Has an interesting section here translated: Resistance to Progress
"If there is one quality everyone recognizes in a washerwoman, it is her courage at work; so much so that when washing machines arrived, the older women, and even more so the older men, treated those demanding the purchase of this household appliance as lazy, as it was symbolic of progress. "As long as my mother-in-law was alive, there was no question of buying a machine," assures an informant. In traditional peasant society, the notion of effort was always valued and placed first. For the generation that did not experience or accept mechanization, anyone who gives in to ease and shrinks from effort is considered lazy, as someone who is not worth much.
Other arguments are invoked to hinder change: machines ruin sheets, wash less well, and use a lot of water: "My neighbour tells me it's not true, but I can clearly see her water bill; it's much higher than mine!" declares a woman from Gouarec. The idea of waste is also put forward: "In the past, we didn't wash every week, nor every fortnight," another informant told me. "We didn't waste water as we do now!" In order of priority, economy comes before hygiene. Even with a washing machine, it will be the same refrain: "Me, I'm already on my first machine, my daughter-in-law is on her third!"
Since we are on the subject of refrains, let's talk about machine noise: it also exasperates the older washerwomen, who cannot help but say, like our informant annoyed by the motor's hum: "If I had taken this laundry to the washhouse, I would have been done faster and my ears wouldn't be split."
It is also claimed that sheets washed in the machine are less white. The quality of washing used to be the washerwoman's reputation. Bad washes were marked by a saying:
Emañ evel kouez Sant-Loeiz,Pa oa gleb e oa du,Pa oa sec'h e oa griz.
It is like the wash of Saint-Louis
When it was wet, it was black,
When it was dry, it was grey.
In the middle of our century, sheets were still dried in the sun, on hedges, or even on the grass. Flat on the greenery, they were moistened a little, and they became whiter than white (as Coluche used to say). This value of traditional washing was well exploited in recent years by Mère Denis's advertising through her gospel phrase: c'est vrai ça! (that's true!). Here, concepts clash that are, so to speak, irreconcilable. Indeed, traditional well-done work—where time does not count—is opposed to the modern value of efficiency and saving time. "
Has an interesting section here translated: Resistance to Progress "If there is one quality everyone recognizes in a washerwoman, it is her courage at work; so much so that when washing machines arrived, the older women, and even more so the older men, treated those demanding the purchase of this household appliance as lazy, as it was symbolic of progress. "As long as my mother-in-law was alive, there was no question of buying a machine," assures an informant. In traditional peasant society, the notion of effort was always valued and placed first. For the generation that did not experience or accept mechanization, anyone who gives in to ease and shrinks from effort is considered lazy, as someone who is not worth much. Other arguments are invoked to hinder change: machines ruin sheets, wash less well, and use a lot of water: "My neighbour tells me it's not true, but I can clearly see her water bill; it's much higher than mine!" declares a woman from Gouarec. The idea of waste is also put forward: "In the past, we didn't wash every week, nor every fortnight," another informant told me. "We didn't waste water as we do now!" In order of priority, economy comes before hygiene. Even with a washing machine, it will be the same refrain: "Me, I'm already on my first machine, my daughter-in-law is on her third!" Since we are on the subject of refrains, let's talk about machine noise: it also exasperates the older washerwomen, who cannot help but say, like our informant annoyed by the motor's hum: "If I had taken this laundry to the washhouse, I would have been done faster and my ears wouldn't be split." It is also claimed that sheets washed in the machine are less white. The quality of washing used to be the washerwoman's reputation. Bad washes were marked by a saying: Emañ evel kouez Sant-Loeiz, Pa oa gleb e oa du, Pa oa sec'h e oa griz. It is like the wash of Saint-Louis When it was wet, it was black, When it was dry, it was grey. In the middle of our century, sheets were still dried in the sun, on hedges, or even on the grass. Flat on the greenery, they were moistened a little, and they became whiter than white (as Coluche used to say). This value of traditional washing was well exploited in recent years by Mère Denis's advertising through her gospel phrase: c'est vrai ça! (that's true!). Here, concepts clash that are, so to speak, irreconcilable. Indeed, traditional well-done work—where time does not count—is opposed to the modern value of efficiency and saving time. "