"Cast Off - Diversity wars are raging in the knitting world'

[AncientLights]

I've kept the title from the article in the print version of The Spectator 28 Sept, as I can't improve on it.

It's the most astonishing piece - well, astonishing and yet horribly familiar to us here. I'll summarise as it's not the done thing to do a big c&p job and would also be a kick in the financial teeth of the Speccy, who have done so much, via James Kirkup, to publicise the illogicality of the trans movement.

There is a knitter called Nathan Taylor whose online name is 'Sockmatician' - he sounds an interesting character, shall I say. Sockmatician seems to have cause huge offence (and here I will quote as it's so bonkers) by posting 'a poem on Instagram about 'diversknitty' in which he boasted it was a year since he had founded this hashtag, and asked that people use it kindly, rather than attacking one another'. Seems Taylor was committing violence against Bipoc (black & indigenous people of colour, it says here) by telling them how to make their arguments about inclusion, tone policing from a white man - utterly unacceptable.

The war started & raged on. Sockmatation has MH problems, was hospitalised, messages from his husband held no sway. Things got really bad with the yarn festival: yarn producers & other knitting personalities (who knew?) couldn't believe Sockmatition hadn't been uninvited, someone was glad she hadn't been able to attend after all as she'd have been unable to teach her session knowing he was down the hall. Unsupported allegations online about an assault. His patterns have been dropped from two books, one of which was the first official Harry Potter knitting book - the cover was reshot to remove Sockmatition's work. His business has suffered a 75% drop in sales.

There's a similar story about a Kate Davies who is based in the Scottish Highlands. She wouldn't join in denouncing people for their 'transgressions', so she's been attacked, too.

I read it thinking it must be an allegory but have come to the conclusion it's genuine. It is total, stark-staring madness and I can only keep saying to myself and to anyone else who will listen 'How on earth have we come to this?'

Why is it that the people that spout the mantras “be kind” and “do better” are some of the most vicious bullies out there?

The use of the term BIPOC is also totally bizarre in a British context. The I apparently stands for "indigenous". Who counts as "indigenous" here?

This is, of course, an example of American cultural imperialism.

Here in the UK those of us of Celtic blood are every bit as 'indigenous' as native Americans are in their lands. And frankly those of Anglo Saxon or Viking blood have been here for a thousand years and more so might as well be 'indigenous'.

Would those who seek to apply US identity politics to Europe really want to take them to their logical conclusion? How do they think that'd work out for black or Asian minority groups?

That's one reason I was confused about whether the yarn shows referred to were in the UK - it is such an American expression.

I suppose a lot of the sales these designers are making are to the US via Raveley downloads and that's why they feel they have to go along with the terminology, even though it makes no sense in the local context.

I gave up on American cultural imperialism when I was trying to explain the importance of understanding ethnicity and religion/sectarianism to grasp the different cultural context in Europe.

I had multiple people tell me that white people couldn't experience oppression and one person tried to prove their point saying "there has never been a genocide against white people." That's the level of idiocy you're dealing with when people assume other cultures are the same as the US.

I had multiple people tell me that white people couldn't experience oppression

I had this experience during a MOOC on archaeology. It didn't matter how many European people from Ireland to Bosnia gave historic examples, nor how many African people gave examples of black people playing the oppressor role she refused to stop shitting up every single discussion with her US-centric view.

Eventually Coursera stopped her posting so it can't have just been me who complained.

The mongolian empire stretched from eastern europe to mongolia, the Arab empire went into Spain, Turkish and Arab people came into Europe from the age of the crusades and before, and it’s pretty much known that Baghdad was the centre of the world for a long time. This idea that European identity politics just involves white people from Northern Europe is ignorant

Agreed. They are stunningly ignorant about history - the American wokesters about the rest of the world and their European cheerleaders about their own history. In the context of knitting in the UK and Ireland, "indigenous" is absurd. Was an impoverished subsistence crofter on the Shetlands in the 19th century knitting to clothe her family an "indigenous" person or was she in fact a colonial oppressor whose "white tears" must be ignored and who needs to "do better"? What about a Donegal woman knitting Arans for pennies for some middleman to flog to American tourists at a big mark-up in the 1960s? Or the fishermen's wives waiting on the pier in Hull for the boats to come in, knitting ganseys for 12 hour stretches while standing up?

It's such a load of fucking bollocks.

True - and that’s what knitting heritage should be, we remember the generations of mainly women who knitted commercially or just to keep their families warm. Not this endless virtue signalling.

I guess the only way to win is for someone to call out the entirety of modern knitting as culturally appropriated from the British Isles and Scandinavia so Americans can stop talking about it. And do better.

The oldest knitted items were found in Egypt. So if anything every culture since then has appropriated it.

Omg, did not know that.

off to write self flagellation post and delete entire internet presence

You need to DO BETTER TirisfalPumpkin

Technically they were made by nålebinding, not knitting if that helps you avoid a self flagellation post

No, the eleventh century socks are knitted but there are nalebound ones from a few hundred years CE.

Two points:
He doesn’t get to storm into the diversity debate to police the way people of colour fight for social justice
You couldn't get a better statement than this one above to sum up woke witch hunt g. The words reveal the intent.

Was an impoverished subsistence crofter on the Shetlands in the 19th century knitting to clothe her family an "indigenous" person or was she in fact a colonial oppressor whose "white tears" must be ignored and who needs to "do better"? What about a Donegal woman knitting Arans for pennies for some middleman to flog to American tourists at a big mark-up in the 1960s?
The thing missing in woke politics is class. They never, ever give a fuck about class analysis or class oppression. If they did we would see that all the protagonists (regardless of race) have class privilege that they leverage. They use a language that excludes less educated people.

Also:
What about a Donegal woman knitting Arans for pennies for some middleman to flog to American tourists at a big mark-up in the 1960s?
This is really interesting! I know my grandmother did this exact thing while managing a household and gestating endless children. I didn't know it was a Thing.

In the 19th century my Irish ancestors were labourers and my English ones were rag pickers. I really must watch my privilege.

Yes, the woke police completely ignore class, especially Americans, they have a weird blindness to it. Anyone who can afford to buy beautiful wool and knit as a leisure pursuit is comfortable and privileged. I cannot believe they are acting in good faith or are seriously trying to address inequality when they behave the way they do.

terfsandwich yes it was a bit of a cottage industry, I know people whose older female relatives did it. They would slave away ( the whole provenance and "authenticity" of Aran knitting is a bit disputed anyway though that's probably another thread!) and every couple of weeks they would bring their work to the local shop or post office where it would be inspected for flaws. They weren't paid very much considering the amount of work that goes in, but were glad to be able to supplement their household income, as there was a lot of financial hardship about. Someone made good money out of it though. I think Kate has touched on the similar setup in the Scottish islands, it's an interesting one all right.

Ah well, self flagellation for Tirisfal then

Sockmatician has posted a video today on YouTube telling his side of the story. He has been treated appallingly by the knitting community. He’s been dropped from books and shops and workshops. I’m furious on his behalf. The video is here

The thing missing in woke politics is class. They never, ever give a fuck about class analysis or class oppression. If they did we would see that all the protagonists (regardless of race) have class privilege that they leverage. They use a language that excludes less educated people.

Amen. Have been trying to articulate this to myself all day. They are unable to connect with or empathise with anyone less educated than them and instead are scornful and sneering towards people who are different to themselves.

Marx advocated for the international brotherhood of man [sic]. All of the anticolonial revolutionaries shared this aspiration.
Yet now, through identity politics, we see the international fragmentation of 'man' [sic] with a set of separate cabals that have a pecking order. Those who are left out are Huxley's savages yet all of this is in their name.
You couldn't predict a more diseased state of late capitalism.

What did Scottish crofters have in common with rubber plantation indentured labourers?
What did survivors of the potato famine in Australia have in common with Aboriginal stockmen?

They were all oppressed by a capitalist working class.

The big question, the only important question, is if this class dynamic still operates today to oppress people in a way that makes it impossible to challenge?

American wokeists are so obsessed with the race element of their capitalist history that they have completely ignored the class element. They are bringing this ignorance, and forcing it on us elsewhere with their McCarthyist witch hunting techniques.

The acronym BIPOC doesn't work in the UK. The indigenous population is white.

Agree about class terf. The white lower class in Britian are mocked and vilified for this reason. They are the indigenous poor but they don't fall under any fashionable protected category so are one of the few groups left for people to sneer at and write off. Look at the girls in Rotherham, Rochdale etc. There's some voicelessness and powerlessness.

I also think the concept of cultural appropriation is bogus.

Absolutely Antibles. The wokeists in the US actually blame their disempowered working class for the ruling class's self interested actions. It's mind boggling.

My beef with cultural appropriation is: where's the logical endpoint?
And the logical endpoint is Apartheid. You can't eat other foods, you can't live in other places, you can't read other books or attend other concerts.
And like trans ideology it's full of paradoxes. It's OK for that NZ PM to Don a headscarf, which I found personally to be superficial mimicry of others' sincerely felt skyfairy beliefs.