Commenting Guidelines
Thank you so much for being part of the Sew Queer community! Our aim is to create a welcoming and multivocal space for queer sewists to engage with questions about how clothing, making, and sewing shape and express our various identities. We also need to create safety. As we work towards a more just and equitable future, we cannot allow any speech that promotes racism, classism, fatphobia, ableism, or right wing political ideology. All comments are subject to Sew Queer team approval and are required to meet the following guidelines:
ONE
Be mindful of your own position, privileges, and biases. None of our experiences are universal, thus we aim to describe them in ways that do not deny, denigrate, or define the experiences of others in our community.
TWO
Don’t make assumptions or generalizations about the identities, bodies, or desires of others in the community. We all come to sewing for many different reasons and may seek a certain fit or type of garment without that necessarily saying something about our identity.
Three
Don’t use gendered language in absolutes. We’re here to affirm that gender is a social construct which we seek to manipulate, play with, and even disregard with joy and affirmation.
Four
No derogatory language around marginalized identities. (Including but not limited to: Black, Indigenous, and people of color; women, trans, nonbinary, and gender-non-conforming people; disabled and chronically ill people; fat and plus size people; Jews, Muslims, and those of other religions marginalized in Europe and the Americas; and working class, poor, and houseless people.)
Five
No diet talk, including glorification or degradation of weight or size or body changes. While our relationship with our bodies can shift for all different reasons, we will not host any language that states or implies that fatness is something inherently negative.
Six
Respect differences in physical and mental health as well as neurodiversity. We seek to honour each other’s individual relationship and experience with our bodies and the medical-industrial complex. However, we will refuse any language that relegates disability, neurodiversity, mental illness, or chronic illness to the inspirational or the tragic.
Seven
Advice may be given when specifically asked for and at no other time.