I'm a big fan of podcasts, and my favorite sewing podcast is Sewing Out Loud by Zede and Mallory Donahue. They are a mother and daughter team with two lifetimes of sewing experience. And they are very funny, one of my personal prerequisites for a podcast.
There is also a Facebook group, The Self Sewn Wardrobe, run by Mallory. She stresses that this group is for EVERYONE. And if you don't play nice, there is no whining and moaning by Mallory--she will just toss your worthless self out of the group pronto. I really, really like this. Cussing is absolutely allowed but criticism of anyone's body or lifestyle is absolutely not. And the group is very helpful to any sewing person dealing with any kind of fitting issues, including those of body parts not appropriate to one's gender identity. Have I been both appropriately specific yet vague in my vocabulary? In the group one may be as explicit as one wants or needs to be. It's been a real learning experience for me.
All this is background for my latest experience of being just-so-hilarious-I can-hardly stand myself. But first, one more bit of background data. My BFF is a real, honest-to-goodness professional archaeologist.
Now on to the story:
I was excited to find a Playmobil sewing set and I quickly ordered it.
Playmobil set 9437, Fashion Designer
The set was supposed to include a dolly, her dress form, and various sewing tools.
The red things represent tools that can be clipped into the dolly's hand. These were missing from my set. But I didn't care one little bit because what I got instead was an extra dolly.
So, here we have the dressmaker and her client! Fantastic! (The decals in the back are decorations you can add to the garments.)
Not long after buying the Playmobil sewing set I saw a Playmobil archaeologist. Had to have that too.
Playmobil set 9359. Archeologist (not the way I usually spell it though)
Just one problem with the archaeologist though. He is very definitely male. And Playmobil did not offer a female version. As I was thinking about being bothered by this I realized that I had not given one tiny thought to the fact that the only option for the sewing set was female. Get with the 21st century Playmobil! (and me too!)
Archaeology is a dirty messy business!
Can you see where this is going? Mwahahahah.... YouTube was my next stop....
Where I discovered that Playmobil people CAN be dis-assembled. Apparently this is quite a big thing, with people customizing the heck out of them and selling them online. So I had to give it a try.
Voila! A female archaeologist! I packed her back in the original box with all the archaeologist's tools and goodies and sent her off to my friend, who was appropriately amused.
And the other dolly became a guy in a dress. What is his story? Lots of possibilities, but
Gender vocabulary has changed as our society has opened up. I'm doing my best to keep up!
Our Torah study group now has E, who uses 'they/them' and to my old fashioned eyes a female who feels male and dresses so. I'm still hopelessly mired in fighting patriarchy! So old fashioned. It's a great Torah study group with people on the spectrum, PhDs of all sorts, scholars falling into Alzheimers forgetfulness, and several rabbis, including a new lesbian friend with a guide dog. We all have ideas and yet never fights or hurt feelings. Amazing! My health is returning, also. All is good.
ReplyDeleteI'm now 65 and my education continues thanks to Mallory's SSW. It's a great page for encouraging beginner sewers.
ReplyDeleteI'm turning 70 next week. Never too old to learn!
DeleteI love it! I collected dolls back in the day, and was always blown away by some of the customization work done on dolls. I'll have to go look at some online sites and see what's happening now in the world of customization!
ReplyDeleteI love Playmo. I love taking it apart even more. Right now I have the wood shop set waiting to be regendered. I lost the Playmo dress form I bought on eBay (which cost about as much as a real one) somewhere in the clutter here. I love this set you've made; many a sewist has made a living sewing for drag queens, burlesque performers, drag kings and transitioned folks.
ReplyDeleteMy niece transitioned a couple of years ago (to become my niece and to be disappointed in how ungirly my sister and i are) (thank goodness MAC cosmetics shops have staff training on teaching new women how to put on makeup) and the pronouns bugged me until one morning I woke up and miraculously the stick up my bum had vanished. Nothing about any of this is new, but being able to talk about it surely is.
Thank you so much for your comment! And it IS good that we can talk about this, even if we have to get used to new vocabulary. It's the least we can do!
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