Nesting urge won't remove cause of fears

Charlotte Observer ^ | March 23, 2003 | Tonya Jameson

[KosmicKitty]

Nesting urge won't remove cause of fears Women should fight for real control, not hide behind knitting needles

Tonya Jameson

Experts call it "nesting" or "cocooning." I call it revenge of the home-ec teachers.

Women in their 20s and 30s are knitting, sewing, cooking and embracing all kinds of do-it-yourself projects. But knitting is the hottest in this craze.

Young women are doing it on New York subways, Los Angeles movie sets and in Charlotte homes. Cultural experts say the current frenzy feeds a desire to feel safe after the Sept. 11 attacks rattled Americans' sense of security.

But the popularity of knitting was building before Sept. 11, 2001. According to a 2000 survey by the Craft Yarn Council of America, nearly one in three women knit or crochet, about a 10 percent increase since 1994.

In that time, the number of women who knit or crochet increased from 34.7 million to 38 million. People 35 and younger made up more than half of those newcomers.

Now Hollywood stars are all about the yarn. Julia Roberts, Hilary Swank, Cameron Diaz, and Tyra Banks all have embraced their inner grandmas.

Maybe the experts are right. Even here in Charlotte, it appears as though the attacks and subsequent war talk have increased young women's interest in knitting and other nesting activities, such as cooking, scrapbooking and home decorating. On Thursday, home-ec goddess Martha Stewart is scheduled to offer gardening tips at the uptown Hilton.

I won't be there.

I barely passed home economics. For me, sewing fabric on a Styrofoam ball to make a doll didn't compare to shooting hoops. I thought home-ec was the school system's attempt to keep women in their place.

I haven't changed my mind. Yes, Sept. 11 made me feel vulnerable. I stockpiled water and gas masks, but this return-to-Mayberry idealism is condescending.

Too many sisters fought to free women from aprons and mops for me to voluntarily become Aunt Bee and pretend it's by choice.

It is not a choice. It's peer pressure. In the last two years, an undercurrent of conservatism has permeated American culture from the White House to Hollywood.

Our first lady, Laura Bush, is praised for her love of reading, gardening and keeping a tidy house. Major newspapers and popular magazines have run positive stories about nesting, cooing about the actresses and models who are picking up knitting needles.

There's even an Internet photo of Russell Crowe, a non-knitter, holding a pair of needles with the caption: "It's even hip enough for actors who love their props!"

Since when did hiding in the house become a hip way to handle fear?

I'm not falling for this nesting nonsense that has a chokehold on women under 35. I don't take cooking classes at Reid's Fine Foods. I rarely watch the hit interior-design show "Trading Spaces." I'm not one of the 4 million newcomers to knitting.

Initially I thought it was cool for young women to discover domestic bliss, but I don't feel that way anymore.

Instead of reconnecting with traditions, it seems like we're knitting, cooking and hiding in our homes because we're scared. Creating something with our hands gives us a false sense of control at a time when we have little.

We don't even have control over our own bodies. We've got some medical students performing unauthorized pelvic exams on women under anesthesia.But instead of fighting for real control, like lobbying legislators for patients' rights, we're playing Holly Homemaker.

So, no, I won't be listening to Stewart's gardening tips or signing up for knitting classes. I want real security, not a scarf I can wrap around my neck to pretend I'm safe from the cold winds of war and terror.

Tonya

Jameson

[KosmicKitty]

A sad example of a by-product of the women's movement. I thought that femminism was about offer women choices, not degrading those who chose to persue more traditional interests.

[TightSqueeze]

Too many sisters fought to free women from aprons and mops for me to voluntarily become Aunt Bee and pretend it's by choice.

The only noise I want to hear from you is from pots & pans rattling in the kitchen.

[GovernmentShrinker]

The author goes a bit overboard, but I thinks she's right that knitting and similar activities can often be an unhealthy habit used to block out serious matters that the woman ought to be addressing. Repetitive, nervous activities engaged in compulsively for no good reason, are unhealthy, whether it's women knitting constantly or kids spending hours at video games while their schoolwork and social development go untended.

As for "traditional", our grandmothers knitted because it was the most cost- and time-effective way to produce items that were actually needed, or to produce occasional nice little gift items. Most had to stay home, because without modern labor-saving devices, just keeping the home in order and food on the table was a full-time job. Fitting in a little knitting or needlepoint around the other chores was a good use of time (except of course for wealthy ladies of leisure, for whom these activities were usually pure decadence). Very different from many of the compulsive knitters of today, whose kids are dumped in public schools and parked in front of the TV or video game, while mom obsesses over her latest knitting project and spends gobs of time and money at craft stores.