I’m a proud feminist. As I sit here at my computer in my running clothes listening to Maroon 5, I realize that many if not all of these things were closed to my grandmother and great-grandmother. Running was unacceptable for women in the US as late as the late 60s (have you heard of Kathrine Switzer? She’s one of my running heros). College was not an option for many women in the 50s, much less graduate school, and women are still closing the gender gap in academia.
And I’m not any “less” of a feminist because I have a thing for Adam Levine, like a woman who chooses to stay at home isn’t any less of a feminist for exercising her right to choose. I can listen to singers of soulful songs about heterosexual romantic relationships because of third wave feminism: it’s my choice. My mother’s generation could choose to work or stay at home, at least legally. I expect one day to choose to stay at home to take care of my children, and then choose to go back to work. Other women choose to stay home long enough to give birth, stay home permanently, or not have children at all. I hope that by the next generation, all of these options will be available to all women, and not only those lucky enough to have excellent health insurance and maternity leave options.
Modernity offers them more choices. They can work from home by blogging with ads, or selling patterns on their blogs, or making crafts to sell on Etsy and linking to them from their blogs. They can review items for pay on their blogs. They can network with other bloggers and create joint ventures—websites, brick-and-mortar businesses. There are many, many ways to make money from a blog that allow women to be flexible and do other things that are important to them: staying home with children, for instance.
On the other hand, there are plenty of good things about craft blogging that have nothing to do with money. Craft blogging is a creative outlet. It connects craft bloggers who may not have any crafty local friends with crafty people from around the country and the world. It gives some purpose when they’re taking care of children running amok. For others, it offers an escape from a busy work day. For others, it is both.
In fact, the survey I took last summer found that most women don’t make money from their craft blogs. Less than a third of craft bloggers surveyed—only 23%—make any money at all from blogging. 10% of craft bloggers make more than $50 from their blogs each month; 7% make less. 2.5% of craft bloggers don’t know how much money they make from their craft blogs (a few bloggers chose not to answer how much they made). Money is a priority of a very few; even if all 23% are trying to make more money, that leaves three-quarters of the craft blogging sample who haven’t tried to make any at all.
What makes this more interesting is that 71% of craft bloggers surveyed considered their blogs successful. There is zero correlation between money earned and success; craft bloggers measure their blogs in other ways. One blogger wrote the reason she thought her blog was successful was “I have regular readers who often leave very positive comments.” Another said “I enjoy doing it” and another wrote, “I have met many new people and communicate with them frequently.” Another blogger noted that it “helped [her] become more creative and set goals for knitting and writing.” “It provides me with a link to the crafty community and an avenue to share my creations and thoughts,” offered another.
A few themes come up over and over: enjoyment and encouragement. People reading and commenting is affirmation for many crafters to continue posting. The fact that they are contributing to a community seems to be a marker of success, more than getting money in return.
Though I believe craft blogging as an outlet for creativity and alternative income avenue is inherently feminist, I was surprised that craft bloggers didn’t mention this. No one surveyed said that they blog because they are feminist or because they feel this is part of a feminist movement. That doesn’t mean it’s not still feminist; however, I wonder if some craft bloggers would balk at this label. There are some traditionally-minded women who blog precisely for the reasons I mentioned above; craft blogging is a flexible hobby and/or job that allows you to work at home. If I were trying to find women who didn’t like to be called feminists, it seems to me they might be found here. This is ironic, because I had myself convinced that this population was going to be uniformly super-feminist.
This is tricky territory and I’m worried about stepping on anyone’s toes. I’m trying to articulate that there are some craft bloggers who would prefer to not be called “feminist”; I could be one-hundred percent wrong about this. I’m just curious. I asked A. Typical what she thought and she said that if I wanted to find out what crafters thought about feminism, I should have asked them.
Fair enough! What do you think?
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