[www.steampunkgirls.etsy.com]

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I know women in the garment and fashion industry and they are nothing like the amateurs on Etsy.

Not that there's anything wrong with that. But if women want to get anywhere beyond the "little hobby" stage, they need to get their hands dirty with specs and price points.

I feel the same way about well-educated and privileged women who decide to become handbag and jewelry designers after an evening course at Parsons at FIT.

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You mean like Jezebel?

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'I guess I should also add that I find it a little ironic that Mosle's worries about women artisans being ghettoized on Etsy is printed on double x, where Slate has collected its women writers and separated them and their stories from their site at large.'

Zingggggggggg!

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Rollin eyez so hahd theyz in danger of fallin out mah hed.

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For me, the sentiment that positively leaps out of the piece, almost more than any other, is a complete disdain for the creative process unto itself. If it doesn't make money, why the fuck would anyone do anything? Unless they are being deluded by the Man into a state of - what? What is it that she thinks is so wrong with wanting to be creative?

This is my favorite line, for the many things it gets wrong in a just a few words: "But unlike our mothers and grandmothers, who were content to knit booties for relatives, younger women want to be recognized and compensated for their talents."

A) Has she met our mothers and grandmothers? I suspect not. Because they are the women who rocked the world and created the circumstances in which women are recognized and compensated for their talents. Some were likely content providing for the families they loved, but some clearly wanted to do something else beyond or in addition to that social expectation. (And before them, too. Women have been fighting this battle for freaking centuries. Does this writer read history?)

B) Why is it that "younger" women are presumed to require "recognition" and "compensation" for their talents? And why is it assumed that these things can only be achieved outside our front doors, with a price tag? Does this writer know what it means to do something, look at it, and say "Well! Job well done!"

I can imagine being, say, a knitter of booties. Man I love knitting booties! And I'm good at it too! But, alas and alack, I have already booty-ed all the children in my family and my community, and they're too big now anyway. What am I to do? Oh, I know, I can keep knitting, and open an Etsy store, and maybe even get the yarn paid for, in the process! Yay!

Not to mention that she positively drips with disdain for upper middle class women who choose to spend time at home with their children -- which is, apparently, not "meaningful work."

Sigh. What is wrong with people?

(But Megan and Sadie? You're so smart and funny, and man was this well written. Kudos to you!)

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Two birds, etc.

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Secondly, Im a seller and a buyer. Through Etsy and Renegade, I have my items in stores, brand awareness and I dont have to fork over money to someone to create a site for me.

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