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CHAPTER 05: Empathy & the gendered body
CHAPTER OBJECTIVE ---------------------------------------------------------- PICK UP LAUNDRY
Chapter's Main Themes: Empathy and the gendered body, "House/work" is a sisyphian labour"
Explaination:
Through the picking up of laundry and clothing, players experience ‘heavier’ movement, which symbolises both the physical and mental burden on foreign domestic workers. These pieces of laundry or other works of labour are attached to them as extensions of themselves, and slowly form a part of them. - "House/work" is a Sisyphean Labour"
Experience:
Ironing Board
Sarah Boone is the most recognised inventor of the ironing board, and her invention is officially recognised as the precursor to the modern ironing board. Sarah Boone’s ironing board was foldable and had a narrow, curved shape to the board. This new narrow, curved ironing board shape helped iron the sleeves and bodies of ladies garments significantly easier.
Stove
Widespread adoption of gas technology in the home would precipitate a "domestic revolution" for women of all classes. affordable domestic technology offered a solution to a host of social problems, including maternal and infant health, urban sanitation, and inadequate housing
Hanging Rack
They were characteristic of a life stretched by necessity, out of interiors of apartments as far as possible into the public space beyond. Hanging clothes outside to dry as a religious experience, peaceful and meditative. Instead of a singularly personal experience, the clothesline represents a communal rather than a solitary experience. The clothesline represents a quality of lifestyle either realized or desired.
Sink
The new sinks required installation and maintenance by a plumber, one of the new career choices for men of the late 19th century. The ongoing and increased mass production of kitchen sinks in the 20th century enabled more women to have time and labour-saving amenities in their homes.
Washer
Washerwomen used to wash linen with soap by the edge of a stream or river, or else in a fountain or a wash-house. Wash-houses also played an important social role: women from all over the village met there at least once a week and would exchange local news. The wash-house became a “talking house” and it was not unusual to hear the women singing, as a means of lightening their daily chores and passing the time.
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