Just a quick post to show you an article in our morning paper, the Tacoma News Tribune. It’s a short biographical piece about a 91-year old woman who sounds like a real hoot. The first paragraph, however, refers to her by saying “Hull, a lively and sometimes mischievous woman, isn’t your average knitting grandma“.
Hmmph. I’m neither average nor a grandma, and neither are many of you. I’m in the process of drafting an email to the reporter to let her know that there are many of us who don’t fit her stereotype. I suppose I shouldn’t get worked up about these things, it’s probably a sign that I’m avoiding dredging out my office before all the visiting relatives get here tomorrow.
Here’s the link. The woman that she profiles in the article looks like a good role-model for women getting older.
I’m off to clear a path through the maze.
Edited:
I did send an email to the reporter. She promptly replied, with an apology for the stereotyping. It turns out she’s also a knitter, it just never occurred to her that the “knitting grandma” thing might bug some crazy menopausal woman. I invited her to our weekly knitting group, she said she’d come, and there you go. So don’t send her any hate mail!
(grumble) Stupid stereotype . . .
“Crazy menopausal woman” I’m sorry, but that made me laugh! (And I’m one too…)
Hmm – I am a grandma, and a knitting one, but I do like to think of myself as slightly above average.
I see that line all the time in knitting articles, and am beginning to think it’s not only a stereotype, but also a sign of lazy writing. Glad to see you got such a nice response, though.
Just goes to show, we never know when we’ll meet a new friend! How funny you adopted a bunny named Chester, it’s one of my childhood nicknames!
I’m no grandma… but am certainly old enough… and defi-knitly above average.
glad you wrote the reporter
cool! not every day that an e-mail complaint gets turned into an invite…if there was any doubt, you are definitely above average in my book.
We really should be used to the stereotypes by now, shouldn’t we?
The best one (for me) was when my fiance (boyfriend at the time) was asked how he feels having such an old fashioned girlfriend!!!
Cool!!
It’s funny. I have a mixed reaction to that. I mean, stereotypes doesn’t exist out of thin air. For every group of people held to stereotypes, there are members within that group that FIT that stereotype and perpetuate it. I mean, *my* grandma was the typical knitting/crocheting grandma. BUT, for everyone of us who DO fit the stereotype, there are SCADS of us who don’t. And all that said, it bugs the crap out of me when I tell someone I knit and they ask me if I have a cat or if I make toilet paper coozies or anything remotely like that. (I do have a cat, but that’s entirely BESIDES the point)
ugh.
LOL.
You’re definnately not average, lady 🙂
I got irked at the NY Times some weeks ago because they had a magazine article about marketing TV to “middle aged” viewers, and the TV looked like a ball of yarn with two needles sticking out. Apparently this was some commercial artist’s interpretation of what we do in our old age. I pointed out in an email to the Magazine editor that I had been knitting since I was 13, and for most of my life I was not a middle-aged knitter (that honor has just been thrust upon me). I got no response. And some weeks later, there was another NY Times article on how “cool” kntting was because hip, young people are knitting. You can’t win. All you can do it keep knitting.
Good for you Lorette! I’m crazy but not yet menopausal and definitely not a grandma so those stereotypes need to stop!
See now I don’t mind the stereotype, but that might be because I long to be a 75 year old woman spending her days knitting away. Naked of course.
Ah, and another knitterly connection is formed!
I’m not crazy, not a granny but totally menopausal since age 33 so what stereotype do I fit 🙂
Honestly I don’t even think I’ve seen more than a few knitters over the age of 60 around much. Of course I don’t have an LYS so maybe that’s where they hang but of all the knitting groups I’ve attended the average age was about 35 or so so if this chick is a knitter she needs to get out more and see who’s really knitting!
Very funny. It will be a great story when you become fast friends. I actually say some of those stereotypical things about myself – “I’ve always been an old soul” or “I can strike up a conversation with just about anyone’s grandma” (but that last part may be because I adored my Grandma soooooo much!). I can hardly wait until my church knitting group starts up in the fall – those knitting grandma’s are such a hoot. I’ve never met a lovelier group of knitting tarts. They keep me in stitches. My goal is to become a knitting Grandma (or for that matter, just a knitting Octogenarian) just like them one day.
; )
I’m happy you could laugh and find a friend in the matter.
Hah! It’s amazing how easy it is for people to stereotype. Seriously, I think the average age of knitters is much younger, and the average hipness of knitters is much greater than the general public could possibly imagine. Are we a marginal segment of society?
I’m noticing how much looooooonnnnnnnnger those rows get every time you mention them. Sort of like a fisherman’s story! LOL