A sewing circle is a group of people who meet regularly for the purpose of sewing, often for charitable causes.
A sewing circle is a group of people who meet regularly for the purpose of sewing, often for charitable causes.
Sewing circle participants, usually women, typically meet regularly for the purpose of sewing. They often also support charitable causes while chatting, gossiping, and/or discussing.
For example, in ante-bellum America, local anti-slavery or missionary "sewing circles were complementary, not competing, organisations that allowed [women] to act on their concern for creating a more just and moral society". [1] Other examples of sewing circles include the Fragment Society, the Mennonite Sewing Circle, and those organized by RMS Titanic survivor Emily Goldsmith aboard the rescue ship RMS Carpathia: Goldsmith, "a talented seamstress, organized sewing circles to make garments out of cloth and blankets for those passengers dressed in nightclothes when they entered the lifeboats." [2]
During World War II, sewing circles were formed to help people "make do and mend" in response to rationing in the United Kingdom. The Women's Voluntary Services organized sewing circles and classes during the war. [3] Elizabeth II hosted sewing circles twice a week, with both palace staff and aristocrats attending. [4]
Apart from charitable purposes, contemporary sewing circles may be formed into organisations on a national level, such as the Guilds in Australia and America "for people who regard sewing as a creative and rewarding activity". [5] [6]
It has been speculated that the phrase "chew the rag" could be related to gossiping while working in a sewing circle. [7]
Sewing circle is also the phrase used (by Marlene Dietrich, for instance [8] ) to describe the group of lesbian and bisexual woman writers and actresses, such as Mercedes de Acosta and Tallulah Bankhead, and their relationships in celebrity circles and in Hollywood, United States, particularly during Hollywood's golden age from the 1910s to the 1950s. [9] Unlike de Acosta and Bankhead, most members of the sewing circle were closeted. This usage of the term sewing circle was coined by the actress Alla Nazimova. [10] [11]
Salomé is a 1922 silent film directed by Charles Bryant and Alla Nazimova, who also stars. It is an adaptation of the 1891 Oscar Wilde play of the same name. The play itself is a loose retelling of the biblical story of King Herod and his execution of John the Baptist at the request of Herod's stepdaughter, Salomé, whom he lusts after.
Tallulah Brockman Bankhead was an American actress. Primarily an actress of the stage, Bankhead also appeared in several prominent films including an award-winning performance in Alfred Hitchcock's Lifeboat (1944). She also had a brief but successful career on radio and made appearances on television. In all, Bankhead amassed nearly 300 film, stage, television and radio roles during her career. She was inducted into the American Theater Hall of Fame in 1972 and the Alabama Women's Hall of Fame in 1981.
Natacha Rambova was an American film costume designer, set designer, and occasional actress who was active in Hollywood in the 1920s. In her later life, she abandoned design to pursue other interests, specifically Egyptology, a subject on which she became a published scholar in the 1950s.
Mercedes de Acosta was an American poet, playwright, and novelist. Although she failed to achieve artistic and professional distinction, de Acosta is known for her many lesbian affairs with celebrated Broadway and Hollywood personalities including Alla Nazimova, Isadora Duncan, Eva Le Gallienne, and Marlene Dietrich. Her best-known involvement was with Greta Garbo with whom, in 1931, she began a sporadic and volatile romance. Her 1960 memoir, Here Lies the Heart, is considered part of gay history insofar that it hints at the lesbian element in some of her relationships.
Down-low is an African-American slang term specifically used within the African-American community that typically refers to a sexual subculture of Black men who usually identify as heterosexual but actively seek sexual encounters and relations with other men, practice gay cruising, and frequently adopt a specific hip-hop attire during these activities. They generally avoid disclosing their same-sex sexual activities, even if they have female sexual partner(s), they are married to a woman, or they are single. The term is also used to refer to a related sexual identity. Down-low has been viewed as "a type of impression management that some of the informants use to present themselves in a manner that is consistent with perceived norms about masculine attribute, attitudes, and behavior".
The Garden of Allah was a famous hotel in West Hollywood, California, United States, at 8152 Sunset Boulevard between Crescent Heights and Havenhurst, at the east end of the Sunset Strip.
Alla Nazimova was a Russian-American actress, director, producer and screenwriter.
Jean Acker was an American actress with a career dating from the silent film era through the 1950s. She was perhaps best known as the estranged wife of silent film star Rudolph Valentino.
Ona Munson was an American film and stage actress. She starred in nine Broadway productions and 20 feature films in her career, which spanned over 30 years.
The Minorities Research Group (MRG) was the first organisation to openly advocate the interests of lesbians in the United Kingdom. It was founded by four women who got together in response to an article that was published in the magazine Twentieth Century. The group published the Minorities Research Group Newsletter, and went on to publish its own lesbian magazine called Arena Three that provided a lifeline to remote lesbians around the country.
Boze Hadleigh is an author. Until the 1990s, he published some of his works under the pseudonym George Hadley-Garcia. Several of his books cover popular culture, show business, and LGBT culture. His 22 books have been translated into 14 languages.
Eva Le Gallienne was a British-born American stage actress, producer, director, translator, and author. A Broadway star by age 21, Le Gallienne gave up her Broadway appearances to devote herself to founding the Civic Repertory Theatre, in which she was director, producer, and lead actress. Noted for her boldness and idealism, she became a pioneering figure in the American repertory movement, which enabled today's off-Broadway. A versatile and eloquent actress herself, Le Gallienne also became a respected stage director, coach, producer and manager.
The bisexual community, also known as the bi+, m-spec, bisexual/pansexual, or bi/pan/fluid community, includes members of the LGBT community who identify as bisexual, pansexual, omnisexual, polysexual and sexually fluid. As opposed to hetero- or homosexual people, people in the bisexual community experience attraction to more than one gender.
LGBT stereotypes are stereotypes about lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) people are based on their sexual orientations, gender identities, or gender expressions. Stereotypical perceptions may be acquired through interactions with parents, teachers, peers and mass media, or, more generally, through a lack of firsthand familiarity, resulting in an increased reliance on generalizations.
Stitch 'n Bitch is a name that has been used to refer to social knitting groups since at least World War II. Before the slang term "Stitch 'n Bitch" was used, groups of women in the 1940s would join to knit and talk in organized Stitch and Bitch clubs. The term was further used in the 1980s as part of the book Social History of American Knitting by Anne Macdonald. It is partly due to the book's success that the modern day Stitch 'n Bitch knitting groups have emerged in cities around the world. The groups, mainly women, meet to knit, stitch and talk. Typically, attendees knit, though others crochet, and still others engage in cross-stitching, embroidery, and other needlecraft. Nowadays, the groups have been analyzed by scholars as expressions of resistance to major political, social and technological change in Western societies. However, political discussion is not unusual at these events, and at least some participants are proponents of progressive, liberal, and/or leftist social and political change. Furthermore, the term Stitch 'n Bitch is now used by women from across the globe to connect with others in the virtual space seeing as the term has re-emerged in a world where the public sphere is the cyberspace.
Knitting clubs are a feature of the 21st-century revival of hand knitting which began in America and has spread to most of Europe. Despite the name, knitting clubs are not limited to knitting; both crochet-centered and knit-centered clubs are collectively called "knitting clubs." While knitting has never gone away completely, this latest reincarnation is less about the make-do and mend of the 1940s and 1950s, and more about making a statement about individuality and developing a sense of community.
Frank John William Goldsmith Jr., was a young third-class passenger of the RMS Titanic and a survivor of the sinking in 1912. He later wrote a book about his experiences on the ship, published posthumously as Echoes in the Night: Memories of a Titanic Survivor (1991), which featured in the documentary, Titanic: The Complete Story (1994).
Closeted and in the closet are metaphors for LGBT people who have not disclosed their sexual orientation or gender identity and aspects thereof, including sexual identity and sexual behavior. This metaphor is associated and sometimes combined with coming out, the act of revealing one's sexuality or gender to others, to create the phrase "coming out of the closet".
Vergüenza directly translates to shame in English, refers to the cultural and social phenomena that shapes, and often constricts Chicana/o and Latina/o lives to a more conservative, traditional mold. The role of vergüenza not only helps mold lives to a traditional mold, but serves primarily to maintain traditional gender roles, and reinforcing familial relations and expectations. Chicana/o scholars were important to theorizing and documenting verguenza, which has contributed to the fields of mental health and sociology.
Munson was a member of 'the sewing circle,' a term originated by Alla Nazimova for a clique of lesbians and bisexuals who socialized in Hollywood.
