If you insist on knitting during faculty meeting, then understand that a (significant, depending on institution) portion of the rest of the faculty is silently judging you (and, depending on institution, likely the rest of the female faculty).
Those "knitting circle" comments? Not intended to be a compliment.
7 comments:
Grrrrr.....
Knitting in meetings helps to keep me sane and stops me making sarcastic, ill-judged comments. You would REALLY prefer not to have me present without my knitting!
Knitting keeps my hands busy, my mind would be quite free to follow the discussion...
Meeting rule #1
If you insist on having boobs during a meeting in any context in a society so mired in patriarchy, then understand that a (significant, depending on the gender ratio) portion of the people are silently (or not so silently) judging you (and, depending on the context, likely the rest of em-boobed individuals).
Those looks about how fashionable things are, or how much prettier the group is to look at now? Not intended to be a compliment.
i'm sure i'll get hater comments, but as a student, i'm judging you knitting students in seminar. i'm also judging the students playing with their smart phones and the ones who never figured out "silent mode" on their not-so-smart phones.
If you are at an institution that is cool with knitting at faculty meetings, I am genuinely happy for you! Seriously!
But I stand by my post: in my experience, knitting is not perceived to be an acceptable activity. Otherwise we would all grade / play on our phones / knit during meetings.
And people (men AND women) will judge you for it.
There are two issues here. 1) Whether or not it is acceptable to be distracted at a meeting or seminar. 2) How knitting is perceived as an activity for women.
Re: point the first: To a non-knitter, it may seem that knitting demands intense brainpower. To an experienced knitter, it simply does not. Knitting is pretty much the same as doodling, just much more conspicuous. It's certainly not in the same vein as answering emails on a smartphone. If this is what you are concerned about with knitting, try having a conversation with the knitter to see if she seems distracted while knitting.
Re: point the second: yes, knitting is seen as a women's activity. One to be looked down on, often by other women, along the same lines as wearing pink (and just as noticeable). If THIS is the problem you are talking about, Becca is spot-on. The knitting circle comments are almost certainly relating to this point, sadly. But the male profs with the smartphones during seminars and faculty meetings? Meh, no one seems offended enough by that to comment.
The big frustration for me is that people DO use their smartphones, grade, mark up papers, edit, referee and otherwise take their BRAINS away from the meeting. Others doodle, which takes the HANDS away from the meeting, which seems far more aceptable to me. Maybe I should bring in some manly whittling?
I should add that I have an anxiety disorder, I cope badly with being stuck in a roomful of people most of whom are busy showing off how clever they are, and I did ask permission from the meeting chair etc. before I began bringing some craftwork in (doodling doesn't do it for me - for some reason, if I'm stressed or angry and try to distract myself by doodling I start drawing angry/stressed things and that makes it worse - knitting doesn't cause leaks).
Oh yeah, on having boobs generally? I went to lunch at the canteen, where several of my colleagues go every day, with a female colleague to discuss a programme we both work on. We were called the 'ladies who lunch; for the next month, and no-one thought that was a problem. Knitting circle comments are equally sexist, imho.
At least I DO get to knit sometimes!
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