Enough already! I am so tired of the stupid misconceptions in the public eye about crochet.One of the main culprits is the media. Their slant (both conservative and liberal by the way) that somehow ALL of us who crochet are:
- Downtrodden Haus Fraus
- Dowdy
- Old ladies (I’ll get to this in a minute)
- Unfashionable
- Poor
- Old fashioned
- Unenlightened
When you read a news story 90% of the time the reporter starts with some lame ass lead paragraph that reads something like, “Normally the occupation of old ladies…” or “Can you believe this Octogenarian can still see?”
For the love of all that is FUZZY, STOP! Journalists, writers, authors, and publicists you have got to stop this! It’s Asinine.
Let me go through the list:
Downtrodden Haus Frau - The women’s movement came about to fight for equality. Equality does not mean putting on daddy’s suit and tie and pretending to be a man. Equality means you have a CHOICE as to what you prefer to do with your life. Many EDUCATED women choose to stay at home to raise their children or care give other family members. Especially in an economy where you practically end up paying to work when you factor the price of both transportation and childcare. You are not less valuable when you choose to remain at home. You are not less valuable when you choose to have a career. THESE ARE CHOICES. Stop with the stereotypes, grow up out of junior high and let’s be adult about this for about ten seconds. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again; Crochet does not require a uterus and ovaries to be done. Dudes crochet , too.
Dowdy: Say it to my face. I dare you. While we’re at it, since when did it MATTER what we look like? Again with the whole junior high crap, for the love of the Fuzz God, grow up. I’ve known a lot of very polished, pretty jerks in my time. I’ve also known some polished, pretty compassionate people. I’ve met all kinds of folk who crochet; they all dress in their own damn style. GROW UP JUNE Q. PUBLIC!
Old Ladies: I am sickened that being called an old lady is a put down. Women are marginalized to start with, and frankly that is a big sin in my opinion. Look, most “old ladies” didn’t start learning to crochet the minute they qualified for social security. Most old ladies learned to crochet when they were young women. Newsflash: Not all old ladies crochet.
If you are a woman and you put down older females then SHAME ON YOU. That is so wrong on so many levels, remember we do not eat our own post? Well that goes for women and other groups of people. We do NOT put each other down, it doesn’t make you look better, it makes you look like an ASS! Unless you die young, one day regardless of how much plastic surgery you have to appear young, you will be old. Get used to the idea. Being young is fun, being middle aged is fun, being old can be fun; it’s a lot more fun when you aren’t put down, shut in a closet and told you can’t be anything or do anything useful. STOP WITH THE OLD LADY put downs.
Unfashionable: Kiss my Christian Dior suit.
Poor: A) What of it? B) Well now if people actually VALUED our labor and skill, then purchased our handmade items for a proper price perhaps we’d be able to supplement our income. Or wait, maybe if corporations stopped laying off workers and then bitching about sales being down and laying off more workers, maybe we wouldn’t be in this pickle! Anyone working for an industry or economist think tank that happens by this post (you never know, the members of the crochet liberation front have really cool occupations) here’s the facts, if people don’t have jobs , they don’t have money, if they don’t have money THEY CAN’T BUY THINGS, if they can’t buy things that makes them poor. How is that a crime? Talk about blame the victim!
Conversely, many of those that I know who crochet are not poor, nor are they rich, they can afford to buy yarn, tools, books and patterns somehow, some way. In fact in January of this year more than 50% of CLF members had above median income in US dollars. Just sayin’.
Old Fashioned: Meaning? I suppose having a tangible skill that produces material goods that CANNOT be made by machine makes us old fashioned. So old fashioned that large textile groups and corporations have sweatshops in third world countries that have unfair working conditions and poor wages (to say the least) in order to sell CHEAP crochet to developed nations’ markets. That’s pretty old fashioned, like Robber Barron fashion, how very 19th century of them.
Look. ever since ad agencies decided to bamboozle the public with the idea that everything has to be new all of the time to keep consumerism going, people who chose self sufficient tasks like cooking, hand crafts, brewing, wood working and gardening have been under assault because we are viewed as a threat to the market. Seriously, we are! Screw ‘em.
Unenlightened: Ah yes, because doing a hand craft must somehow make you dense. I have one example to trump their little gibes: Gandhi. That’s right, THE Gandhi! He spun cotton on a charka wheel that became the threads which were woven to make his clothes. He did this at first as a protest to the British importing textiles and/or controlling India’s textile industry. He found out that it is a very meditative and spiritual experience to make things with your hands. You do not conspicuously consume that which takes you hundreds of hours to make. So, say what they want, I know for a fact that almost every single CLF member is pretty damned enlightened. I may not agree with everything every one of us who crochets believes, but I know most of us are thoughtful, philosophical, thinking humans.
Do me a favor guys, we need to get this attitude circulated on line! Tweet it up, Facebook it, Google Plus this, because folks, if anything is going to get attitudes amended it’s going to be massive calls to action. Speak up, take umbrage at these ill conceived, demeaning and defaming stereotypes. Don’t just talk about it on our message board, that’s preaching to the choir, shout this message across the interwebz!
Speak your mind, tell it like it is, blog about it, and for the love of all that’s Fuzzy, thank an old lady for living long enough to have some wisdom to pass on to us all.
