Fun fact: this is simply incorrect. It was simply an occupational descriptor. OED has a citation from 1380 when none of our current cultural baggage applied.
Paywalled
I could not verify the “so good at weaving that she was financially independent” part. According to wikipedia it originally refered to women who spun wool - usually unmaried women. Over time it became derogatory.
It’s so much more complicated than that, it seems. Wool was a major business, even back then: https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/urban-history/article/organizing-specialized-production-gender-in-the-medieval-flemish-wool-cloth-industry-c-12501384/A173396BD9F8E10E74634263506620BE
While I don’t think that article proves or disproves a woman being financially independent through spinning, it does hint that wool was extremely expensive and a huge business.
I feel like 6 months ago everybody decided to start telling me what “spinster” means for some reason and it remains the only context in which I’ve ever heard it used
Spinster means a person so good at riding a bike, they got an award made of wool. Usually fashioned by unmarried women.
there’s layers to my man Mickey7
Spin on my face
spits on your face
…did you say somethin’?
More please
