(no subject)

[cme]

When you cross from Canada to the USA by rail, you have to fill out a form saying (among other things) how much money you spent on stuff you're bringing with you. Today I had the following conversation:

Customs Agent: Okay, you got 200 big ones. What'd you spend it all on?

Me: Well, yarn, and yogurt-

CA, incredulous: YARN?! What kinda yarn you BUY?!

Me, slightly guilty: Well, silk-

CA: OH. Wow. I was thinkin', how you spend $200 on yarn?! Okay, you're just fine, you go ahead now!

Me, to myself: Wow, he sure doesn't know much about yarn.

Comments

[labellementeuse]

*looks at stash* *tries to imagine amount spent on stash* *resolutely refuses* - and, hey, I'm a cheapskate. No silk in there. :-/

A lot of people still have the impression that knitting is a money-saver ... I mean, I think it still is if you look at your handmade items as one-of-a-kind excellent quality, but it's not as cheap as people imagine, sadly.

[cme]

I agree, but I think there's even more going on here:

"craft supplies" are defined to be for "women and kids" so they also have the attribute "low value".

The extra funny thing is that what's happening AT THE SAME TIME is that not only is this stuff an expensive luxury item that's produced to be as attractive as possible (and therefore expensive), I think it's *also* not a coincidence that when women started working outside the home, the marketing industry noticed that they could now be induced to SPEND MONEY, and pretty much no one with a marketing degree has looked back since, and "yarn is for women". In fact, in general, women are marketed to much more heavily and can be induced (as a population- not saying anything about individuals here) to spend *more money* on average than men. Since they also *earn less* than men on average, this is a double whammy of economic injustice- along the lines of having fewer toilet facilities for women (no urinals) while also requiring them to wear clothes that make it take longer to use the bathroom.

(I *think* the bit about marking to women came from Reviving Ophelia, but it might have been one of the cluster of other books I read about the changing definition and role of "woman" in the 20th century. I read a whole bunch of them at the same time because they cited each other.)

[untonuggan]

^^This.

[cme]

Thanks.

[rainne]

Yep. This is honestly nothing I ever would have thought of before the only American history seminar that fit into my schedule had a women's history focus. Go figure.

This makes me want to pick "yarn and things" as my paper topic, LOL.

[notyourwendy]

Well, yes, if you think of it solely in terms of price of yarn. I prefer to think of it terms of hours of entertainment, and at that point it's VERY cheap (I'm a slow knitter).

[cme]

Yes! And I don't know about you, but for me, a lot of that yarn is entertaining me even when I'm not knitting it. Like when I keep it on my desk and pet it. :D

[randomness]

I don't know about you, but for me, a lot of that yarn is entertaining me even when I'm not knitting it. Like when I keep it on my desk and pet it.

You know me. I spend my time at Rhinebeck, etc. squooshing fiber and enabling all of you. :) And I don't even knit!

digitalemur may end up teaching me to hand spin one of these days, though.