March 31 2021 – Jan Pauline manalo
Women’s History month is drawing closed! We hope you’ve been spending the month learning, growing, and learning some more. After all, there’s a lot that’s been left out, glossed over, and intentionally obscured. Think about it. History is written by the victors. That’s why, until very very recently, the only figures we’ve known have been dudes, and MAYBE Susan B Anthony, who was still...let’s say complicated.
Even though we all win when a lady does something cool like single handedly raising emotionally sensitive and intelligent children, establishing institutes of learning, inventing an entire genre of fiction, or calculating how to get to the MOON, womens’ work has been like the sales section of a TJ Maxx: extremely discounted.
We say lady-labor still needs to be like that sales section...except we mean it needs to be chaotic in the best of ways, easy to access, and especially well marked.
Signs were invented (possibly also by a woman, stand by) to tell us either where we are or what’s ahead. They’re best when they’re most visible to the ones traveling the roads and putting in the work! Imagine a ‘cross traffic does not stop’ sign that no one driving can actually see. That’s just an L for all of us.
So what are you doing to put a sign over your own achievements and motivations?
Follow up question: do you think making history is most effectively done with a vague mission statement?
Look, we’re not abstract artists here. Signage is our specialty: what you read is what you get. We make accessories for everyone who’s determined to tell the world exactly what they’re about without the need for elaboration, qualification, or those ‘softening statements’ we’re always told to put around the facts we spit.
It used to be that the only exposure women of note would get was due to a bunch of shortsighted dudes deciding to add a kind footnote or two. But they’re not always in charge anymore.
It’s ladies’ choice now.
So put up that sign and choose.