And why this conversation matters for makers!
Last week, I recorded a video after getting pretty riled up by a New York Times piece that referred to clothing manufacturing as “low-skilled jobs.”
Your can watch the video below:
While in the moment I was focused on debunking the myth of low-skilled labor (not to mention the myth of trickle-down economics) I wanted to share this video here because not only is this sort of language damaging to people who work in these jobs, it’s incredibly damaging to those of us who are makers.
The problem, as many textile artists can attest, is that because as a society, we’ve devalued the work of manufacturing (especially manufacturing carried out by women), people carry that lack of value over to our work.
To be clear, I don’t mean all people. There are plenty of wonderful people who appreciate and value handmade work.
But the cultural forces that have driven down the value of labor by calling it “low-skilled” are the same ones that lead people to wander into your booth at a craft show and ask, “Why does this cost so much?”
And changing the perception of our work starts by recognizing this devaluing in all its forms, whether that’s the crafter in the next booth or the woman sewing clothes in a factory in the Global South.
So the next time you hear (or read) someone describe a job as “low-skilled,” remind them that there are no low-skilled jobs, just poorly paid ones. It’s the perfect opening to help educate everyone on the value of labor, especially the labor that goes into making the stuff we use every day!
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For more on this topic, check out my post on why artists and makers need to stop exploiting their own labor!