Wednesday, December 17, 2008

Why is Fabric a Femenine Material for Crafts?

Why is it that amongst the numerous crafts humans engage in, that men in general don't work with fabric or cloth? Men will work with wood, metal, stone, paper, plastic, but cloth—not so much. Why is that? Men don't sew things or knit things; the only time I've ever seen a man sew something was a leather motorcycle seat on a TV show. But by and large men just don't like joining two bits of cloth with thread whereas they will gladly join wood or weld sheets of metal together. These are all sweeping generalizations I know, and I'm sure there are plenty of exceptions but it would seem that the overriding consensus is that fabric is in the realm of femenine things. It just seems odd. But in my own experience there is some kind of biological repulsion to sewing. My mom once showed me how to crochet, but it was like showing a dog a card trick. I held the needles as if they were artifacts from another universe…my mind could not figure out how to use them. It was a hopeless thing. But in the hands of a woman she had created a hat within minutes. How is it that these skills are so seemingly restricted by gender?

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