KNIT + RESIST: placing the Pussyhat Project in the context of craft activism

‘We did it! We created a sea of pink!’. On 19 January 2017, one day before the Women’s March on Washington, it is estimated that a hundred thousand Pussyhats had been made and distributed. The hats were part of an initiative called the Pussyhat Project. Calling upon knitters, crocheters, sewists and feminists, the Pussyhat Project aims to mobilize the handmade for the purposes of increasing the visibility, representation, and awareness of women’s rights in general, and of women’s rights activists at the Women’s March on Washington in particular. Since its inception, the Project has received numerous accolades and criticisms in mainstream and social media. In particular, the Project has been lauded as an example of craft activism or craftivism. This article explores the Pussyhat Project in relation to craft activism and contemporary craft in the Global North, particularly in terms of gender, race, class, and space. This article provides a critical context for examining the Pussyhat Project, a context that is largely missing in both celebrations and criticisms of Pussyhats thus far. Such contextualizing broadens discussions about the Pussyhat Project. In doing so, it contributes to on-going considerations about how to engage craft as a tool of substantive, feminist social change.