Women at Work
December 11, 2016 12:34 PM   Subscribe

"A truck driver, butcher and firefighter are some of the subjects in the latest project by the photographer Chris Crisman. This series portrays women at work and focuses on occupations traditionally seen as male dominated. Crisman’s children were part of the inspiration for Women’s Work - to show them that they could be anything they wanted to be, and to illustrate that gender should not define employment possibilities"
posted by byanyothername (19 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
These are great. It would be cool to have more content (a bit like "Humans of New York") where they add a quotation about how they got into their work for example.
posted by esprit de l'escalier at 2:04 PM on December 11, 2016 [2 favorites]


These are really neat, despite the "think of my daughters" framing. If the only reason you care about women's dignity and opportunity is because of your kids, you're an ass, and an ass who's too tone deaf to be given a public microphone.

But - like so many great things - without the handicap of the artist's statement, these are awesome.
posted by eotvos at 2:18 PM on December 11, 2016 [11 favorites]


I really like the idea of these, but they all feel so staged that I have a suspension of disbelief problem. The pig farmer is too clean, the butcher isn't wearing a hairnet, the brewer is doing a power pose instead of catching the mash.
posted by Dr. Twist at 2:29 PM on December 11, 2016


The lobster lady is my dream girl, and it seems as if she does exist.
posted by alex_skazat at 3:02 PM on December 11, 2016 [1 favorite]


I was prepared to make heart eye emojis -- but I'm bummed there are so few. I wish there was a social media cache for women to submit their own at-work photos.
posted by slipthought at 3:14 PM on December 11, 2016


The sentiment about the children struck me, because there is a massive gender representation problem in children's literature that is extremely frustrating. I have 2 yo twin girls who love to go to grampy's property and watch him run the backhoe and the dump truck. A friend got them a book called Good Night Good Night Construction Site, and all the trucks therein are referred to with male pronouns. It's a huge problem when all the defaults in all the books are "he" and "him", unless it's a special girl's book. My wife in exasperation scribbled out every he and replaced them with she, and you know what, it changed the entire tenor of the book, and how the girls react to it. A truck doesn't have a damn gender, and neither should a profession.

More of this please.
posted by Existential Dread at 3:32 PM on December 11, 2016 [15 favorites]




You can criticise the artist if you must, but no matter the reason they're out there, every time a kid sees something like this the more their mind is open to the possibilities available in life and the more they're able to pushback against gender stereotyping. I'm not at all joking when I say one of the earliest foundation stones of my own feminism was probably Clara the Long Distance Lorry Driver in Pigeon Street. (She even had her own song!) I was 5 and this character drove a big lorry and her gender wasn't mentioned so I just took it for granted that was a thing women could do because no one had told me otherwise yet. If they had said lorry driving was a job for men I would have said "Nonsense. Look at Clara!" A kid who sees these photos and then is told that butchery/firefighting/etc are jobs for men they can say "I've seen proof that you're wrong." So I think this is a good project, and moar pls
posted by billiebee at 4:28 PM on December 11, 2016 [6 favorites]


You know as someone who works in a male-dominated field it's all cool to tell women we can be what we want, but if you want to do your girls a solid, you gotta follow it up with talks on not being gaslit; fighting strategically; and female solidarity. All my ladies went through the Cool Girl Who Only Likes Dudes phase and please, save your children.
posted by dame at 6:54 PM on December 11, 2016 [16 favorites]


Speaking of women in male-dominated professions, the flight I just took had a female captain! Took a couple of in-flight announcements for it to ping on my brain as actually being something rare and noteworthy, but I'm glad I eventually noticed. (Smoothest landing I've had in a while, for what it's worth.)
posted by tobascodagama at 9:04 PM on December 11, 2016




I like this project too. Re Existential Dread's comment - this is a great video demonstrating all too clearly how early gender stereotypes can set in [warning, you may need tissues] unless we challenge them. And agree x100 with billiebee on the stereotypes in children's literature. See also educational materials: once you start to see e.g. how tall the boys are vs the girls in the illustrations, how in the maths problem, it's so often the boys, not the girls, who have agency, and conversely, how often it's the boys who are tearaways and the girls who are reading sensibly, it's very hard to un-see. And this is not even to mention all the ways in which so many children's books are unbelievably conservative in the family structures they represent and very white (though actually in UK, I think kids' school materials at least are a bit better on this last front than they used to be).
posted by melisande at 1:52 AM on December 12, 2016 [1 favorite]


Speaking of children's books -

It occurs to me that a really good idea for a website would be a curated "library" of children's books that are inclusive and non-stereotyping, with reviews and tagging for particular children's interests (e.g. DINOSAURS). It would be a great resource for parents, even if they had to go to another source, like the library or Amazon, to get the book. Does such a thing exist?

Also, I'm going to echo this sentiment upthread: If you only care about this stuff once you have daughters, well - I'm glad you care now, but girls and women don't only exist in relation to you. And you should also care about this stuff for your sons.

There is so much talk about giving girls "empowering" materials, and so little talk about giving boys materials that show them girls are their equals. It's such a horrible double-standard; it sets "empowered" girls up for failure when they encounter sexist boys, and it treats sexism as a special "girl's" issue, a flaw within girls that we can fix by giving them "self-esteem." I mean, it is great for girls to have these things--but when you don't address the problem in your sons you are part of the problem, and you are making them part of the problem.

Boys need to be steeped in media where girls are their equals. Where girls are the main protagonist. Etc. And there is such a massive, cultural pressure for boys to avoid "feminizing" exposure to girl stuff that parents need to actively take steps to make sure this happens.
posted by Kutsuwamushi at 2:03 AM on December 12, 2016 [18 favorites]


This website is not quite what you're describing but does include some great resources and my daughter has loved some of the books we've got from there. I entirely agree re boys too, not just because of the impact it will have on girls but because of the limitations that gender stereotypes impose on boys too.
posted by melisande at 2:18 AM on December 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


I shared these pics with my daughter (five years old) and she seemed way more interested in the pics in the comments - dirty faced female construction worker commenters posting selfies etc.
I am glad this exists! It is super necessary. But would prefer more mucky pictures and less artsy ones.
posted by Omnomnom at 3:22 AM on December 12, 2016


Might be as good thread as any to post the Women Fighters in Reasonable Armour tumblr (which I think was launched in reaction to the chainmail bikini trope...)
posted by Harald74 at 3:41 AM on December 12, 2016 [2 favorites]


We need more something. I've been grinding my teeth a lot at NPR reporters—NPR—talking about professions using male-gendered terms: policemen, firemen, businessmen...

How hard is this? Police officers. Fire fighters. Businesspeople.

Don't erase the women who do these jobs!
posted by BrashTech at 6:11 AM on December 12, 2016 [9 favorites]


> there is a massive gender representation problem in children's literature that is extremely frustrating

E.g. the farmer and the farmer's wife. Before my kids were old enough to read along, I liked to read that to them as "the farmer and the other farmer" or "the farmer and her husband."
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:35 PM on December 12, 2016 [4 favorites]


"Goodnight, Goodnight, Construction Site" is so empowering when read with female characters! No wonder boys like this stuff.
Pushing with her mighty blade, Bulldozer works to smooth the grade. She clears the way to level ground, and fills the air with thunderous sound. No one's as tough and strong as she, but now she's as sleepy as can be.
I worry, though, on the cusp of reading on her own, what my daughter will think when she realizes I've been lying to her about all these books full of girl heroes and characters.
posted by amanda at 9:39 AM on December 13, 2016 [1 favorite]


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