Personally, I found all of this as stupid as the whole ālesbian knitting cavesā idiocy from the right. I had several women ask me for handmade hats. More than half of those who asked me were WoC. The color was meant to be a visual sign of unity, no doubt picked because girls are literally swathed in pink from infancy.
As someone who is skilled in the fiber arts literally from sheep (or cotton boll or silkworm cocoonā¦) to shawl, let me remind folks of the work that went into those hats. The very fact that handcrafters put in the effort to make *millions* of them was also intended as a message - sewn, crocheted, knitted, all of them with skills that have been coded female.
Two weeks out from the March, it was impossible to get pepto pink yarn (or bright pink, candy pink, fuschiaā¦) Most shades of pink were gone. The hats I made were mostly from yarn in my stash. They were a deep cherry pink mixed with brown because thatās what I had. Another woman spotted a cream skein of yarn with pink confetti bits in it and asked for her hat from that. Just saying, but Iām willing to guarantee her complexion was darker than 99% of those crying āracismā over a half skein project based on a pun.
Friends of mine used hand spun yarns dyed with beetroot (which, if any part of your body is that color and you havenāt been handling beetroot, put some arnica salve on it). Even strawberry coolaid was pressed into service. And if any part of your body is strawberry koolaid pink, seek medical attention.
Then, after tracking down or making pink yarn, we cast on and began knitting. Iām an experienced knitter, as in colorwork: no problem, entrelac: Iāve done entrelac while focused on other things. Those hats were dead simple. My youngest sister who forgets the difference between knit and purl made 2.
And each hat probably took me on average about 3 hours. If you didnāt respect my skill and my time, I didnāt make you a hat. If you were lucky enough to be on the receiving end of one of my hats, you may have noticed details like an extra stretchy bind-off, some cute detailing on the āearsā, and a little extra shaping that the original pattern didnāt call for. Those were to keep making it interesting for me. The women I made hats for still wear them. (Well except the couple for whom I made hats for their kids. The younger wears the hand-me-down from the elder. And the smaller hat is in the memory trunk.)
I didnāt make myself a hat because they seemedā¦ a less than enduring style, especially for a woman my age. Cat ears? Nah. Instead, I wore my hat that I knitted years ago, carried my sign, and marched. I wore a shirt from the first march I helped organize. I carried the names of women who could not come on my sign. I know women who could not march who knitted, crocheted, sewed.
Millions of hats were made. I saw both women and men wearing them. And it infuriates me that these appropriative white men are throwing their temper fit over the work that women of all races did because they donāt feel centered. That sea of pink? Not only does it ensure that the liar in chief canāt take those pictures and claim them for supporters, it also sent a message that we will take all those things people write off because womenās stuff isnāt important and throw it back in the face of those who would take away our healthcare, our security from sexual assault. And in the end, I think thatās part of the backlash. How dare women take the tools of our oppression and repurpose them? How dare we even acknowledge our own oppression?
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