the architect's wife

Several years ago, I was relating to my friend on the subject of receiving gifts from family that you would never want- these objects being personally displeasing in look or material and existing now as your belonging that you would like to dis-own as soon as possible.  The gift-giver has good intentions, but they seem clueless to your point of view.  My friend said- yes, this is the difficulty of being an aesthetically sensitive person.  From then on, being 'aesthetically sensitive' was my valid excuse for controlling the things that surround me in life.  I would like to believe that every person has this sensitivity- tailored to their aesthetic of preference, but I think what separates some of us in this case is the care taken in defining that need.  Whether your cousin/friend/life partner seems to be oblivious to the layout and color scheme of their dwelling or outfit, they will still be subconsciously influenced by the visuals that surround them.

In the introduction to Penny Sparke's book, "As Long as It's Pink:  The sexual Politics of Taste" (1995), she cites the story of an architect's wife crying over the fact that there are no curtains in their home, which is dominated by (her husband's) Modernist design and outfitted minimally with venetian blinds.  The article suggests the the disintegration of the importance of the woman as an active homemaker, as the industrial revolution gave men the role of designing, manufacturing, and marketing the convenient appliances and decorative housewares that women would consume.  The idea is, that the trophy wife had her tastes dictated for her, by a male designer, and lost the simple power of controlling the aesthetic of her environment.  To quote the article, "Through the objects and styles which represent it, taste communicates complex messages about our values, our aspirations, our beliefs, and our identities.  Deprived of the curtains she so desperately wanted, the architect's wife was being denied the right to form, and to express, her own identity.