Maya! Delicious. I'm right with you on propriety. Here's what Soraya Chemaly says in "Rage Becomes Her," which if you have read, you must: "If there is a word that should be retired from use in the service of women’s expression, health, well-being, and equality, it is appropriate—a sloppy, mushy word that purports to convey some important moral essence but in reality is just a policing term used to regulate our language, appearance, and demands. It’s a control word. We are done with control." In my notes, I made it BOLD, ITALIC, & UNDERLINED.
Such a great book! I read it a while ago and I am very glad to be reminded of that quote. Absolutely worthy of bold, italics and underlines. Thank you for sharing!
I love this story of Josephine Cochrane. Of course a woman would invent a dishwasher! Why would a man invent a device that could possibly keep women out of the kitchen!
Right?! It probably wouldn't even occur to most men. On that note, one amazing book I recently read is More Work For Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave. Basically, most technological advances in housework were about lessening the man's role at home. The tech advances replaced his chores, not hers. I'll be writing about it here one of these days!
Thanks for the real story! A few years ago (and I wish I could remember the name of it), my husband and I came across an old chestnut from about 1930 on TCM, set on the Lower East Side with a blustering father who is a pottering inventor, his wife (who has classy affectations) and longs to move the family up to Fifth Avenue if only he'd make a buck on his inventions, and the sympathetic female neighbor (also Yiddishe) who doesn't think he's a crackpot and is the one who tweaks his dishwasher invention into something workable that makes him a millionaire and enables him to fulfill his wife's real estate dreams. SHE is the unsung hero, but the pottering man (whose idea it is initially in the film) does end up back on the LES with her (I think--it's been years since I saw the film), because she understands him, and the gilded life (and materialistic wife) aren't for him
Yes, that's it! Aline McMahon as Bessie the neighbor is the one who tweaks his invention. The performances are priceless!! Thank you so much for sussing it out!!!!!
ALSO -- Smith & Dale were a famous comedy duo during the vaudeville era in NYC, so this film is a cinematic gem in so many ways. I'm Jewish, so I found a lot of the Old World mores vs. New World mores of the strivers of that era and the family dynamic of the comedy hysterical (and the accents/dialects are on point). But the very fact of the story's specificity is what makes it a universal (or up-from-the bootstraps immigrant or strivers') story
Maya! Delicious. I'm right with you on propriety. Here's what Soraya Chemaly says in "Rage Becomes Her," which if you have read, you must: "If there is a word that should be retired from use in the service of women’s expression, health, well-being, and equality, it is appropriate—a sloppy, mushy word that purports to convey some important moral essence but in reality is just a policing term used to regulate our language, appearance, and demands. It’s a control word. We are done with control." In my notes, I made it BOLD, ITALIC, & UNDERLINED.
Such a great book! I read it a while ago and I am very glad to be reminded of that quote. Absolutely worthy of bold, italics and underlines. Thank you for sharing!
I love this story of Josephine Cochrane. Of course a woman would invent a dishwasher! Why would a man invent a device that could possibly keep women out of the kitchen!
Right?! It probably wouldn't even occur to most men. On that note, one amazing book I recently read is More Work For Mother: The Ironies Of Household Technology From The Open Hearth To The Microwave. Basically, most technological advances in housework were about lessening the man's role at home. The tech advances replaced his chores, not hers. I'll be writing about it here one of these days!
Thanks for the real story! A few years ago (and I wish I could remember the name of it), my husband and I came across an old chestnut from about 1930 on TCM, set on the Lower East Side with a blustering father who is a pottering inventor, his wife (who has classy affectations) and longs to move the family up to Fifth Avenue if only he'd make a buck on his inventions, and the sympathetic female neighbor (also Yiddishe) who doesn't think he's a crackpot and is the one who tweaks his dishwasher invention into something workable that makes him a millionaire and enables him to fulfill his wife's real estate dreams. SHE is the unsung hero, but the pottering man (whose idea it is initially in the film) does end up back on the LES with her (I think--it's been years since I saw the film), because she understands him, and the gilded life (and materialistic wife) aren't for him
Oh my gosh we all need to watch that! Is this it? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Heart_of_New_York_(film)
Yes, that's it! Aline McMahon as Bessie the neighbor is the one who tweaks his invention. The performances are priceless!! Thank you so much for sussing it out!!!!!
ALSO -- Smith & Dale were a famous comedy duo during the vaudeville era in NYC, so this film is a cinematic gem in so many ways. I'm Jewish, so I found a lot of the Old World mores vs. New World mores of the strivers of that era and the family dynamic of the comedy hysterical (and the accents/dialects are on point). But the very fact of the story's specificity is what makes it a universal (or up-from-the bootstraps immigrant or strivers') story
I will have to check it out! I love old movies.
So fun to hear how something I use everyday was invented by a woman!
Totally! And there are so many more things too! I stumbled over this in my research and was amazed: https://www.cadcrowd.com/blog/top-101-female-inventions-that-changed-the-world-womens-innovation-history/
Ooh I will have a look at that article: thank you!