(Note: there is a District 9 spoiler here…but just a little one….)
OK, it’s a Sunday, and I just have to have a little rant here. Recently I’ve seen both a movie and a TV show where crafty folk are getting a bad rap and are portrayed as simpletons or just crazy.
(Well, I’ll admit to being a little crazy, but really people!)
So my first example is Glee, a new Fox show about Glee club. The wife of the Glee club director is…well… off. And she has a craft room. So SEE??? She’s a little crazy because she likes CRAFTS!!!
Then I went to see District 9. The man character, Wikus, is well….simple. Dense. And his idea of showing his wife how much he cares is making her little gew-gaws that are about on the same level as some of my kindergardener’s crafts. SEE???? People who do crafts are unskilled and pathetic!
What is going on here? What happened to honoring crafters, like in “How to Make An American Quilt?” Now, there, the women all had their own issues, but the respect was there.
I guess I’m feeling the need to stand up for myself and my fellow crafters… don’t let the media make you believe that you are odd for crafting…
CRAFT PROUD!!!
Anyone else feeling this way out there???
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- Rinea Metallic Foil Paper & Ghost Ink Review - February 21, 2018
- Jane Davenport debuts at Creativation 2018 & Watercolor Card - February 13, 2018
- Creativation 2018: New Product Showcase - January 20, 2018
Well, maybe “crafty” is getting a bad rap, but “Makers” are getting a really good rap. I am thinking of basically “everyone on EUReKA” who all make their own crazy science projects (someone made a hexapod walker robot last week, which was definitely something you can buy and make yourself, from a kit.). I was also thinking of Warehouse 13 (Can you tell I watch Syfy?) where Claudia is always cobbling things together, and Artie bakes cookies. Or even Firefly, where Kaylee decorated her whole cabin with stickers and scrapbooking type supplies. Not to mention Jayne’s very famous knit hat!!
I try not to take offense at what the media wants to make of an image. If it were accurate and true-to-life, would we consider it entertaining at all?
Remember back in the mid ’90s when all computer related advertisements, not just the fictional shows, depicted computer owners as hopelessly nerdy and socially inept? Yeah, at least now it’s just the people who know more than how to turn the thing on and find Twitter, Google, and WoW who are the nerds. Making progress.
Handmade artists face the same challenge now; but we can only keep doing what we’re doing and show the world one person at a time that the word Handmade is a far cry from macaroni art and lunchbag puppets.
It is not just in the media, it happens to me in real life.
I knit golf club covers for my business. People’s reaction is always disbelief. even my husband tells me to get a “real job”. no one could possibly want to spend money on something they could make themselves. Well he is wrong because I do pretty well.
Also, i resent when the media gets all into crafting when MEN take to it. like now it is a thing we can take seriously because women arent serious enough. F U.