Open letter to the advertisers in Vogue Knitting magazine

[lorres]

   Dear Vogue Knitting magazine advertiser,

If I see another photo of a young, white, unnaturally skinny model in a knitting magazine who has been asked to pose as if she wants to give me a blow job I think I shall really become annoyed with your tolerance and support of this practice.  Since it is your money that fuels the engine of this terrible machine that makes life difficult for women, I'm choosing to write to you to tell you how I feel.

I feel like the editorial staff of Vogue Knitting magazine hates most of the women who knit and would consider them intolerably ugly.  They perpetuate the images of acceptable women as having a very narrow range of attributes: young, unhealthily skinny and...I honestly don't think they consider many other qualities that are not variations of those two basic ones.  Your support of this narrow image of women is what bothers me.  Surely you know that your customers do not fit this stereotype.  Surely you have read about how this narrow representation of women causes harm in our society and produces a damaging feeling of inadequacy in women and false sense of expectation in men.  I wonder why you wish to continue.  Surely there are more positive ways for you to make money than to support such horrible practices.  I hope you will consider changing your ways and pressuring Vogue Knitting magazine to change theirs.

I feel like withdrawing my support to all advertisers who continue this dangerous practice.  I am obsessed with knitting and over the past several years have poured a considerable amount of my disposable income into knitting materials.  I am so irritated with the current situation, however, that I am thinking of withdrawing my support from both the magazines who continue these insidious destructible practices and the businesses that support them.

I am looking forward to a swift and positive response, for the good of real live women knitters everywhere.


With sincere intent,

Lorre 



 

Comments

[jackandahat]

*Applauds*

I'm a man, but one of the reasons knitting appeals to me is because I can make clothes that fit me, instead of feeling bad that I do not fit what clothing designers have decided men ought to look like. It's my jumper, it should change to fit me, not the other way around. I can imagine this goes tenfold for women who are getting even more of those messages on a daily basis.

What I don't get is why there isn't more focus on "Hey, you can make clothes that actually fit/suit *you*, and not someone six inches taller, fifty pounds lighter, and a totally different shape." I mean... it's making your own clothes, if there was ever an opportunity to celebrate people actually being varied...

[girlpearl]

Although I certainly appreciate--and agree with--the sentiment behind your letter, I would caution you to keep in mind two things.

1. These models (okay, the ones that haven't been photoshopped into oblivion) are real live women, too, and deserve to have their bodies respected accordingly.

2. You can't look at a thin woman and determine that she is unhealthy (or unnatural!) any more than one can look at a fat woman, or an average woman, or a whatever woman, and determine her health.

Believe me, I'm all for a more diverse portrayal of women in media, including knitting magazines. But I know for a fact that some knitters ARE thin, young women and I know that it would (it does) hurt them deeply to be told by total strangers that they are unnatural and unhealthy.

[indywind]

^ ditto.

[jackandahat]

Agreed - I missed those points in my first comment, but. Any woman who hasn't been photoshopped is a "real woman" just on account of her existing. The whole "Only women with curves are real women!" thing can be just as harmful, and I think it's just backlash (and comes across as very bitter, which can hurt your argument.)

[sciarra]

I think, though, there is a trend to glorify young, thin, conventionally attractive women. Perhaps more diversity in the mag is the answer. And I'm guessing that models who pose for knitting magazines fall prey to many of the habits of models for other venues (as they probably don't just work for the knitting industry!): cocaine and amphetamine use to stay thin (and yes, I know this based on experience with friends in the business).

Women come in all shapes and sizes--so perhaps that should be the focus of the letter.

[apis_mellifera]

VK doesn't care. The Winter 2010 Editor's Letter is no longer online (that I can find at least), but I was able to find this, which deconstructs it.

[laughingrat]

Samurai Knitter! <3 <3 <3 Wow, she's great. Thanks for the link.

[laughingrat]

*gives you a giant double thumbs-up*

Missed this, but I agree with you a lot, and good on you if you actually sent it to them.