walking against the stream

[mrsbrown]

Ooops.

someone talked about offering face painting at Festival.

I said I thought it was a bad idea  - I don't want to have an argument with Rose telling her she can't have her face painted because it's not medieval, and I don't want to see a bunch of face painted kids.

I've been stomped on and now I'm wondering if I did the right thing.   Other parents are saying the face painting IS period because people would have been painted for plays.

No, She's just posted pictures of the sorts of pictures she' s planning to paint and they don't invoke a medieval play.  They just look modern. 

So...should I just lighten up?

Hmm, I still don't think I'll be letting Rose get her face painted.

Comments

Agreed!

[anthraxia.livejournal.com]

Why facepainting? Isn't it bad enough that we've somehow come to tolerate kids running around at events (Crown events even) in mundane garb without a word? Do we really have to go that extra step? Because it's not like children need a whole lot of junk to have fun - and isn't that part of the reason to bring children to SCA events?

Re: Agreed!

[anthraxia.livejournal.com]

And because I forgot to say it and can't edit comments - no, you shouldn't lighten up and this is the kind of thing that needs to be discussed in a bigger forum before anyone agrees to go ahead with it. Shambles at least.

Re: Agreed!

[mrsbrown]

Hmmm. I'd love to have the conversation in a bigger forum, but I'm a bit afraid of the "period nazi" label. Particularly as the response on the SCA parents forum was so strongly in favour of the face painting.

There are 5 people who definitely think it's great and no-one who has agreed with me. The merchant in question is a Laurel and so is at least one other of her supporters.

Re: Agreed!

[mrsbrown]

Also, the whole sour grapes thing becomes part of the impression - I couldn't get my way on the parents list, so I appeal to a higher authority. I'm not sure that's a good look.

Re: Agreed!

[anthraxia.livejournal.com]

Well, I'm more than happy to raise it on the Shambles. As one of those non-parents who obviously hates children (because I don't have any) any mud flinging is likely to be impersonal :)

Re: Agreed!

[tangent_woman]

If the child in the tracksuit incident you are referring to was at twelfth night, I did notice a bunch of mundane family members who were there to witness Laurelings who were wearing a wide variety of borrowed garb. If a child who belonged to the visitors who was not in garb there it would not be for want of trying, and would probably explain the way the event organisers were politely ignoring the issue.

I might be wrong, and I could easily be misremembering all possible details at the moment, but if that possible explanation makes sense, it might be so.

[quatrefoil]

Hmmm. I'm with you on this one - any actual research on medieval face painting? I've read a lot of the props lists for medieval cycle plays and I can't recall any mention of painting faces. Who, precisely, would have had their faces painted for a play? I think the idea of stage makeup is probably later than medieval though it might well be Elizabethan. But makeup isn't facepainting. You might get there with the idea of woad and Picts, perhaps, but I'd like to see some documentation.

[blamebrampton]

I've listened to Pip and Marie a lot and read a bit on cosmetics, and nothing on face painting. I think stage makeup was used for character work in the Elizabethan theatre, making boys look like women, young men look like old, mortals like fairies, but that's because I think I've read textual evidence for it in plays: it is possible that I am losing my mind and mistaking it for something in a Reformation play, though they had female actors, and I know the reference I am thinking of specifically references boys to women, though buggered if I can remember the language that would help me find the source.

A lot of the Flemish and Hollandish paintings I have looked at have children playing in them, and there are masks and paper crowns abungo, but I cannot recall anything vaguely face painting. 'I suspect the 'period' call is bullshit, which laurels can speak as fluently as non-laurels.

I think it's a bit meh: yes some kids are going to love it, but it's not actually a children's activity, it's a money-making venture that involves kids. And there will be tears before bedtime as they try to clean it all off in the absence of cold cream.

[tangent_woman]

I was pretty irked at the idea of face painting being available at Festival, but after reading some of the responses about face painting in period, and reflecting on the other activities that are adapted for safe and practical SCA use, I'm reserving judgment. There is a faint chance that it won't be as mundane as I'm envisaging, and maybe there will be interesting supporting documentation on the topic, which would help me to adjust my mundanity filters to cope with face painted kids at SCA events. Maybe.

I have deep reservations about it though; by letting it run once just to see whether it's really awful, it could become an established tradition and open the 'fairy wings and Disney Princess costume' floodgates.

And - oh dear god - the Shambles discussion is getting nasty. So bad that my contribution is among the more polite and reasonable. (Interesting to witness misguided flaming arise from a reasonable question without me being one of the poo-flingers for a change.) I hope that you don't feel to badly bludgeoned by the end of this. :(