Author ORCID Identifier
Degree Year
2023
Document Type
Thesis - Oberlin Community Only
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Anthropology
Advisor(s)
Baron Pineda
Committee Member(s)
Baron Pineda
Damien Droney
Kip Grosvenor Hutchins
Jessica Madison Pískatá
Cherubim Quizon
Keywords
Textile culture, Social media culture, Feminism, Embroidery, Quilting
Abstract
In the Western world, textiles have always been inherently tied to femininity, which has resulted in hundreds of years of exploitation and undervaluing of women’s roles in society, and cause women to distance themselves from their shared heritage of labor; however, in the emergence of the Covid-19 pandemic, Western women are returning to craft as digital platforms like Tik Tok and Instagram provide community and free resources. This thesis explores how modern Western women are participating in textiles, and how they are victims of the same exploitation as their foremothers and how they are subverting their expectations and circumstances to empower themselves. This paper also considers how women’s resurgence to textiles and crafts goes beyond a battle against misogyny, but a war with overarching structures like capitalism and white supremacy.
Repository Citation
Dobbyn, Annabel, "Let’s Have a Stitch ‘n Bitch: The Resurgence of Western Women’s Involvement in Textile Work" (2023). Honors Papers. 874.
https://digitalcommons.oberlin.edu/honors/874
