First, happy May The 4th to everyone. I really wanted to have a day that was full of space travel, action, romance, and a cast of characters that have become inspirational, iconic, and familiar. I wanted to write about the fun Star Wars projects I have made in the past and hope to make in the future. Sadly, today is not that day. I need to address the pink square top cat hat in the room. Let’s take a walk down memory lane and look at the world between November 2016 and January 2017. Hilary Clinton lost the election but not the popular vote. Regardless, many of us knew that things were about to get real bad and scary, and for many in the BIPOC and LGBTQ+ community things were about to get much worse. A lot of people said to get over it and that things weren’t going to be that bad. Ha. At some point during the time between election night and the inauguration the *cat hat project came to take the nation by storm. I myself jumped into the project with full force. I even co-hosted an event where people from all walks of life came together to make the hats. It was a night and an event that I am still proud of. I liked the project because it felt unifying. After writing to my representatives and signing petitions there was still a lot of time left in my day and working on those hats made me feel like I wasn’t alone with my fears for the future. Remember, 45 wasn’t in office yet. There was only so much change myself or our elected representatives could do about a person/administration that was not yet in power. I also liked the project because it was a simple pattern that didn’t require a lot of tools, expensive materials, or great skill. It was easily adapted to sewing or crochet. And as with all fiber art projects you could alter it any way you saw fit. It was or at least at the time appeared to be accessible. Even my hat wasn’t a solid pink and the yarn was dyed by a dyer who shares my values. The day of the Women’s March was amazing. I walked through Seattle with my sister and my best friend. I ended the day feeling positive. I felt like I was going to be able to do a variety of things to make a difference. In the five years since the march and the prominence of the pink cat hat I have learned a lot. First- the hats made a lot of people feel excluded. Not everyone has a pink cat and therefore did not feel welcome marching or creating warmth for a cause that impacts everyone’s lives. Discovering this broke my heart. The project had the potential to be so inclusive and inviting to everyone. The march was in January, every single person needed a hat.
Second- the hats become a symbol of performative white female “allyship” which is so harmful and counterproductive. They became an accessory for the white mean girls of the world. It gave the appearance of being helpful without actually doing anything. Third- they distracted people from doing anything more after the march. Yes, the hats were nice. It was a cool moment. It was January so everyone should have had a hat regardless of what the hat looked like. Brrr. But then they stopped doing anything else to make sure that the incoming administration didn’t do everything it said it would. And now we’re moments away from Roe v. Wade being overturned. Something we all knew they were going to do in 2016. I’m hearing rumblings about people wanting to make more hats. I’m going to ask for the love of everything, please don’t. I’m asking this as someone whose first instinct is always, “what can I knit?” I’m not saying don’t knit or that you can’t create protest pieces. You absolutely can and should. Our knitting is political. But it’s May, we don’t need millions of hats. We don’t need performative activism that over shadows the fact that the loss of reproductive choice is going to have deadly consequences for generations. Protest. Write your representatives. The moment of the cat hat is over.
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AuthorBethany is a knitter, podcaster, nerd, and educator from the Pacific Northwest. Archives
May 2022
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