In January of this year there were thousands of women gathering in solidarity. The pink sea of women and men were standing up for rights against Donald Trump, and the pink hats had a meaningful message.
The ‘Pussy hat project’ was launched Thanksgiving weekend to knit thousands of pink hats for those who would march in Washington, D.C. for the Women’s March.
The mission behind the project was to provide a “unique collective visual statement which will help activists be better heard” and also to provide “people who cannot physically be on the National Mall a way to represent themselves and support women’s rights.”
“We chose this loaded word for our project because we want to reclaim the term as a means of empowerment” after Trumps comment about how he grabs women “by the pussy”, but it also stands for so much more:
“Women, whether transgender or cisgender are mistreated in this society. In order to get fair treatment, the answer is not to take away our pussies, the answer is not to deny our femaleness and femininity, the answer is to demand fair treatment. A woman’s body is her own. We are honouring this truth and standing up for our rights.”
This quote from the pussy hat website explains why the project was called pussy hat project.
By making Pussyhats pink, the organisers also look to reclaim two elements that are traditionally associated with femininity and womanhood—and derided precisely because of those reasons. “Pink is considered a very female colour representing care, compassion, and love – all qualities that have been derided as weak but are actually STRONG,” the intro continues. “Wearing pink together is a powerful statement that we are unapologetically feminine and we unapologetically stand for women’s rights.”
Craft is a powerful means of protest, it is something that everyone can get involved in, in order to be part of the protest even if they can’t be there in person.
Women have been using craft as a form of protest, in particular knitting and embroidery in their activism for well over 100 years. Women like to use craft to rebuke patriarchal notions of femininity, because society likes to view craft-making as the dominion of docile, domestic lady hood.
Political craft movements like “stitch and bitch”, a third wave feminist knitting trend, can give one “space to consider”. Corbett describes herself as being a “burnt-out” activist before she discovered the concept of craftivism. “It’s small, intriguing, and humble,” she says. “I also found that, when I was stitching, it would really calm me down and help me think deeply about injustice issues — what mark am I making on the world? What change do I want to see? How am I contributing to it effectively?”
“If everyone at the march wears a pink hat, the crowd will be a sea of pink, showing that we stand together, united,” reads the introduction to the knitting pattern on the Pussyhat Project website.
