Rebecca Feibish, Age 17 died 99 years ago today

99 years ago today, 146 women were burned or jumped to their deaths in the Triangle Shirtwaist Company Fire. Amber has a great account of the memorial in chalk across New York.

While I was in Austin, I saw an amazing performance of Slaughter City based on both The Jungle and the fire, as well as, modern meatpacking plants. If it is ever performed near you, go see it.

Your Friday Awesome: Drunk History = Grad School

Okay, evidently I'm late to the party on this one, but I don't have HBO so I don't get to be in on Hollywood's inside jokes. But, this? This is effing hilarious.



My friend Aaron* said this video reminds him of me. And you know what? Change the subject to Judith Butler or the history of the anti-war veterans' movement...and it is me in someone's living room in Austin for pretty much all of 2005-2007.

*Don't worry I give him crap about his subject matter, but you can't argue that the dude is talented.

Child Labor - Then and Now

Pray for the dead, and fight like hell for the living.

The magazine I blog for, Mother Jones, is named after Mary Harris Jones who spent her life working to gain basic labor rights for everyone, including children.

Sociological Images featured some really haunting images of child laborers in the United States during early industrialization. They feature the factory labor we are familiar with:


They also show other forms of work outside of the home, like the romanticized "newsie" and field laborers. One image in particular resonated with me:


The child is working with what look like clams, but it reminded me of images like this:


From the site, "A child collects recyclable materials from garbage in order to earn his living on 14-11-08 here in Guwahati."

To Whom Much Is Given, Much Is Required

I was in the same room with Ted Kennedy twice.

During the summer of 2000, I was an intern for the Hon. Juanita Millender-McDonald in Washington, DC. As a member of the House, her office was in the Cannon House Office Building, a building which induced excited taking-part-in-democracy-living-within-history chills every time I entered it. The office held four interns (including myself), a receptionist, scheduler, three legislative assistants, a legislative director, a chief-of-staff, and the Member herself. All of these desks were crammed into two rooms about the size of my dorm room at American University, except for the Member, who had an office to herself. I thought the cramped quarters were kind of exciting - Democracy at work, and all.

The house didn't use Congressional Pages for much (at least our office didn't). It was nice to leave the office and explore the halls of Congress and the catacombs beneath it, so whenever something needed to be delivered somewhere the interns would volunteer. One day, our LD asked myself and another intern to deliver a piece of legislation to Kennedy's office since it was about to be considered before the Senate. So, we took the elevator to the basement, walked through the catacombs past 19 year-olds with blazers and loafers that cost more than our tuition and very serious people with wires in their ears, took the tiny subway (only the Senate got one) and then went up to Kennedy's office.

When we entered we tried not to be dumbfounded. There, in all its Federalist glory, was a giant expansive office filled with strong jawed east coasters. And lo and behold, there he was. He came out of his office, said hello to us (besides the looks on our faces, our orange INTERN badges were blazing around our necks), and continued into the hall with a gaggle of suits and pearls.

The second time was when I attended a health care briefing. Unfortunately I can't remember exactly what the topic was (I attended A LOT of them) but, Ted Kennedy was there. As he spoke his face became so red that it almost matched the velvet curtains behind him. Sure, this is a family that knows how to enjoy a good cocktail, but it was also because he was so animated about the subject. For a nineteen year-old who had just spent a summer being disillusioned by the players in the "democratic process," it was refreshing.

I am not one to give in to moving eulogies about public figures while denying that they are people - often deeply flawed people. Which is why I was really glad to read Melissa's post:

The terrible bargain we all seem to have made with Teddy is that we overlooked the occasions when he invoked his privilege as a powerful and well-connected man from a prominent family, because of the career he made using that same privilege to try to make the world a better place for the people dealt a different lot.

It could not have been easy to be the only living member of a legacy that everyone expected to change the country, if not the world. But, in many ways he did not rest on the family's laurels. Jezebel put together a list of his legislative accomplishments and it is impressive. Amplify also has the text of Kennedy's speech to the Senate in 1993 on the Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act which, sadly, continues to ring true.

So while I won't forget the flaws the public knew about, I am also thankful for work he did.

Imperialism Is the New Chic

I am all for movements which seek to resurrect the art of the past, but there is a difference between acquiring things for their aesthetic value while ignorant of their history, and creating a living history through art. And no, I don't think decorating your Williamsburg flat constitutes "art." The New York Times, however does, thanks to its glowing portrait of hipsters who have a fetish for turn of the century antiques.

Granted, one of the lads profiled in the article does participate in learning how his fetish objects of choice were created: “I like to cook, I like to sew, I can fix things with my hands.” However, the pinnacle of this it seems is finding satin with the right selvage.

I may be nitpicking, but is is probably because there there is also a classism that is not being addressed - though that is no surprise considering the article was published in the NYT's. Restoration and creation are two very different things, and often the former is far more expensive.

This expense is underscored by the articles quick turn to the shops a few of those profiled are opening in hip sections of the city with designers that the author can name drop. This seems to be the point of the blog that one of the sisters whom the article revolves around, since she likes to discuss what was worn to an outing at Yale:

Details on Porter's outfit: Amish leather suspenders from ebay, boys' shirt from Rugby, tie from J.Press (purchased minutes before at the original location at 262 York Street), Equi Comfort riding pants from Dover Saddlery, shoes and bag, Prada.

I'm so glad they let us know that it was purchased it from the original store. However, this seems to refute the NYT's chosen expert (from the Museum of the Fashion Institute of Technology) who believes this aesthetic comes from rebellion:

“Authenticity is such a fed-up idea...But collecting these old things, it’s like there is an aura attached to them. It’s not some prepackaged product being foisted on you by a big corporation.

Whew! Good thing they are keeping away from those big corporations like Rugby, J. Press and Prada.

Moreover, they seem to be completely devoid of any deep understanding of the culture they are co-opting. In speaking about one of the shops, the proprietor says:

“The idea was to make this clandestine Colonial tavern,” he said, “the sort of place the founding fathers would have conspired in.” The look, he added, reflects his assumptions about their tastes, as refined Europeans living in a rough new world: “Taxidermy was a symbol of that wildness.”

The founding fathers were sexist, classist, racist bastards. Just the sort of lot I do not want to emulate.

But this ahistoricism isn't surprising considering the article describes the apartment of two sisters as echoing "W. Somerset Maugham’s last days of colonialism, Victorian memento mori and the Edwardian men’s club." It also has "a taxidermy collection that would make Teddy Roosevelt proud."

So,we have the epitome of insecure masculinity which would set the tone for United States nationalism, time periods which relegated women to the private sphere and confined them in clothing that would lead to an early death (which explains the memento mori), and the last gasps of widespread institutionalized racism and exploitation. Lovely.

Also, not surprising is the NYT's is incorrect in asserting that wealthy young New Yorkers are setting this trend.