This baby blanket has been put on hold. There is time to make it later as my new little grand nephew won't be in this world for some time. This morning I found out there are much more important things to create.
My wonderful SIL'S are going to The Women's March on Washington, D.C. on January 21, 2017. I am so excited for them. They are going to march to defend the rights of women in this country. Not only women's rights but the rights of everyone. I am jealous I can't go, but I can do something, I can knit. They brought this project to my attention this morning in hopes I would help them get started on a few hats. Oh you bet I will. I wish I had known about it a few weeks ago, believe me that would be all I would be doing in my spare time.
This project, started by two women, is so important considering the road we are on. And while you might not like the name you have to understand that our President Elect feels it is fine to use this word freely in regards to women, and wants to grab women by this body part. So your offense should be with who says things like that, not the name of the pattern.
On the website which you can find here at Pussy Hat Project, you can find this knitting pattern as well as several different crochet patterns. There are links to where you can mail hats, where you can drop them off and which yarn stores in your area may be participating. Please visit it to find out the mission behind this project.
What an amazing visual affect it would have if many of the marchers wore these hats. I am on a quest to knit as many as I can so my SIL's can give them out to other marchers. If you can't make hats for marchers make one for yourself and wear it on January 21, 2017 in a show of solidarity to those who are marching for all of us.
You see we cannot say that what is happening is okay. We cannot let women's rights and those of anyone in our country be moved back into the dark ages. We have to have a say. We have to choose to be better, to be the one fighting for all of us, Little Buddy included.
If you are a mother, sister, aunt, or friend please think of those young girls you see around you. Look them in the eye and know that they are in for a tough ride if we let things slide backwards. If their rights are taken away, the right to equal pay, the right to reproductive health, the right to birth control, the right to be in charge of the decisions for their own bodies, they will be far worse off than we have been. You see other women and men have fought for us to have the rights we have now. They are easily ripped away, how can we let that happen? How can you look at them and tell them you could have helped but didn't?
It is not just about women, it is rights for everyone of every color, nationality, religion and sexual orientation. I want my sons to grow up in a world where we are all equal. Wouldn't that be amazing!
As you know a very wise woman once said, "Women's rights are human rights, and human rights are women's rights."
My superpower is the ability to take yarn and make it into something special. While I might not be able to attend, The Women's March on Washington,D.C., or any other marches at state capitols on that date, I can do this.
Will you join me?
50 comments:
I'm heading to the stash now for some pink yarn!!! I may even get to the march but if I can't I'm for sure going to have my hat get there!
I'm in! I agree with each and every word you said. I will get that pattern and make one in solidarity. My sister is marching at a similar march here in Portland, Oregon. I wish I could do it but I have bad knees and can't do it.. but I can wear a hat and join in symbolically. I'm proud of you!! ((hugs)), Teresa :-)
I LOVE this project! I can't knit or crochet but would love to try it for a cause. I'll be looking for those hats as I hope this march is covered by the media! We must protect our rights! Hugs!
What an amazing idea and movement - so great to support. I wish I could knit!! xo
Keep Calm and Knit On. That's what is going to get me through the next few weeks. The hype here in the DC area over the ascendancy of the Orange One is crazy and I can't deal with it. I'm putting my nose in my knitting-pussy hat included-until it is over. Someone let me know when that happens. Please.
Awesome awesome cause. Let me look at my stash.......
Way to go, Mer!! Passionate for all the right reasons! Once I've finished watching Season 2 of Grace and Frankie, I'll get me some pink yarn and make a start!Thank you for sharing. xxx
Donna Druchanas has also designed a pattern for the Resist Hat, and has offered it for free on Ravelry: http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/resist-hat
I'll probably make one, and though I couldn't afford to go to DC, I'm attending the march here in Philadelphia. I need to feel like I'm doing something.
Fantastic!!! I have been reading a bit about this lately!! I think the world is headed for more troubled times but we the quiet majority have to speak up!! Bravo ladies!! I wonder if anything is happening up here ??
Love it!!!!!!!
We live in the DC area. My 83 year old mother-in-law is coming from Arizona for the march. I am trying to get hats crocheted for us, wish me luck! I think her protest sign will say "This woman grabs back!" She's rather feisty. I think the idea for the sign came from her women's democratic club. Regardless she will carry it high and proud. Keep your fingers crossed the weather isn't too bitter cold.
Count me in !!!!! Only wish I had known about it sooner !!
Need to add a PS : I won't be watching the inauguration !!
I am going to politely dissent.
We do not win by lowering ourselves to the President-elect's level. African Americans do not win by calling each other nigger and we, as smart, strong women do not win by donning Pussy-hats or calling each other bitch.
We win by calling OUT this form of degradation in ways that do not degrade us further.
Unfortunately, men like Mr. Trump are sadly unaware of irony.
Good luck. It's always right to walk for (or support in any way) human rights. I'm with you. Regula
Love the idea!
You are passionate for all the right reasons and causes Meredith!
Sending you lots of love and shouting a big BRAVO to you and all these courageous women!
Thank YOU!!
That is an amazing idea! I hope that you get lots of hats knitted and a lot of people donate hats for the big day! I love the look of the hat as well and the color. I hope that the message is heard loud and clear!
Lisa
Thank you for knitting and for spreading the word. this is important for all of us.
I am going to march with both of my daughters. If you cannot go, we will march for you and know that you will be with us in spirit.
You go girl! :-) Knit like crazy!
Hope the march will sort much effect and that there will be hundreds of hats,
Have a nice day,
Sigrid
YES!!!! This incredible and I'm so happy to hear the fight goes on. Knit your little heart out...I'd do it too if I could!
All the best,
Jane xxx
Well done Meredith, I will certainly be thinking of you all on that day.
Well done Meredith for standing up and being counted. Good luck with that knitting. CJ xx
I hadn't heard about this, I think it's so important to stand up for our rights and what a great way to do it.
I'm a woman, here's how I feel about Taxpayer subsidized anything, but especially health care: many supporters say things such as, "it's my body, don't tell me what I can do with my body" or, "these are my reproductive choices, not yours". If I, as a taxpayer, have any part of paying for your reproductive health, I have every right to say how my money is spent! If you don't want any one telling you what you can or cannot do with your body, be an adult, get a job, and pay for your own health care! When you expect public money to be used for something and then tell the public they have no right to say how the money they earned is to be spent, you've lost the right to say anything! You want full control-EARN IT!!
Mere you ar the best. The more pink hats that people are able to make the better. And for all that can't make it to D.C. there are coordinating marches in towns across the country. There is even one scheduled for St. Pete at the same time as the national March.
Thanks for all that you do for so many others. I feel lucky to have met you when you would come into the small yarn shop that I use to manage. You were always so kind. Thank you again.
My niece is going, her university is sending a group on a bus. I started knitting her pussyhat last week and am about 2/3 done. When I finish I will send it to her via priority mail...it will be like a small part of me will be there with her!
I hate, hate, hate that word! But the project is without a doubt extremely important. And I'm so happy to see that it is happening so soon. I'd love to see that word disappear, but if it anyway helps in woman/human rights then all the power to it.
Love it! Bravo!
The decision made to use that word, which some people find objectionable, concerns this and only this: the casual and disgusting use of that word by a man that committed sexual assault and is now the President-elect. (Though not, as you know, for me - #notmypresident.) They are taking a word that he used to objectify women and using it instead to EMPOWER women. I'm all for that.
xo
Claudia
I want my sons to grow up in a world where we are all equal - if all had this outlook, the world would be a better place to live in.
Some teachers at my school are going and I plan to give them hats. I haven't decided if I'm going or not; I'm a little bit nervous and can't make up my mind.
What a lovely idea, happy knitting xx
Sorry, but I find it very difficult to understand why women would adopt this symbol as one of empowerment. Trump used the word derisively and it showed his feelings. However, I cannot see how womens' use of this as a symbol does anything but make them look childish. I for one don't want to wear a pink hat with pussycat ears and would feel demeaned, made to look childish. Somehow I could not see Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. marching in a tee shirt emblazoned with the "n" word. He held himself higher than any derogatory name that anyone could ever call him. He didn't need an artificial logo to brand his cause. I hold myself higher than any name anyone could call me and would not abase myself by "labeling" myself by such a word.
AWESOMENESS!!
Wishing I was able to make it to DC!!!
I'm sending this poster to my youngest daughter!!!
Would love for her to go march!!!
Thank you Meredith for sharing!!!
Stay warm!!! Suzan
Truer words were never spoken, Claudia. We simply cannot allow the most powerful leader of the free world to get away with this hideous behavior. Women will not allow him to use that word again. After all, we are 51% of the population. We are going to fight back. Thanks for bringing this topic to our attention. As Keith Olbermann says, Resist!
Wish I had my crochet hooks with me....and some yarn! Maybe I can get out and purchase some when I don't have to be at the theater. xoxoxo
I hate that word and don't agree to stooping down to the man-child's level by using suc terms, but hey, I'm all for the march and the project! You are wonderful to be knitting hats to support the cause.
I'm so naive Meredith, when I first saw the title of your post I thought of pussy cats. It's awful that woman are deviled like this and actually feel the need to go to this extreme to make themselves heard. Good luck with it all, I would be marching right along side with everyone if I lived over there. :) xx
A fantastic thing to do Meredith and my credits to those who will be attending the match and you and others who will be making pussyhats. I love the stronger language you are using here to. We do owe it to the girls and women of the future and also the women before us who fought hard for our current rights to preserve what we have and continue fighting because the work is not done yet. There is a prevailing attitude that women have equal rights already but this is not the case. In Australia there are still large discrepancies in earnings between women and men, even for the same work! Women are discriminated against in the tax system here too - the federal government taxes feminine hygeine products (a 'tampon tax') but men are not subjected to the same sort of tax. It's not as if women can choose whether to buy these products or not if they want to function with equal opportunity in society! In other countries, girls are still subjected to genital mutilation, women are victims of 'honour killings' and acid attacks,and myriad injustices... so there is s long way to go and younger people need to keep fighting for human rights.
I would love to make some hats and then send them but they probably won't arrive in time but we could make some in Australia and share pics of ourselves wearing them in a show off solidarity. Good luck ladies! Go get 'em, girls!
I agree with you about rising above using derogatory language at all but I can also see how many groups are trying to 'reclaim' these terms to reframe them and redress the power imbalance. If a sea of ponk hats makes a visual statement and catches people's attention, it can spread the message a lot further than one march in one city.
Fantastic Meredith! I like those hats and don't find the name offensive. Sometimes it is important to make a strong point. I won't be knitting a pussy hat but I'll be thinking of all the brave women who make the journey to DC to march for their rights, with or without pussy hats. xx
Hello Meredith, And a BIG YES I will! So nice to be back in blogland and visit you just in time for this opportunity. Hope you have been well, I never stopped thinking of you all. Happy New Year
xo Robin
I have a blog post also
I hope you will enjoy all of your knitting and crafting in 2017, whatever the reason for it!
Like many of the Thoughtful Responders here, I am conflicted. I don't want to sink to his level and validate or desensitize his language. Liza Kirschner made the point very eloquently with her example of Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, and I cannot really improve upon that. I would add, however, the principle of President and First Lady Obama: "When they go low, we go high." I can't see how descending into the mud and using that language serves any purpose but to destigmatize and sully us all.
My other issue is the way the hat's design infantilizes and juvenilizes women. It looks childish, and our purposes and principles are quite mature and serious. We run a very real risk of making our Cause look silly or comical. We want, as Women and equals, to be heard--to be taken seriously. I wonder if wearing Pink Kitty Cat Ears will get that point across.
I don't doubt for one solitary moment your seriousness, your commitment, or your deep passion for our cause as Women. It is the same as my own, and I thank you.
Sorry--I need to clarify a sentence that my wonky touchpad decided to edit for me. At the end of my first paragraph, my final sentence should have said
"I can't see how descending into the mud and using that language serves any purpose but to destigmatize his actions and sully us all."
(Can't help it; it's the English Teacher In Me.)
I love the start of that baby blanket, Meredith! I look forward to seeing it finished. blessings and hugs ~ tanna
Wow. I support you. We will be marching here. I'm not sure if I will have a hat myself, but I have pledged to knit one for a friend. It's too bad that this doesn't feel like ownership for some. However I understand where our fellow knitters are coming from (except for that taxpayer reproductive rights one, but "whatever" as the kids say.) I also appreciate the respectful voice. Equal Rights, Equal Education on how government works.
I'd say pussyhat in some ways harks back to the anthem of "we're here, we're queer". For some members of a marginalized group, it works to take a derogatory word and tell oppressors "you don't own this word and you don't own us". Others may not feel that way and it's totally fine. We know words have power and for many involved in the project, there is a need to reclaim power for themselves.
And just a reminder since I'm a huge fan-Planned Parenthood uses NO government funds to perform abortions.
You know, pussy used in other parts of the world just means cat. Just because a certain society has decided it's a derogatory word, doesn't make it so for everyone. And if women want to stand up for what's right and give themselves the name to make a point, then what's wrong with that? Absolutely nothing. People just need to get over it and focus on the intention. Pussy cat. Pussy hat. All just words. It's the action of empowering and standing up that's important. March on!
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