Dark Night of the Cross Stitch

I was working on the Conan sampler yesterday and it occurred to me that I was having, in short, moral qualms.  I think it's because I've been reading a number of (the saner sort of) feminist blogs these last few weeks.

I mean, the point of the Conan sampler is to be a subversive commentary on both the quote itself¹ and the nature of embroidery as "women's work".  But I'm not sure it really does that.  I still think it's funny and cool, I'm just having a more acute awareness of the fact that it's also wrong, wrong, wrong.

It's kinda giving me cognitive dissonance, which is not helped by the fact that I'm really enjoying doing the specialty stitches and whatnot--Algerian eyelet is cool and fun to work, and the woven double herringbone is going to be even cooler.  I'm not really clear on what to do about it; I mean, what does it say about me that I even like the film?

I wish I could find Alex Macris.  I'd send him a version, because he's the person who got me to watch Conan in the first place.

1: "What is best in life?"  "To crush your enemies, see them driven before you, and hear the lamentations² of their women."

2: This is a really long word and nearly suceeded in screwing up my layout entirely, all by itself.

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