Commonfolk collaborate with select designers and art directors for their small batch coffee. Changing designers regularly to highlight new creatives, ideas and thinking.

High Maintenance was nothing short of a project that has lived close to my heart. Paying homage to women, globally, who are called emotional, hysterical or… high maintenance.

Smudging lipstick on a mirror, font play in illustrator, this label came to life.

I’ve been handed the daunting task of the first all-female seasonal label, and my very first thought was don’t
bugger it up, feeling the unnecessary pressure to be as good as my male hegemonic counterparts. So, I did what all good, obedient women should do, and just smiled. After that didn’t work, I roped my incredibly talent friend Vanessa to design the artwork. As we’re categorising the adjective female seasonal label, why not delve briefly into all the gender marking, stereotyping, and diagnosing we as women face every day. We
are marked by our gender frequently. It’s always ‘womens spots’, ‘women in parliment’ and ‘female director’ as opposed to men’s arena which are universal. ‘Confidence’ is something women must constantly strive to be but is a given for men. The lexicon describes us as naggers, irrational, emotional, high maintenance, and of course, hysterical. The origins of hysteria relate directly to the womb or the dysfunction thereof, alongside sumptoms of insanity, neuroticism, and uncontrollability, exclusive to women; the female body coinciding with insanity. I’ll give you one guess as to the gender of the physicians that conceived this illness and it cures. While this is no longer considered an illness, women are still being called hysterical on the grounds of them being too highly strung, or emotional. How easy it is to still unfairly label women as hysterical, and if a woman refutes this accusation, it only furthers the diagnosis, demolishing all female agency and worth. This language is always used to discredit, discount, and minimise the achievements or women. Complicity and apathy are unwelcome here; women can succeed without the need for others to fail. Should I apologise now?

Words from Tahlia, Commonfolk.