Subversive Stitch, The: Embroidery and the Making of the Feminine

This is one of my favorite books! I lost my first copy in a messy breakup situation, so I had to buy a second as part of my moving on process.It's a history of femininity, and how our ideas of what is feminine have been shaped by class over the centuries. A detailed explanation of the different meanings attached to embroidery across times and places, intersecting with gender, changes in labor policies and practices, artisan work versus hobby craft, trends among the elite and the growing middle classes. It's a lot of history, but I didn't find it boring or tedious. If you have interest in any of these topics, you should buy this book!

I’ve read it 3 times!

INFORMATIVE. IMPRESSIVE RESEARCH. TOOK NEEDLEWORK TO A NEW LEVE. CONGRATS

I bought this for my final year major art project, and ended up using as a refernce for art history as well. Excellent.

Good book for students of stitching, embroidery and the role of women's work in the early days of stitch and embroidery

excellent book, historical uses of stitching to enforce "femininity"

This book is important and fascinating. It is an important piece of art history, as well as the history of embroidery. It never seemed to me to be dismissive of the medium and said instead that what women did in the past was eventually denigrated by others, e.g., the guilds, church officials (not the author). This book is a part of the reinstatement of women's place in art history, as well as fiber/needle arts.I say it is fascinating because I am very interested in how people lived and created art, throughout time. And it is of interest because it tells what happened to a beautiful art form and how it became devalued by a mostly male-controlled art world, except in certain settings.There are other books to read about the subject, that will round out the appreciation of needle arts, including "Embroidered Textiles" by Sheila Paine. I have read dozens of books on this subject, including books on the tools of the trade, ancient and new.I embroider and I vote, so I vote this book "excellent".

As an AVID embroiderer and feminist, I had see this book often over the years but had never gotten around to reading it. Ugh. Terrible! I want my money back.The nicest thing to say is that it is very dated, and for the time, it was probably important. I just found it to be a very bad, boring, repetitive study that really doesn't say much. She really just says the same thing over and over and over: Embroidery has "signified" femininity through the ages. That's about it, folks. Well, we learn that sometimes this has been an empowering thing, but mostly it has been a way of keeping women in their place and submissive, etc. Occasionally women have rebelled against it. That's really it. That is it. I don't think I read more than three chapters though I scanned the rest.What I found so offensive is that Parker is clearly not an embroiderer herself, doesn't know anything about the medium, and really couldn't care less about it. I was amazed at how totally insensitive and dismissive of it she is. It is the subject of her book after all. But her attitude is pretty much of a distanced, "scientific" observor reporting on something she had absolutely zero knowledge or understanding of herself.If you are an embroiderer, do not look to this book to tell you anything. I learned zilch except maybe a historical fact or two. A really good book about women and embroidery has yet to be written.

Buena información, pero todas las imágenes de los bordados vienen en blanco y negro.

The book is interesting, but this is far from comprehensive, often very lightweight in explanation and not very well-organized or written. There are too many repeats of the same information in different parts of the book, word for word, which is not long to begin with. Very limited in scope - mostly about British embroiderers. The 'subversive' aspect is not well developed or defined - and poorly explained even when stated. Equating embroidery with feminism is tenuous at best, for lack of proof. The best parts of the book are the explanations of various types of embroidery and how they evolved.

Bought this for my sister and she love it.

Ha venido la primera página defectuosa, y las siguientes con esa línea defectuosa arriba y el texto torcido. Era un regalo y no me gusta entregarlo así.

Love!