.
Thanks Sparks! I’ve posted more about it over on my blog with some links to good resources on the case. I’m hoping that bloggers begin to pick up the campaign. Every little bit helps, and 10,000 is a big number without some blogger oomph behind it!
Cheers!