Week 3 Blog – Chelsea
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In Colliers poem, The Woman’s Labour, she argues for the fact that a woman’s work is never done. Although it’s written around the 17th century, many of the ideas revolving around a woman and working can relate to today’s time period. Jonathan Swift writes a poem around the same time titled, “The Ladies Dressing Room”, that consist of pointing out all of the unseen flaws that women have in an effort to reach perfection. I think if these two authors had a conversation on the labour issue it would consist of Collier pointing out the fact that all women do not have the resources to live a life of luxury, even when it comes to their appearance. Some, if not most, women’s daily lives consist of working just to get food to stay alive. So for Swift to create the image that all women are secretly using filthy methods to create a fake perception of beauty is inaccurate. Swift on the other hand, might argue for the fact that women’s lives are not truly consumed with work, and if they spent less time primping for their day, they may complete some of their daily chores in a more timely fashion. Even if they are not using pounds of makeup, or trying on endless amounts of clothes, they are still spending unnecessary minutes being concerned about an image that for most is not the real them whatsoever. In the end, I do not think Collier and Swift would agree on this topic, Collier believing that women deserve to have a moment of feeling their best through their tiresome work days. And Swifts opinion being that their work days would not be so bad if they were not concerned with their appearance.
I feel like Collier would also add that not only do working women not have the luxury of creating a perception of beauty, but they don’t even have the time to spend worrying about that sort of thing. I think the topic you chose is interesting because I can certainly imagine a fight between the two if they were to discuss this.
Swift and Collier is an unusual pairing. I think you can raise interesting questions, but be careful of making too broad generalizations. As you say, Collier might point out “that all women do not have the resources to live a life of luxury, even when it comes to their appearance”– but was Swift referring to female agricultural workers originally? There’s nothing to indicate that. However, what you describe makes me aware that in some women’s jobs, it’s considered important to show how hard you’re working (Collier) — and in other’s (Celia’s), the idea is to try and look like you’ve worked as little as possible. Can you explore that further? Why does labour add value in Mary Collier, and threaten to subtract it in Swift? (at least, from Strephon’s perspective).
What I get out of this is that your point is that Collier would argue that working women have no time to worry about perfecting their appearance, but that Swift would say that they’d be better at time-managing their work and chores if they didn’t spend time fixing or analyzing their appearance. But I feel like this conversation would just go in circles, because it’s like both are argueing for their own point and not listening to the other. Can you give specific quotes in the text where Swift leads you to believe that women are not truly consumed with work? Maybe you could focus on the labour that women go through according to Swift vs. Collier and what value that produces. (In Collier’s poem, they seem to be labouring all day in the fields, at home… whereas in Swift, their labour seems to be beautifying themself).