My opinion on orders/polling/critique/feedback in the SCA is not a popular one, which is why I generally don't share it.
I grew up as a dancer, which comes with a lot of critique, and a lot of it is about your body. So you get criticized in a very real sense. After my joints went to heck, I did opera, which is less aggressive about something being bad about you in critiques. Singers also do this odd thing in talking about "the voice". Never "my voice", certainly never "me". The vocabulary encourages you to separate the art from you as an individual. It's a very healthy type of compartmentalization, and has served me extremely well in my life.
After those experiences, I have zero trouble separating my art from myself. I never view criticism as a personal attack, because it has nothing to do with who I am, just what I made or did. Because there is no personal identity involved, I can be more objective, not rationalize away things I need to improve, and enjoy the challenge of getting better. Conflating oneself with one's work doesn't do anyone any good. The people who help me get better are the ones who help me identify what isn't right yet, not the ones who only compliment.
The other attitude I grew up with as a performer is that doing or sharing a thing means that you have opened yourself up to feedback. Once art is not strictly private, then your audience is going to have opinions. I respect that some people want to share, but don't want anything except positive commentary, but it feels disingenuous to me. Were I to do that, I would feel like I was putting the responsibility for my emotions on other people, while expecting them to meet my need/want for attention or positive feedback.
We all know that in the SCA, for better or worse, there exist orders that evaluate folks. There is a lady I know who realized that was taking away from her enjoyment of research and arts, so she asked the specific order to not consider her for membership ever. To me, this is a sensible and mature way to handle the situation. If the possibility of reality of being evaluated/discussed by a polling order is causing me stress, I should be responsible for managing my own emotions and remove myself from the situation.
And I'm sure it is now extremely obvious why I don't share this often. I need to say plainly that this post in not in reaction to any personal situation, mine or another's. Finding a healthy way to coexist with criticism is vital in the arts. From conversation on this topic, I would generalize that most folks who have professional education/training have learned how to separate self and work. But the SCA by its nature is hobbyists and people who do art for fun.
I am not saying I am perfect. And I realize that separating oneself from one's work is extremely difficult for a lot of folks, for a variety or reasons, many of which have a basis in situations or circumstances we could not control and did not ask for. But I think we can agree in principle though that we are all responsible for managing our own emotions as adults, and that we know being considered by an order automatically involves critique. If being discussed/critiqued by orders is upsetting to me, then I need to figure out why. If it's because I conflate my work with my self, then I can work on separating the two, or I can step away from the orders if that is not a personal want, or a realistic use of my resources.
If it is honestly not possible for me to separate myself from my work, that is okay. But I need to admit that and take the initiative to reduce that stress. Or if the problem is I think the order isn't capable of evaluating my work, then I probably want to step away from the order, because acceptance from them is meaningless to me anyway.
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