WOMEN's WORK: SOCIAL RELATIONS of QUILTING by Lora J. Bristow a Thesis Presented to the Faculty of Humboldt State University
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WOMEN’S WORK: SOCIAL RELATIONS OF QUILTING By Lora J. Bristow A Thesis Presented to The Faculty of Humboldt State University In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts in Sociology Committee Membership Jennifer L. Eichstedt, Professor, Committee Chair Mary E. Virnoche, Professor, Committee Member Josh Meisel, Associate Professor, Graduate Coordinator May 2013 ABSTRACT WOMEN’S WORK: SOCIAL RELATIONS OF QUILTING Lora J. Bristow This qualitative research explores how social relations and intersections of race, class, and gender are evident in the woman-centered space of quilting groups. Methods used are interviews with quilters and participant observation at quilt guild meetings and quilt shows in Northern California. Interviewees include both women and men from a variety of racial/ethnic groups. A cultural studies/popular culture approach is utilized, with concepts including cultural production, consumption, commodification, representation, appropriation, appreciation, hegemony and resistance. Elements from post-colonial and multicultural/multiracial feminist thought as well as critical whiteness studies are also integrated. Results show that quilters expressed shared values about quilting and the place of quilting in their lives as well as the place of quilting in our society. However, differences by race/ethnicity are evident in quilters’ choice of quilting-related social activities and membership in quilting groups. Complex dynamics of the interplay of aesthetics and race/ethnicity are also present. Quilters’ social location is reflected in their cultural production and choice of social activity around quilting. ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS First and foremost, I must recognize and thank my family for their support and sacrifices over the course of my graduate school journey. In the middle of their teen years, my son Berehan and daughter Djemanesh were willing to pack our lives into a few suitcases, leave behind everything they had known, and move across the ocean to this new continent. Now we are again closer to big brother Meheret. My mother, Linda, niece Kendra, and nephew Keoni have been long-distance encouragers from Hawaii. My Hawaii writer’s group—Darlene, Jackie, and Kris—continue to both inspire me and take me to task each time we skype-meet. Jerusalem, Sub, Jonah and Melak have welcomed us into their home time and time again when we are in the Bay Area. Mona, Karen, and Grant—it is amazing both how much we are still like our teenaged selves, and how much we have changed. I am also thankful to my faculty and fellow students at Humboldt State University for the hours and hours of fascinating discussions in classes and feedback on my own thinking and work. My landlord Joe, too, has been amazingly tolerant of my too-often late rent payments. Finally, to all the quilters who shared their stories with me for this project—you are amazing! Meeting each and every one of you has been so much fun. You are all so accomplished, creative, and inspirational. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT ........................................................................................................................ ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ............................................................................................... iii LIST OF TABLES ............................................................................................................ vii LIST OF APPENDICES .................................................................................................. viii INTRODUCTION .............................................................................................................. 1 Research Question and Rationale ................................................................................... 4 Organization and Content of This Text .......................................................................... 5 A History of Quilting in the United States ..................................................................... 6 Quilting: Tradition, Resurgence, Change .................................................................... 12 Another Glimpse of the Quilting World ....................................................................... 16 Questions ...................................................................................................................... 17 REVIEW OF LITERATURE ........................................................................................... 18 Gendered Leisure and the Gendered Family ................................................................ 18 Quilting in African American and Native American Communities ............................. 23 Quilting as a Cultural Metaphor, Rhetoric, or Literary Device .................................... 24 THEORETICAL FRAMEWORKS AND CONCEPTS GUIDING MY WORK ............ 25 Cultural Studies and Popular Culture Theory ............................................................... 25 Cultural Production and Consumption ......................................................................... 27 Representation, Appreciation, Appropriation; Hegemony and Resistance. ................. 34 Multiracial and Postcolonial Feminist Theory .............................................................. 41 Whiteness and Race ...................................................................................................... 44 iv METHOD ......................................................................................................................... 51 Myself As a Quilter ....................................................................................................... 51 Quilting As a Metaphor for Research ........................................................................... 52 Romantic Notions—A Beginning ................................................................................. 54 Epistemology and Methods .......................................................................................... 55 Data Collection and Analysis ....................................................................................... 57 The Guilds ..................................................................................................................... 60 Participants .................................................................................................................... 64 Limitations .................................................................................................................... 67 DATA ANALYSIS: THREADS ..................................................................................... 69 Quilting as Culture and Identity .................................................................................... 69 Quilting as Community ................................................................................................. 74 Race, Class, and Community Work: Charity or Change ............................................. 78 Quilting as Class ........................................................................................................... 80 Quilting as Art .............................................................................................................. 83 Gender and Resistance: Women’s Space ..................................................................... 85 Quilting and Race/Ethnicity .......................................................................................... 91 Becoming. ................................................................................................................. 91 Being and remembering. ........................................................................................... 96 Whiteness. ............................................................................................................... 100 Touchstones: Gee’s Bend or “African Aesthetic” quilts and the Underground Railroad Quilt Code. ............................................................................................... 106 DISCUSSION: FABRIC ................................................................................................ 114 Resonance With Other Research ................................................................................ 114 v Quilting, Capitalism, and Art ...................................................................................... 116 Race, Class, and Community Work: Charity or Change ............................................ 119 Gender and Resistance: Women’s Space ................................................................... 120 Quilting and Race/Ethnicity ........................................................................................ 124 Becoming. ............................................................................................................... 125 Being and remembering. ......................................................................................... 126 Whiteness: fear, fascination, and aesthetics. ........................................................... 129 Touchstones: Gee’s Bend or African Aesthetic quilts, remembering slavery. ...... 133 CONCLUSION ............................................................................................................... 137 REFERENCES ............................................................................................................... 145 APPENDIX. INTERVIEW GUIDE ............................................................................... 155 vi LIST OF TABLES Table 1. Characteristics of Three