adding the -ist

last saturday, i had the pleasure of partying with the ladies and gents of sew la, in celebration of sarai's much loved book.  sweets of all kinds, both in the form of food and peeps, were in abundance: trice.  hashi.  mena. christine.  devon.  mk.  sarai, of course (whose name i absolutely butchered).  exquisitely beautiful women all. but i'm at odds on what to call them.

you see, there's a discussion going on over at craftsy, and it's about to come to fisticuffs.

over adding an -ist to the word sew.

fascinating stuff.  in a world where new words are added to webster's every day (words like soul patch and unibrow) why are we getting all up in a tizzy (a highly excited and distracted state of mind) over adding a suffix to a noun?  it's like we've never seen a kooky word before.  we're all discombobulated over it.  sorry, but seamstress seems humdrum to me.  mossy, if you will.  and by mossy i mean dated.  and by dated i mean the first known use of the word was back in 1598.   

cobwebs aside, it also specifically applies to a woman, where its counterpart, tailor, has historically been the male side of sewing.  and wouldn't you say society has thought of the tailor as the superior, erm, for lack of a real word, sewist?  would we call that... sexist?  let's face it, you don't go to the seamstress's shop to get your important alterations done, you go to the tailor's (well, i don't, i go to my living room).  per webster's definitions: "a woman whose occupation is sewing"  versus  "a person whose occupation is making or altering outer garments".  at least they've made it gender neutral in the case of the tailor-- but do you consider yourself "one who sews", or "one who sews garments"?  let's go a little deeper: do you "style with trim straight lines and finished handwork", do you "fit with clothes", do you "make or adapt to suit a special need or purpose"?  that's all tailor, baby.  

or would you describe yourself as a "woman whose occupation is sewing?"

no wrong answer, just asking.   but for me, smackdown: tailor. 

smackdown is a real word.

mais, i don't want to be called a tailor as much as i don't want to be called a seamstress.  talk about cobwebs, tailor dates back to the 13th century.  that's not the point, i adore the word frock, date isn't really the issue. gender isn't really the issue.  i want a word that fits my idea of sewing, which is not better than your idea, which is not specific to some PYT's idea of sewing, which is not meant to be exclusive or cliqueish.  (yes, i added an ish to clique.  cliqueish is not a word.  but -ish is a suffix.)  

you know what?  let's get into the use of PYT.  it's not a real word either.  when michael jackson crooned it, i think he meant it in a nice way.  but let's define the way i've seen it used in some posts and comments of sewing blogs: le derogatory.  

pretty:  appearing or sounding pleasant or nice but lacking in strength, force, manliness, purpose or intensity, 

young:  being in the first or early stage of life, growth or development, 

thing:   an object or entity not capable of being designated. 

one of the best and brightest things about sewing blogs is the support of the community, wouldn't you say?  and the supreme knowledge that  All.  Women.  Are.  Beautiful.   physical evidence of this was in full effect at the sew la shindig.  all of our fit issues, colors, weights, ages, heights, we celebrate them.  our shapes: we study them, we dissect them, and in doing so we come to see more beauty.  we manipulate fabric to embellish our unique forms perfectly, we embrace our differences.  but this PYT, this girl (she's not a woman), is a weak immature object, her (societal definition of) prettiness being her first, negative, and excluding quality.  i would assume she's also a bit dim.  and even if her intelligence is not being called into question, she's still a thing.  a thing to be dismissed.

now this  is a divisive word.  and let me repeat, it's not a real word.   

BUT GOOD LORD, YOU ADDED AN -IST TO SEW?!




-ist: suffix

one that performs an action, one that makes or produces a thing

one that specializes in an art or science or skill

there are botanists, artists, violinists, ventriloquists, cellists, philanthropists, archaeologists, geologists, psychiatrists, pianists, hedonists, novelists, guitarists, scientists (many of whom sew), why is it such a stretch to be a sewist?

yes, i know it's not a word.  but in a land where ginormous and crunk are firmly ensconced, sewist can't be too far behind.

to be honest i'm not that obsessed about it.  i find the debate intriguing and funny, they're just words, PYT included, and in the grand scheme of Big Bad Words they are so very innocuous.  when all is said and done there are much more pressing matters, pun fully intended.  i like sewist.  i also think sewasaurus rex is pretty frigging cool (ruggy came up with that one).  but i'm happy to include seamstress, tailor, sewer, crafter, sewing artist, and sewologist in my lexicon.  i'm happy to include you and whatever you'd like to be called.  'cause i like you.  you're nifty.

so?  what shall i call you when you come over for cocktails?