A quiet act of resistance.

[Imnobody4]

Well done Jean Hatchet
Hardwick Hall mounts an exhibition
Material Power is a celebration of tapestry, embroidery and appliqué. Rewoven presents contemporary textile works that respond to, or work in conversation with, the historic surroundings and context of Hardwick Hall.

Displayed throughout the house and aligning with the key themes of Bess’s textile displays, they present and explore aspects of female experiences, identities and power. Connecting with stories told within Hardwick’s historic collection, they also offer reflection on the materiality and cultural symbolism of working with textiles.

"A trans activist stitched blue and pink colours over JK Rowling’s name. Everyone had contributed a name of a notable woman and just one name had been chosen to be erased. The trust and the artist let this nasty act stand. So I rectified it to the original intention of the woman who embroidered it."

https://x.com/JeanHatchet/status/1928853736732110921?t=vWcWLRFC9o56h18MlxACUg&s=19

Injustice corrected

x.com/JeanHatchet/status/1928791016909279683?t=YQ823sghYXT70YwBHQEn2w&s=19

Oh also in quite heartening news, the NT tweet has over 67k views but only.... 11 likes. 😂

The tide is turning...

(Perhaps not on Bluesky 😬)

Clearly the NT have officially allowed the name to be stitched over.
Thereby silencing the voice of others when they have specifically invited all to contribute

I’m getting really tired of their modus operandi.
First they switch some woman’s ( not mens) toilets to ‘gender neutral’ now this.

Well it does look that way. It was undamaged at Easter and should not have been altered by the public since November. The stitching is very neat and could not reasonably been done inconspicuously.

I think the NT should be explaining how it happened. I think that's why they've covered it over, it's a knee jerk 'don't look at this reaction ' but it's having the complete opposite effect.

If there's an alternate answer they should come out with it, but I think their initial reaction to Jean unpicking it speaks volumes.

Jean's on a roll now. I think NT underestimates Terfs.
I’m going to make a dress and tour it round and you can all add the names of any (female) TERF you’d like to honour. None of the names will be crossed out - whoever has beef with whoever else. Get them all on there. Famous, not famous, bit of an arsehole/heroine. I’ll make it this week. We can keep it somewhere TERFY for history purposes.

x.com/JeanHatchet/status/1929479640860737874?t=54aN02EarGKrFvzfiXcstA&s=19

Oh you absolute beauty!

https://x.com/JeanHatchet/status/1929894492473118887?t=l-KzLjm8u3WkcXG_By0yvw&s=19

So far the TERF dress already has a roughly planned journey which will begin here in Sheffield. It’s going up to Huddersfield with @FemsRad . It’s going over to Macclesfield. I’ll start to put its map together and women’s rights groups can shout up (DM please) if you want it to come to you. I don’t mind who you are (or whether we get on) as long as you’re TERFs and understand this is a female-only piece with both stitchers and names contributed being female.

So the BBC is saying that the stitching over was done prior to November. Can @Priorlake or anyone else confirm otherwise? Someone else on X has said they saw it this year not crossed out.

Sorry meant to add this

I'm not on twitter so had to do a google. Jean is just super. I love that she made photographic evidence and posted about it herself. The NT should be embarrassed.

Of note

The bbc article on this subject state that the stitching over of JKRs name was down during the time period for people to add to it ie before November
According to others who saw it, this is not the case.

I have made an official complaint to the BBC on inaccurate reporting.
Anyone care to join me

I don't remember seeing it crossed out at Easter, but there were at least two "JKR"s on the dress. Saying that, I probably would have noticed a crossed out name as I stood in front of it for half a minute or so.

You got there before me Betty 💐

Hoping Jeans dress comes near Kent as I have my sewing kit ready !
I don’t do twitter but I know I can rely on MNetters to keep me updated. 🙏

Now I don't believe for a second that this defacing of the artwork was, as the BBC has stated, the original form of the piece. I mean, that would imply, given the deliberately provocative nature of the over stitching and its very prominent placement, that the whole intention of the work was to reify a misogynistic and TRAcentric attitude that would be a direct assault on the stated aims of the entire exhibition, "to present and explore aspects of female experiences, identities and power". The National Trust wouldn't be so stupidly captured that they would so blatently flout a Supreme Court ruling that says female should be defined in terms of biological sex, surely? I confidently expect both the artist and the National Trust to come forward to clarify the feminist intent of the work. Any minute now...

Bugger. Blatant, not blatent. Sorry.

Oh awesome. I’m practicing sewing in readiness for Jean’s dress. So many names deserve to be there!

And I do hope we can forensically identify when the name was stitched over. And how many times JKR is on the dress!

Can someone on X keep us up to date with the dress tour? Would love to participate but not on X.

Yes I've found at least two. The only photo I can find of the complete work does not have one JH unpicked crossed out. I can't find when it was taken but it's definitely the completed work.

Ah, so long as it was the Right Sort of Person tampering after it was allowed, that's OK; however, if it was the Wrong Sort of Person, it's a terrible affront.

Got you.

Sorry if this just confuses matters further, but the sewing over JKR’s name was already familiar to me when I saw it come up again last week. I’m sure I’d read about and seen it previously, possibly a few months ago, and been outraged but unsurprised. Unless it’s an example do the Mandela as well as Streisand effect 🤣

I’ve cancelled our membership anyway!

Interesting.

I guess the question is, how are the BBC so sure that it was crossed out before the work was closed off to the public rather than after? Even if it was a few months (or even 6 months) ago, that would mean it wasn't done as part of the project.

I second this

💐 flowers ready for those who do. Well, virtual ones at least 😁

If it was crossed out before it was put on display then surely the artist and the NT have been trolling women the whole time?

Oh, that's fantastic. Well done, Jean.

We need international TERF dresses, not just the UK.