Men Who Knit

I was just lurking around on the Mason-Dixon Knitting blog
which contained a link about boys knitting.

This reminded me of a blog I came across somewhere in Sphere O' Blog that roundly denounced Men Knitting, and considered it a waste of her time to devote any blogspace to such trifling, insignificant matters. The blogger didn't clearly articulate her reasons, but I suppose it's her blog, and I doubt many men read it any way.

Of course, this male-exclusive statement reminded me of Mary Daly, an ex-Roman Catholic nun turned feminist theologian. It turns out she doesn't interact with men at all. She doesn't even look at them or acknowledge them during her lectures. There's some whole background story to this life approach, but I frankly didn't find it very convincing the first time I read it seven years ago, so I wouldn't be able to tell you exactly what she's thinking, other than that she seems very angry about Bad Things That Happen and spends a lot of her time blaming men When Things Go Awry With the World.

I can't even begin to figure out how this strategy helps people learn to be better human beings and get along with one another, but I suppose that's not her point. And honestly, I couldn't tell you what her point was, because I was so turned off by the first few pages of her Beyond God the Father that I stopped reading it properly, and only skimmed it for my paper (I hope my old theology professor isn't reading this blog).

While the devil's advocate in me can see this life commitment to ignoring men as having limited potential for amusing moments (eg telling some poor bewildered male clerk at the drug store, "I'm sorry, I don't interact with people like you,") I also didn't really get it. I mean, it's not particularly practical, and it seems like a shortsighted strategy, because not all men are Evil Patriarchs, are they?

But back to the main idea of this post, which was about men and boys knitting. I doubt many people realize that in Iceland, or somewhere, knitting was traditionally considered a male activity. I don't know if their knitting sessions included some kind of ritualized sword fighting with huge broomstick-sized needles, or something, but in some communities, knitting was so synonymous with maleness that woman weren't allowed to knit. Or it was considered shameful if womenfolk did pick up the needles, especially in public, or something silly as history is known to provide us details.

I am totally for Equal Knitting Rights, myself.

When I was in Nashville, eight year old boys would come into the shop with their moms and sit and knit with them. I think I even remember giving one of the lads a knitting lesson a ime or two.

In fact, if I had my druthers, my Custom Made Dream Guy would knit, and knit avidly and voraciously. Then we could go yarn shopping together, and compete in Most Fabulous Sweater of the Year household championships during world cup playoffs, or something.

Then again, my Dream Guy would know that the way to my heart would be to coo little sweet Kantian antinomies in my ear, so I'm not exactly holding my breath, or anything.