Smashing is a very passionate friendship, usually between two women of different ages. These are not necessarily exclusive friendships, although couples may form. These are not necessarily homosexual friendships, nor is homosexuality excluded. Smashing functions like a mentorship, perhaps leading to an alliance, as was illustrated most clearly in the curious case of Micheal Field.
It seems that smashing was very common before the modern era. We first learn how widespread it was from the letters of the first generation of students to attend women’s colleges, in the mid-19th century. This was the first time that very large numbers of literate women were put together. Half would report participating during their college years. The phenomenon was present from the earliest moments, which suggests it was a phenomenon known to the students before they arrived.
Modern medicine appeared very late in the 19th century. Before that, were home remedies. A daughter learned some from her mother, but critically, gained access to a second set through a smashing relationship with another older woman. This keeps the knowledge base from shrinking or from preserving misunderstandings from generation to generation.
The other part of the unrecorded history of women was the extent to which they were in fact engaged in business, as hoteliers, as bakers, as farmers, and any businesses left to them by dead husbands. These businesses were facilitated by the phenomenon of apprentices and allies — little support could be expected from a disdainful patriarchy.
Smashing is arguably an essential part of human society, but one that is unprofitable. Capitalism prefers for people to be dependent on professionals for health care, tax preparation, education, and so on. Capitalism prefers two vacuum cleaners instead of a shared vacuum cleaner.
If a sustainable future is not a possible product of capitalism, what social organization makes a sustainable future possible? It might be negative expenses created by networks of women, as it has been for nearly all of human history.
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