Yarn bombing racists

[Augustus]

I follow an account on twitter called New Real Peer Review which compiles some of the most ridiculous articles published in genuine scholarly journals. It is very funny and highly recommended (although slightly disconcerting that this **** actually gets published as scholarship).

Today they published something from the academic journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, called 'Yarn Bombing and the Aesthetics of Exceptionalism'.

Yarn bombing is putting knitting on public stuff for fun, but apparently this is a sign of racist/classist white supremacy.

Some excerpts:

Yarn bombing is affirmed as a public good only inasmuch as it is the exceptional expression of the revolutionary potential of graffiti safeguarded through the provincial sensibilities of Western, middle class whiteness. In this way, discourses and practices surrounding yarn bombing work to reshape the rebellious qualities of graffiti by reconfiguring this subversive art’s cultural modalities

The tagging practices of the yarn bombing community, while sometimes innocuous, frequently represent a kind of “hipster racism,” replete with cultural appropriation and powered by an aesthetics of exceptionalism. Yarn bombers frequently tag their works with laminated notecards.. a significant portion tag their works with names that connote black, urban figures. For example, the Knotorious N.I.T., P-Knitty, and Micro-Fiber Militia all re-use names associated with black rappers from New York City. Brooklyn Sock Mafia, Richmond Craft Mafia, FemiKnit Mafia, and Memphis Knit Mafia are tonguein-cheek titles that ironically proclaim the crew is a violent gang that performs cuddly artistic interventions. The most egregious of these tags is the name for the internationally celebrated mother of yarn bombing, Magda Sayeg. Trading on the popularity of a phrase known variously as a song by Jay-Z, an album by Ol’ Dirty *******, and a black colloquialism, Sayeg’s tag, “Knitta, please,” is merely the worst of numerous related examples of noxious cultural appropriation.

the exceptionalist position of yarn bombing aesthetics works by suggesting a revolutionary event is possible while impeding that very intervention. In part, the articulation between femininity and the politics of class and capital prohibit such an occasion. By intermingling the gendered and sexualized politics of yarn bombing with the modalities of class and capital, this exceptionalist aesthetic fortifies the attachments of the status quo...

... the aesthetic values of Western, feminine domesticity assume a global status that exports a particular notion of class to heterogeneous locales. In this articulation of the middle class, the time and space of the suburban, family home is contrasted to the cold surfaces of the city. Yarn graffiti’s subversive potential is imbricated in layering domestic style over the sterile, urban scene. Such articulations shore up the exceptional privilege of yarn bombing. In contrast to the supposedly degrading urban environment, yarn bombing is positioned as valuable given its associations with the middle class and the soothing aesthetic delights of the suburban home.



So, are yarn bombers hipster racists who are guilty of classism and cultural appropriation?

 

[Curious George]

I follow an account on twitter called New Real Peer Review which compiles some of the most ridiculous articles published in genuine scholarly journals. It is very funny and highly recommended (although slightly disconcerting that this **** actually gets published as scholarship).

Today they published something from the academic journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, called 'Yarn Bombing and the Aesthetics of Exceptionalism'.

Yarn bombing is putting knitting on public stuff for fun, but apparently this is a sign of racist/classist white supremacy.

Some excerpts:

Yarn bombing is affirmed as a public good only inasmuch as it is the exceptional expression of the revolutionary potential of graffiti safeguarded through the provincial sensibilities of Western, middle class whiteness. In this way, discourses and practices surrounding yarn bombing work to reshape the rebellious qualities of graffiti by reconfiguring this subversive art’s cultural modalities

The tagging practices of the yarn bombing community, while sometimes innocuous, frequently represent a kind of “hipster racism,” replete with cultural appropriation and powered by an aesthetics of exceptionalism. Yarn bombers frequently tag their works with laminated notecards.. a significant portion tag their works with names that connote black, urban figures. For example, the Knotorious N.I.T., P-Knitty, and Micro-Fiber Militia all re-use names associated with black rappers from New York City. Brooklyn Sock Mafia, Richmond Craft Mafia, FemiKnit Mafia, and Memphis Knit Mafia are tonguein-cheek titles that ironically proclaim the crew is a violent gang that performs cuddly artistic interventions. The most egregious of these tags is the name for the internationally celebrated mother of yarn bombing, Magda Sayeg. Trading on the popularity of a phrase known variously as a song by Jay-Z, an album by Ol’ Dirty *******, and a black colloquialism, Sayeg’s tag, “Knitta, please,” is merely the worst of numerous related examples of noxious cultural appropriation.

the exceptionalist position of yarn bombing aesthetics works by suggesting a revolutionary event is possible while impeding that very intervention. In part, the articulation between femininity and the politics of class and capital prohibit such an occasion. By intermingling the gendered and sexualized politics of yarn bombing with the modalities of class and capital, this exceptionalist aesthetic fortifies the attachments of the status quo...

... the aesthetic values of Western, feminine domesticity assume a global status that exports a particular notion of class to heterogeneous locales. In this articulation of the middle class, the time and space of the suburban, family home is contrasted to the cold surfaces of the city. Yarn graffiti’s subversive potential is imbricated in layering domestic style over the sterile, urban scene. Such articulations shore up the exceptional privilege of yarn bombing. In contrast to the supposedly degrading urban environment, yarn bombing is positioned as valuable given its associations with the middle class and the soothing aesthetic delights of the suburban home.



So, are yarn bombers hipster racists who are guilty of classism and cultural appropriation?

No. They are artists.

 

[Augustus]

No. They are artists.

So was Hitler

 

[Revoltingest]

I follow an account on twitter called New Real Peer Review which compiles some of the most ridiculous articles published in genuine scholarly journals. It is very funny and highly recommended (although slightly disconcerting that this **** actually gets published as scholarship).

Today they published something from the academic journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, called 'Yarn Bombing and the Aesthetics of Exceptionalism'.

Yarn bombing is putting knitting on public stuff for fun, but apparently this is a sign of racist/classist white supremacy.

Some excerpts:

Yarn bombing is affirmed as a public good only inasmuch as it is the exceptional expression of the revolutionary potential of graffiti safeguarded through the provincial sensibilities of Western, middle class whiteness. In this way, discourses and practices surrounding yarn bombing work to reshape the rebellious qualities of graffiti by reconfiguring this subversive art’s cultural modalities

The tagging practices of the yarn bombing community, while sometimes innocuous, frequently represent a kind of “hipster racism,” replete with cultural appropriation and powered by an aesthetics of exceptionalism. Yarn bombers frequently tag their works with laminated notecards.. a significant portion tag their works with names that connote black, urban figures. For example, the Knotorious N.I.T., P-Knitty, and Micro-Fiber Militia all re-use names associated with black rappers from New York City. Brooklyn Sock Mafia, Richmond Craft Mafia, FemiKnit Mafia, and Memphis Knit Mafia are tonguein-cheek titles that ironically proclaim the crew is a violent gang that performs cuddly artistic interventions. The most egregious of these tags is the name for the internationally celebrated mother of yarn bombing, Magda Sayeg. Trading on the popularity of a phrase known variously as a song by Jay-Z, an album by Ol’ Dirty *******, and a black colloquialism, Sayeg’s tag, “Knitta, please,” is merely the worst of numerous related examples of noxious cultural appropriation.

the exceptionalist position of yarn bombing aesthetics works by suggesting a revolutionary event is possible while impeding that very intervention. In part, the articulation between femininity and the politics of class and capital prohibit such an occasion. By intermingling the gendered and sexualized politics of yarn bombing with the modalities of class and capital, this exceptionalist aesthetic fortifies the attachments of the status quo...

... the aesthetic values of Western, feminine domesticity assume a global status that exports a particular notion of class to heterogeneous locales. In this articulation of the middle class, the time and space of the suburban, family home is contrasted to the cold surfaces of the city. Yarn graffiti’s subversive potential is imbricated in layering domestic style over the sterile, urban scene. Such articulations shore up the exceptional privilege of yarn bombing. In contrast to the supposedly degrading urban environment, yarn bombing is positioned as valuable given its associations with the middle class and the soothing aesthetic delights of the suburban home.



So, are yarn bombers hipster racists who are guilty of classism and cultural appropriation?

I blame the white patriarchy for these abominations!

 

[Curious George]

So was Hitler

LOL. What exactly does that have to do with the topic. Did Hitler reform any art? Is Hitler's art in question?

 

[Augustus]

LOL. What exactly does that have to do with the topic. Did Hitler reform any art? Is Hitler's art in question?

As well as being a giant racist like all yarn bombers, he used to annoy Rommel by covering his tanks with knitwear.

 

[Curious George]

As well as being a giant racist like all yarn bombers, he used to annoy Rommel by covering his tanks with knitwear.

If Hitler had done that then he would have indeed been an innovative artist.

There might be Yarn bombers who are racist, but yarn bombing is not cultural appropriation or racist.

 

[Revoltingest]

If Hitler had done that then he would have indeed been an innovative artist.

There might be Yarn bombers who are racist, but yarn bombing is not cultural appropriation or racist.

Just look at the kind of women who knit.....

Notice how they're all white?
Notice how they smirk with the knowledge of cultural appropriation?
Notice how only women are forced to knit?

 

[Augustus]

Notice how they're all white?
Notice how they smirk with the knowledge of cultural appropriation?

The emergence of yarn bombing is in no small way related to the cultural capital of privileged classes. Knitting and crocheting are hobbies that both require ability and the capacity to indulge long stretches of time and pricy materials. Within the current milieu, the leisure time and expendable income necessary to yarn crafts are firmly available to privileged classes.

Those 1%er harlots are flaunting their privilege. Next time you see a granny knitting know as soon as your back is turned she'll be walking around like this:

Notice how only women are forced to knit?

Actually it is an emancipatory action enabling oppressed women to transcend 'masculinised time and space':

As with Stewart, discourses about yarn bombing commonly produce the womanly body as the creator of the craft—the same articulation that suggests women are freed from the drudgery of the domestic and the prison of masculinized time and space through the pleasures of knitted works....

(still can't believe this isn't a parody)

 

[Revoltingest]

The emergence of yarn bombing is in no small way related to the cultural capital of privileged classes. Knitting and crocheting are hobbies that both require ability and the capacity to indulge long stretches of time and pricy materials. Within the current milieu, the leisure time and expendable income necessary to yarn crafts are firmly available to privileged classes.

Those 1%er harlots are flaunting their privilege. Next time you see a granny knitting know as soon as your back is turned she'll be walking around like this:

Actually it is an emancipatory action enabling oppressed women to transcend 'masculinised time and space':

As with Stewart, discourses about yarn bombing commonly produce the womanly body as the creator of the craft—the same articulation that suggests women are freed from the drudgery of the domestic and the prison of masculinized time and space through the pleasures of knitted works....

(still can't believe this isn't a parody)

I had to check to see that the linked site wasn't the "Landover Journal Of Communication & Critical/Cultural & Studies".

 

[Stanyon]

LOL. What exactly does that have to do with the topic. Did Hitler reform any art? Is Hitler's art in question?

Hitler did try to reform art, the "art" of the time in Germany had been poisoned by the filth of bolshevist ideas that glorified perversion and ugliness rather than decency and beauty. If only the bolshevist vipers understood how their venom poisoned the soul of the fatherland maybe they would have cut back a little, understanding that individualism is not as important as the greater needs of society as a whole.

 

[A Vestigial Mote]

Ridiculous. One of the worst parts of the article is the blatant hypocrisy. Claiming racism and minority persecution - pointing to a supposed marginalizing of real struggles laced in stereotypes, etc. - and all the while they hold the stereotypical opinion in the very same article that it must have been white people who did this... and that it must have been housewife types - 'cause OBVIOUSLY those are the only people who could possibly take interest in knitting, right?

Here it is, plain as day:

... the aesthetic values of Western, feminine domesticity assume a global status that exports a particular notion of class to heterogeneous locales.

Note how they tried to dress up their own stereotyping and race/class assumptions in fancy language, but they have no leg to stand on. They are as bad as those whose methods they decry - which aren't even really the people who do this "yarn bombing." By pointing these people out as the "real enemy" they are only marginalizing their own cause.

 

[Revoltingest]

Note how they tried to dress up their own stereotyping and race/class assumptions in fancy language, but they have no leg to stand on. They are as bad as those whose methods they decry - which aren't even really the people who do this "yarn bombing." By pointing these people out as the "real enemy" they are only marginalizing their own cause.

Reminds me of the old saying regarding academia & posers...
"If you can't dazzle them with brilliance, baffle them with bulls**t."

 

[Curious George]

Hitler did try to reform art, the "art" of the time in Germany had been poisoned by the filth of bolshevist ideas that glorified perversion and ugliness rather than decency and beauty. If only the bolshevist vipers understood how their venom poisoned the soul of the fatherland maybe they would have cut back a little, understanding that individualism is not as important as the greater needs of society as a whole.

What? From where is this coming?

 

[Augustus]

What? From where is this coming?

 

[columbus]

I love yarn bombing! I have considered learning to knit, just so I could participate.

My local art co-op holds an annual event, Sweaters for Trees. People or groups pick a downtown tree and knit a sweater for it the month of February.
The first year we had a half dozen. They were popular, the next year a couple of dozen. We caught flack because homeless people needed clothes and here we were dressing trees. The third year we added a popular vote. People voted for their favorite, a dollar a vote, proceeds benefitting the homeless shelter. Ballot stuffing was strongly recommended and we typically raise about a thousand bucks a year.

I now feel the need to make a hooded white robe for a tree. Too bad it's too late for this year.
Tom

 

[YmirGF]

I follow an account on twitter called New Real Peer Review which compiles some of the most ridiculous articles published in genuine scholarly journals. It is very funny and highly recommended (although slightly disconcerting that this **** actually gets published as scholarship).

Today they published something from the academic journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, called 'Yarn Bombing and the Aesthetics of Exceptionalism'.

Yarn bombing is putting knitting on public stuff for fun, but apparently this is a sign of racist/classist white supremacy.

Some excerpts:

Yarn bombing is affirmed as a public good only inasmuch as it is the exceptional expression of the revolutionary potential of graffiti safeguarded through the provincial sensibilities of Western, middle class whiteness. In this way, discourses and practices surrounding yarn bombing work to reshape the rebellious qualities of graffiti by reconfiguring this subversive art’s cultural modalities

The tagging practices of the yarn bombing community, while sometimes innocuous, frequently represent a kind of “hipster racism,” replete with cultural appropriation and powered by an aesthetics of exceptionalism. Yarn bombers frequently tag their works with laminated notecards.. a significant portion tag their works with names that connote black, urban figures. For example, the Knotorious N.I.T., P-Knitty, and Micro-Fiber Militia all re-use names associated with black rappers from New York City. Brooklyn Sock Mafia, Richmond Craft Mafia, FemiKnit Mafia, and Memphis Knit Mafia are tonguein-cheek titles that ironically proclaim the crew is a violent gang that performs cuddly artistic interventions. The most egregious of these tags is the name for the internationally celebrated mother of yarn bombing, Magda Sayeg. Trading on the popularity of a phrase known variously as a song by Jay-Z, an album by Ol’ Dirty *******, and a black colloquialism, Sayeg’s tag, “Knitta, please,” is merely the worst of numerous related examples of noxious cultural appropriation.

the exceptionalist position of yarn bombing aesthetics works by suggesting a revolutionary event is possible while impeding that very intervention. In part, the articulation between femininity and the politics of class and capital prohibit such an occasion. By intermingling the gendered and sexualized politics of yarn bombing with the modalities of class and capital, this exceptionalist aesthetic fortifies the attachments of the status quo...

... the aesthetic values of Western, feminine domesticity assume a global status that exports a particular notion of class to heterogeneous locales. In this articulation of the middle class, the time and space of the suburban, family home is contrasted to the cold surfaces of the city. Yarn graffiti’s subversive potential is imbricated in layering domestic style over the sterile, urban scene. Such articulations shore up the exceptional privilege of yarn bombing. In contrast to the supposedly degrading urban environment, yarn bombing is positioned as valuable given its associations with the middle class and the soothing aesthetic delights of the suburban home.



So, are yarn bombers hipster racists who are guilty of classism and cultural appropriation?

Welcome to the intellectual cancer known as Intersectionality.

 

[Epic Beard Man]

I follow an account on twitter called New Real Peer Review which compiles some of the most ridiculous articles published in genuine scholarly journals. It is very funny and highly recommended (although slightly disconcerting that this **** actually gets published as scholarship).

Today they published something from the academic journal Communication and Critical/Cultural Studies, called 'Yarn Bombing and the Aesthetics of Exceptionalism'.

Yarn bombing is putting knitting on public stuff for fun, but apparently this is a sign of racist/classist white supremacy.

Some excerpts:

Yarn bombing is affirmed as a public good only inasmuch as it is the exceptional expression of the revolutionary potential of graffiti safeguarded through the provincial sensibilities of Western, middle class whiteness. In this way, discourses and practices surrounding yarn bombing work to reshape the rebellious qualities of graffiti by reconfiguring this subversive art’s cultural modalities

The tagging practices of the yarn bombing community, while sometimes innocuous, frequently represent a kind of “hipster racism,” replete with cultural appropriation and powered by an aesthetics of exceptionalism. Yarn bombers frequently tag their works with laminated notecards.. a significant portion tag their works with names that connote black, urban figures. For example, the Knotorious N.I.T., P-Knitty, and Micro-Fiber Militia all re-use names associated with black rappers from New York City. Brooklyn Sock Mafia, Richmond Craft Mafia, FemiKnit Mafia, and Memphis Knit Mafia are tonguein-cheek titles that ironically proclaim the crew is a violent gang that performs cuddly artistic interventions. The most egregious of these tags is the name for the internationally celebrated mother of yarn bombing, Magda Sayeg. Trading on the popularity of a phrase known variously as a song by Jay-Z, an album by Ol’ Dirty *******, and a black colloquialism, Sayeg’s tag, “Knitta, please,” is merely the worst of numerous related examples of noxious cultural appropriation.

the exceptionalist position of yarn bombing aesthetics works by suggesting a revolutionary event is possible while impeding that very intervention. In part, the articulation between femininity and the politics of class and capital prohibit such an occasion. By intermingling the gendered and sexualized politics of yarn bombing with the modalities of class and capital, this exceptionalist aesthetic fortifies the attachments of the status quo...

... the aesthetic values of Western, feminine domesticity assume a global status that exports a particular notion of class to heterogeneous locales. In this articulation of the middle class, the time and space of the suburban, family home is contrasted to the cold surfaces of the city. Yarn graffiti’s subversive potential is imbricated in layering domestic style over the sterile, urban scene. Such articulations shore up the exceptional privilege of yarn bombing. In contrast to the supposedly degrading urban environment, yarn bombing is positioned as valuable given its associations with the middle class and the soothing aesthetic delights of the suburban home.



So, are yarn bombers hipster racists who are guilty of classism and cultural appropriation?

KNITTA PLEASE!!!!!!

On a serious note I personally don't take offense to it because it is quite hilarious and stupid at the same time. I'd have to read the actual research article to get a gist of the whole thing.

 

[Epic Beard Man]

I cannot get the whole article as it is one of those pay to read research engines. Unless I can read the whole article many people here are going to comment based on their limited understanding. BTW I'm a graduate student in social work so that is all we do is read research articles, excerpts do not tell the entire story.

 

[Revoltingest]

I love yarn bombing! I have considered learning to knit, just so I could participate.

My local art co-op holds an annual event, Sweaters for Trees. People or groups pick a downtown tree and knit a sweater for it the month of February.
The first year we had a half dozen. They were popular, the next year a couple of dozen. We caught flack because homeless people needed clothes and here we were dressing trees. The third year we added a popular vote. People voted for their favorite, a dollar a vote, proceeds benefitting the homeless shelter. Ballot stuffing was strongly recommended and we typically raise about a thousand bucks a year.

I now feel the need to make a hooded white robe for a tree. Too bad it's too late for this year.
Tom

After reading the linked scholarly work in the OP, I hope
that you now feel deep shame for your heinous acts.