[Ravensfort] Atta girl Jacinth! Wow..um, more garb stuff

rachel luce rachel_luce1975 at yahoo.com
Wed Feb 4 08:40:53 PST 2004



jacinth <jacinth at mail.ev1.net> wrote:
 What I was trying to say (perhaps in an over-wordy fashion) is 
respect others decicision to be as authentic as they like... it does take a 
certain retentiveness to digest some of the data that is out there. You 
should be happy there are people out there who are willing to do it and 
even happier when they share it, not tearing them down for their 
doggedness. That smacks of sour grapes. Name-calling has no place on
this list. 

    God I love it when you post. You've always got somthting good to say. Now allow me to disagree with on certain points. :D  

    First let me say that what I was objecting to  in my first post was not the attempt to be more historically accurate or to conduct research that would be used in the quest for aunthenticity but the statement by the author that garb would need to be "approved"  to be used. And that use of certain materials was not acceptable due their non-authenticity. NO ONE has the right to pass judgment on someone's garb as to whether or not they can use that garb at an event. The only excaptions that I can think of are when  that person has not made a good faith  effort to have a non-mundane appearence or when you've entered garb in an A&S contest. 

    In my experience I have seen people be criticised (unsolicited and unasked for) for haveing garb that wasn't "up to par" and told that they needed to get better garb. Why? Because these people had done the research and they knew what they were talking about and therefore hadd the right to pass or fail other peoples garb. They weren't too polite about it either. I'll give you a person example: L. James and I were at Bryn Gwald's Baronial Investiture not too long after I made my first Elizabethan man's doublet and pants. Which James was wearing and wearing proudly. "See what my lady made for me? Isn't she kewl?" frequenly passed his lips. Because it wasn't widely known that we were seeing each other AND I was walking behind him, with someone else, I got to hear all the catty comments made by some of the people he spoke to. Thank god I have Fionna and a relatively thick skin because let me tell you there are some very ugly, cruel, people out there. Do you know who the cruelest
 people were? Some of his fellow cadets, who definitely needed better garb themsleves. And who should have known better especially given what they aspire to be.

 My point here is that no one, no matter how much knowledge they have has e the right  to pass certified approval on someone's clothing. Doing so only discourages poeple from aparticiapeing, rarely does it inspire people to do better. In fact many people walk away from encounters like this mutterering "It's the Society for Creative Anachronism, not Compulsive Authenticity" under their breathes. In my experience, your mileage may vary, it is also these poeple who keep repeating for years. Is this name calling? Yes, in a way. But who started it? Who was disrerspectful first?


   And here's my point, hopefully better written this time. THIS IS MY OPINION. I'M TALKING OUT MY ASS AND HAVE NOTHING BETTER TO BACK IT UP WITH THAN THIS IS THE WAY I FEEL SO FEEL FREE TO DISAGREE.  I think everybody has heard me say (I know for a fact that Fionna has :D) that I think there's a certain  minimal amount of research that people in the SCA should be doing. I define the minimum amount of research as enough resaerch to build a  simple persona (simple answers these questions:who, what, where, why,when) and enough research when building something for general use or entry into A&S that you know what was used in period, what it was made out of in period, what the period technoques would have been to make said object in period and why your object is different than it would have been in period (due to materials substituion, tools that weren't available, materials that weren't available,etc.) 

    While I myself am tryinmg to move toa mor period  encampment a, perosna and garb it is a persoanl choice that I have made. Anything above  the minimum this is strictly a matter of personal invovlment and choice. It doesn't make you better than somone else and choosing not to do so does not make another  "less" worhty to participate. Using knowledge  as an excuse to abuse others is just as much a disgrace, no, actually it's more, to the SCA than those shiny polyester pants walking by.
                                        -just my 2 cents, Xanthe

p.s. Sounds like you've got a lot on your mind. Want to sit down at the event and talk about it?
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