{"id":8114,"date":"2020-06-16T12:48:04","date_gmt":"2020-06-16T00:48:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=8114"},"modified":"2020-06-16T12:48:09","modified_gmt":"2020-06-16T00:48:09","slug":"when-my-masters-research-topic-became-headline-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thesislink.aut.ac.nz\/?p=8114","title":{"rendered":"When My Masters Research Topic Became Headline News"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

When I told my family that my postgraduate research was on the\ngendering of knitting over time and the language men who knit use to legitimize\ntheir presence in online knitting forums, their response was not \u2018that\u2019ll come\nin handy\u201d. In the last stages of writing up my findings, I began doubting its importance\nmyself. The topic almost felt insignificant in comparison with my day job\nworking in disability research and advocacy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My undergraduate degree in Linguistics had led me to AUT\u2019s\nMaster of English and New Media Studies programme, where I focussed on critical\ndiscourse analysis of social media comments. My research on men who knit\ninvolved me taking a deep dive into the gendered past of knitting and the\nremnants of these gendered ideologies surrounding knitting that are expressed\nthrough people\u2019s language today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After submitting my thesis, the last thing I expected was for\nthe topic of knitting and gender to dominate the day\u2019s news cycle. When National\nMP Paul Goldsmith stated a week ago that Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern should \u2018stick to\nher knitting\u2019, social media went into a frenzy. I realised I was that I was in\nthe best position to comment on the matter (especially as some of the media\ncommentary was quite confused), but how? The window closes pretty quickly on\npolitical news cycles so if, like me, you had your phone off while it was all\nunravelling, you may feel like you missed the mark.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took to Twitter, which was abuzz with contrasting opinions.\nSome felt that \u2018stick to your knitting\u2019 was merely a business metaphor and not\nat all gendered. Others argued that the phrase was sexist, demanding an\napology. So when ACT MP David Seymour expressed his outrage that Goldsmith was\nbeing criticised, stating “It’s not just women that knit”, I knew it\nwas my time. But the comment section of a conservative MP\u2019s social media\naccount wasn\u2019t the place for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I started my\nown Twitter thread<\/a>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"A<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

Starting by acknowledging the validity in both sides of the\nargument, I laid down a brief history of knitting to highlight its link to the ideological\nassumption that knitting is considered a feminine pursuit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I gave an account of hand knitting\u2019s early years, when men in\nthe late-1200s trained in the trade for six years before being accepted into\nprestigious knitting guilds, then contrasted this with the introduction of\nknitting machines in the late-1800s. Men at this time believed that women did\nnot have the physical strength needed to operate machinery and they were\ntherefore encouraged to pursue knitting as a hobby instead, in the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The phrase \u2018stick to your knitting\u2019 that got me sharing my\nresearch was not a part of the analysis but when the phrase hit the news, I dug\naround and found that it first appeared in texts around the late-1800s. This\nwas around the same time that society considered knitting as a hobby to be pursued\nby the \u2018weaker\u2019 sex, in the home.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Language evolves and meanings change. While that may have been\nthe view at the time, the phrase is used nowadays as either an insult or\nadvice, usually in a business context, to tell someone they should focus on\nwhat they are skilled in. I posted my thread about the gendering of knitting on\nTwitter  to emphasise the fact that\nalthough using the phrase \u2018stick to your knitting\u2019 may be intended as a\nharmless business metaphor, it also carries with it centuries of gendering\naround what tasks are acceptable for men or women to partake in. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u2018Stick to your knitting\u2019 is undeniably more than just a metaphor\nwhen used against a female Prime Minister discussing business issues. So, when\nI woke up the morning after posting this thread and found that my Twitter\nthread had gained momentum, I felt anxious that my usually quiet account would\nsee a surge in \u2018dudebro reckons\u2019. But I was overwhelmed by the positive\nfeedback and general appreciation for an evidence-based perspective.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The feeling that I had missed the opportunity to give my expert\nopinion early on in the controversy came from listening to a Radio New Zealand\ninterview with a Linguist from another university. He talked about possible\ninterpretations of the phrase and his hesitations in taking it literally, but\nhis suggestion that knitting began in the 1400s got me wishing I had put myself\nout there earlier. I quickly realised that even though I was \u2018only\u2019 a Master\u2019s\nstudent, I could have more knowledge on elements of my core topic than more\nestablished researchers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My advice for anyone who finds their area of research hitting\nthe news is not to hesitate in offering your expertise; people want to hear\nyour evidence-based knowledge. Don\u2019t let a delay stop you either. The news cycle\nmay have moved on, but the public still wants to hear from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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