The subversive stitch

This is definitely not a general interest book. One must be a follower of needlework and/or women in history to make it through an academic book like this but it is a fascinating chronicle.

Author Rozsika Parker has studied European art history with an interest in women's art and feminism. In The subversive stitch : embroidery and the making of the feminine, Parker brings her art history knowledge, and research skills into an examination of work that has for a long time been regarded as feminine. Centuries ago, men were very involved in embroidery but that changed. Parker asks why and how that happened. She studies how embroidery and the "essence of femininity" shaped each other. She looks at how young girls and women quietly rebelled against the strictures of that feminine ideal by their selection of images and texts for their embroideries and how those selections were influenced by their social culture. As women grew stronger, their rebellion became more blatant. Parker also examines assumptions made by early embroidery historians and, in several cases, tries to set the record straight.

The book is generously illustrated and the photo captions explain why each photo was included. I do wish, however, that the photos were in colour and that some of them were larger. Colour is such an integral part of needlework that it's a real shame to leave it out completely in a book like this. That was likely a budget decision but I would dearly love to see some of those illustrations in blazing full colour. This book has already been reprinted twice so maybe that will happen in a later edition.

The subversive stitch : embroidery and the making of the feminine by Rozsika Parker. Originally published in 1984 by Routledge. ISBN: 0-415-90206-1