In fact, I fear I am a jack-of-all-trades.

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See, that’s what the app is perfect for.

systlin

I honestly always find the term ‘spinster’ as referring to an elderly, never-married woman as funny because you know what?

Wool was a huge industry in Europe in the middle ages. It was hugely in demand, particularly broadcloth, and was a valuable trade good. A great deal of wool was owned by monasteries and landed gentry who owned the land.

And, well, the only way to spin wool into yarn to make broadcloth was by hand.

This was viewed as a feminine occupation, and below the dignity of the monks and male gentry that largely ran the trade.

So what did they do?

They hired women to spin it. And, turns out, this was a stable job that paid very well. Well enough that it was one of the few viable economic options considered ‘respectable’ outside of marriage for a woman. A spinster could earn quite a tidy salary for her art, and maintain full control over her own money, no husband required.

So, naturally, women who had little interest in marriage or men? Grabbed this opportunity with both hands and ran with it. Of course, most people didn’t get this, because All Women Want Is Husbands, Right?

So when people say ‘spinster’ as in ‘spinster aunt’, they are TRYING to conjure up an image of a little old lady who is lonely and bitter.

But what I HEAR are the smiles and laughter of a million women as they earned their own money in their own homes and controlled their own fortunes and lived life on their own terms, and damn what society expected of them.

bunnyduckcucumberpatch

I hope this a shit post cause that’s not even close to being true.

systlin

“Steeples fingers”

I would be very interested to see your sources.

But first, mine

http://www.bahs.org.uk/AGHR/ARTICLES/35n1a1.pdf

http://knightsofthepaintable.com/blog/2011/05/30/medieval-life-106-spinsters-and-spinners/

http://www.oxfordscholarship.com/view/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199270606.001.0001/acprof-9780199270606 (You’d have to read the book itself (I own a copy) but here’s a link to it.)

“Women in medieval English society”, Mavis E. Mate (https://books.google.com/books?id=YUVXsG5CaywC&pg=PA47&lpg=PA47&dq=medieval+spinster+independent&source=bl&ots=Vmxe4vjXJ4&sig=Ej-Z3q9KwBnWi0VMeBb4l5NTqSQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwj3_PGXutjaAhVS3WMKHb2uA5M4ChDoAQhBMAg#v=onepage&q=medieval%20spinster%20independent&f=false

http://www.medievalchronicles.com/medieval-people/medieval-tradesmen-and-merchants/

https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/wages-of-women-in-england-12601850/80FBE8313B63D174E2F71DCEAE6D7EBE/core-reader

https://econpapers.repec.org/paper/nufesohwp/_5f145.htm

https://www.economics.utoronto.ca/munro5/L08MedTextiles.pdf

http://www.jstor.org/stable/25012124?seq=1#page_scan_tab_contents

Please. I am very curious as to why you think I am incorrect.

absentlyabbie

mysharona1987

“We were never that close”

Yeah, I can see why.

hussyknee

I pity her daughter for the misfortune of being born to this piece of absolute shit.

chrisshemsworth

la-plus-heureuse

okay but you should really read the full response to this though:

I am having a hard time wrapping my mind around this letter. I encourage you to reread it and to ask yourself that time-honored question, “Do I sound like a villain in a Reese Witherspoon movie?” You are, presumably, sympathetic to your own situation and are invested in making sure that you come across as reasonable and as caring as possible, and yet you have written a letter indicting yourself at every turn. This girl is “like a daughter” to you, and yet you want to shove her to the side of your other daughter’s wedding just because she walks with a limp. Your daughter’s wedding will be perfect with Katie as a full and honored member of the bridal party. A limp is not a fly in the ointment; it’s a part of Katie’s life. It is not only wrong to have asked your daughter to consider excluding her best friend over this—it is ableist, and cruel, and it speaks to a massive failure of empathy, compassion, and grace on your part. You must and should apologize to your daughter immediately, and I encourage you to profoundly reconsider the orientation of your heart.