Jezebel 
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New York, 9:59 PM
Mon Nov 9
52 posts in the last 24 hours
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10/03/09
[uglythingsforsale.blogspot.com]
[craftfail.com]
10/03/09
Doesn't surprise me a bit.
I know if everyone believed in "Live and Let Live", there would be no FUG girls, but ...
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But yes. I would bargain them down.
10/03/09
The meerkats and the unicorn were awesome, I wouldn't BUY them, but if someone gave them to me free I'd have them.
And the cat-head-amputee photo?
Such a submission for the Museum of Bad Art, too bad its $99,000.
[www.museumofbadart.org]
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There's teasing and having some fun, and then there's just some mean shit, and I think this falls to the latter side of the spectrum.
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I am open to the possibility that I have no taste.
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I feel like there's something a bit gendered about the way crafts, of all kinds, are dismissed. There's some respect for home crafts, like knitting, or crochet...but unless it fits into some very rigid guidelines, it's deemed "bad". But really, if some Twilight sneakers make someone happy, who cares?
I used to paint my cons and jeans and wear ridiculous outfits I'd cobbled together from thrift stores (I still do the latter...I call it Old Lady Goth)...I think a lot of this stuff is done by the very young. And there has to be room for that. No one is making anyone buy loud prints, or ugly necklaces, and even if you have to look at them on other people sometimes, it hurts no one.
Plus, I think people like to find ways to feel more individual...everything is so mass produced in our culture, that a giant, kitschy, beaded necklace can help someone feel more like themselves...or some painted sneakers.
It's not that you can't make fun of it to some degree. But I also think that, at heart, most of it coming from a place of wanting to create. Some people will have more...talent, I guess, at that...but that's somewhat subjective anyway. Art speaks to people differently.
10/03/09
Just because these people have spent hours crafting some of this junk doesn't mean they SHOULD. People audition for "American Idol" thinking they can sing. Most of them are wrong, too. There's nothing cruel about pointing this out. You're doing them a favor. It's actually far
crueler to tell a talentless person how great they are.
One of the biggest problems with this culture is we're not allowed to say anything is bad anymore. Everybody gets a round of applause, no matter how undeserving. Every kid gets a trophy. Every contestant gets honorable mention. This is not productive. Not everyone deserves kudos.
Strikes me that if you make a plush pillow that looks like a uterus with Frida Kahlo's face on it, you deserve all the ridicule you get. If that makes me a high school bully, well, fork over your lunch money.
10/03/09
There's a difference between giving false kudos to a person you deem talentless, taking it upon yourself to tell a stranger--who, by the way, didn't ask for your opinion--that he or she is talentless, and simply deciding that if you can't say anything nice, not to say anything at all.
As far as, "We're not allowed to say anything is bad anymore"--seems to me that's all we do, all day long. The Internet has let every angry crackpot with an opinion shout it from the rooftops, 24/7.
10/03/09
Also, I think you're a little off-base. Everyone has different tastes. I love some of the weird shit I see on Etsy, which I'm sure others would find ugly. I think the Frida Kahlo uterus is weird, but I also think it's awfully cute. No one deserves ridicule. If you absolutely must tell someone how terribly talentless they are, can't you use some tact?
The reason we don't want people saying "things are bad" is because people don't say it to help - they say it to hurt. You want to tell someone they can't sing on American Idol because they are tone deaf? Don't laugh at point; take them aside and gently explain that they need some work in certain areas. Have some consideration for your fellow person, please.
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One is an issue with "special snowflake" syndrome, which can be a problem when we don't allow for the fact that people have different strengths and weaknesses. While I don't think false accolades are helpful, I don't think tearing people down constantly does anything productive either. It needn't be so all or nothing. Just telling people they "suck" isn't constructive. You can let someone know that what they've done doesn't meet standards, or they haven't performed a task correctly, without resorting to being mean for the sake of meanness.
I'm talking about environments like school here, by the way. There's a balance that has to be struck there since the intent is to teach, not ridicule. The internet is a "public" place and all kinds of things can and will be said that are by definition cruel and thoughtless. Most of them are based on opinion, however, and have no purpose other than to vomit it at someone else. In that sense, mindless criticism is as useful as mindless praise. Which is to say, not useful at all.
I personally work in a field where it's my job to critique peoples work, tell them what does and doesn't work on multiple levels, some of them creative. I have to use some of the "rules" of the field, and some of it is based on personal preferences. The latter is where being aware of your own subjectivity comes in handy. A work may not be to my personal taste, but that doesn't necessarily make it "bad". Sometimes it's the genre, or character choice, or whatever.
Creativity is one of the areas where subjectivity comes into play most. Picasso is universally acknowledged to be a great artist. Not much of fan. That's a personal preference issue, which I can separate from understanding the contribution of the work.
Do I necessarily, personally, see much point in owning a Frida Kahlo pillow, or that stuffed "unicorn"? No. But if someone else wants to, that's their business. And I'm not going to tell people they can't make them just because something isn't to my personal taste.
To be frank, there's nothing particularly useful or conducive about being a mindlessly judgmental asshat on the internet. Anyone can do it. One of the biggest problems with our culture is our sense of entitlement, not telling someone a drawing they did is good even if we didn't really think so. There's no law that says you can't say anything "bad" and I'm really tired of that particular meme. It's a meaningless statement because, of course you -can-. People say critical things all the time. If you think you have the right to tell people you don't like what they've done because it's the internet, don't be surprised when other people call you out on that behavior. If you have the right to give your opinion, so do they. That's how that works. I'm sick of the "get a thicker skin" folks getting touchy whenever other people mention their behavior is off. It's the most hypocritical, ironic nonsense.
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I don't know. This reminds me of classroom bullies making fun of someone, but then saying, "We're not laughing AT you, we're laughing WITH you."
Even if you say it's not mean-spirited, it's still going to hurt someone's feelings. So why do it? And those "horrible" crafts? I'm pretty sure someone poured hours of work into them. I know that they then put them up on the Internet to be potentially ridiculed, but that doesn't mean we have to take the bait and lose all class and taste.
I kind of feel like telling these people, "Grow up. Don't you have something better to do with your time?"
10/03/09
@QuicheLorraine: I completely disagree that this "potentially ruins any chance of making a sale." The site doesn't link to the crafters, and yet the OP found the person and their store in no time. It's just more exposure. If you see something you want, a simple search on Etsy will bring it up.
10/03/09
I get where they're coming from. The line about people not having any talent strikes me as a bit harsh, though. Apparently the person who paid $125 dollars for those sneakers (and loves them) disagrees. It's all in how you look at it, I guess. I also don't think that the inclusion of so-called bad crafts on Etsy is taking away from the good crafters, you know? If anything they just make the really good crafters look better, I'd think (and make people appreciate the level of skill that goes into making really excellent crafts.)
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