[Ansteorra] Largesse gifting

[Shannon Rawls]

My Lady, with all due respect... As we seem to have veered sharply  
from the topic of largesse and into the area of appropriate SCA dress,  
I feel as though I must weigh in.  I have a very dear friend who is a  
Laurel. I was witness to a rant he once had about "Simplicity patterns  
and store-bought trim".  He was complaining at an event about people  
using non-period fabrics etc., when another friend reminded him that  
not everyone had a Laurel's skill level in construction of clothing,  
appliqué, embroidery, etc., nor might they have the money to purchase  
linen or wool. The point was that as long as someone is making the  
effort... At least attempting to wear clothing that is somewhat  
appropriate, shouldn't we just be happy? Allow these people to live  
their dream, and as time goes on, and they learn more about our game,  
perhaps they will acquire the necessary skills and the desire to dress  
more appropriately. It is this attitude that has run so many people I  
know off from the SCA. Snobbery and elitism makes newcomers not want  
to come back. They are made to feel uncomfortable, and I have seen a  
lot of great people walk away and go play with other groups simply  
because no one took the time to be kind to them and offer to help them  
to move in the right direction, they were just told that their "wench  
bodice" was inappropriate, as was their crushed velvet skirt, and  
since that was all they owned they never came back... Shame on us.
My boyfriend also noted your specious argument comparing "wench  
bodices" to types of armor.  The problem with that would be that the  
armor was deemed unsafe by the marshallate,wench bodices are simply a  
matter of taste, says he who is a former Kingdom Earl Marshall...
Just something to think about.

YIS,
Aine

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 4, 2011, at 11:31 AM, Bree Flowers <evethejust at gmail.com> wrote:

> On Fri, Feb 4, 2011 at 10:15 AM, Robert G. Ferrell <rgferrell at gmail.com 
> > wrote:
>> On 2/4/2011 9:59 AM, Bree Flowers wrote:
>>
>>>  Why not have a collection of stuff
>>> in your stash that they'd like?
>>
>> Because that makes you an enabler.  An accessory to the crime, as it
>> were.  We can't 'legislate' people to stop wearing wench bodices,  
>> but we
>> can give them a viable alternative and show them that wearing more
>> appropriate clothing is also fun.
>>
>> Cynric
>
> Yes, but what is worse, giving them something they'll love that is
> wildly out of period, but still seems to be accepted in the society,
> or something beautiful and accurate that will just sit on their shelf
> unloved for years? As an artist, nothing would make me more sad than
> something I have spent hours crafting never seeing the light of day.
> As long as we allow people to wear the wildly out of period stuff, we
> have to accept that some people will continue to do so even after
> being shown that the "good stuff" is better. I can point to a number
> of people who have been in the society for years (not necessarily
> here) that still dress like they're on the cover of a romance novel,
> or in a pre-raphaelite painting, or part of the cast of a hollywood
> movie. If we give them this option, we can't really get upset at them
> for choosing it. I just can't see how giving them gifts they won't use
> is doing them any favors.
>
> Incidentally, I don't see why we can't legislate people to stop
> wearing wench bodices. We stopped carpet armour and freon can helmets
> and there are rules coming into effect against hockey-glove-gauntlets
> in many Kingdoms. I'm not saying that we SHOULD do it, I'm just saying
> we CAN. (caps for emphasis, not yelling)
>
> ~Eve
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