Bodie(s) of seamstress(es), emotions, and capital. Complexities and potentials of textile work from a reading of bodies/emotions

Abstract

Drawing on contributions from social studies of bodies/emotions, I write a situated reflection from my perspective as a sociologist and seamstress, highlighting the relationship between the expropriation of vital energies from the bodies of textile workers and seamstresses, the sexual division of labor, policies regulating bodies/emotions as forms of social bearability, and the potentialities embedded in certain interstitial practices. The text is structured in three parts. First, it develops a historical analysis outline regarding the role of textiles in the development of capitalism, industrialization, and predatory evolution. Second, it offers a sociohistorical perspective focused on the Chilean case and the national textile industry, emphasizing the emblematic presence of seamstresses in social struggles. Finally, it explores the idea of 'I do not know happy seamstresses,' addressing the bodies and emotions of women seamstresses, interweaving with my own emotions, memories, and situated body from an autoethnographic pulse. The reflection concludes with some open-ended conclusions, summarizing the discussed themes and highlighting avenues for subversion embodied in textile work as interstitial practices. The reflection aims to contribute to understanding the complexities of textile work, emphasizing inherent contradictions and embodied political resistances.