there... right there... that's why

[baronessekat]

Over on FB there has been a kerfluffle on someone's wall over something that happened at an Event. Specifically a dress that was made for the Queen by someone, that has no historic proof but has become popular as a style in the SCA.

OMG. The one response, by someone I know, has been mortifying to witness. Rather than saying "it's a beautiful piece of art and it looks like a lot of time went into it." and then politely offer that there is no historical evidence of that style in period, we get vitriolic attacks. First attacking something because it's not period, and then not reading all the comments or choosing to ignore the MULTIPLE comments that said that the dress was a gift from someone to the Queen and she wanted to show off the workman's ship, and then berating the Queen for daring to make something to inauthentic and then wearing the dress and promoting the inauthentic. Dayum. It wasn't until several exchanges later that the commenter finally got the "it was a gift" and seemed to grudgingly apologize to the Queen for assuming she made the dress but not for the actual attack or the way he expressed himself.

All I can say is that elitist, insulting, and down right rude and mean behavior... that's why people have painted the entire Order in a bad light.

I know they say "be the change you want to happen" but when I see stuff like that it makes me wonder why I want to be in that order and be associated with people like that, even peripherally.

Comments

[keastree]

I am stunned. Just stunned.

But it won't get fixed by demanding we get us a sponsor. Or stand in line like we're in kindergarten.

[much_ado]

This is the same kind of shit that drove me out of the SCA for a long while, and the straw on the camel's back for me with the Laurels in Ealdormere over the Cloak (that resulted in me mothballing the project for the better part of 15 years). There is room in what we do for artistic interpretation, for things not strictly *OF* the periods we cover, but inspired by and fitting the flavour of those eras. There has to be. Otherwise, many of us have no room to *BE* artists, but only talented copyists, and that's a limitation that never sat well with me. I loved Her Majesty's dress. I'm totally okay with re-enactments that include "works inspired by the Norse era", or any period.

[stitchwhich]

i was dismayed by the tone of the discussion but what few folks would have known is that this has become, over the last half-decade, a really painful hot button for those who do Viking reenactment type stuff. Imagine, if you could, that someone gave the Queen (it almost always begins with a gift to the reigning monarch)a veil made of metallic glitter. So she graciously wears it, falls in love with it. Soon three or four other prominent members of the court are also wearing them and now men are sporting glitter-covered coifs. Then another set of Royals step up and another set of glittery headwear is presented to them as well as to the members of their households. More people begin wearing them and commissioning them. And then the Eoyals down the line, loving this 'new' style begin pressuring the Laurels to agree that this is worthy for peerage. At the same time unbeknownst to quite a few mmbers of the Society, academic institutes begin withdrawing support because they've seen the preponderance of the newly adopted fashion. "No" they say, "it is obvious you are not an educational organization." Living Reenactment groups across the board point and laugh saying that this proves that the SCA is no more historical than LARPs and even Rennfairs. and all of that disapproval and scorn is focused directly at a section of membership who haven't done a danged thing to encourage the glitter wear and shrink from seeing it.

Viking folks have been subjected to thar for years now. I have had to defend myself, and the SCA, for long enough that I've quit Viking reenactment. so what you read was the bitterness of seeing the cartoon Viking style invade a new kingdom, and the fear that their beloved kingdom will go the way of Atlantia, where historically-correct Norse clothing has all but disappeared in favor of flash.