The Women’s March on Washington has an unofficial outfit – a pink knitted Pussy Hat with pointy cat ears. The PussyHat Project was formed to provide marchers with “a unique collective visual statement.”
Founders Krista Suh and Jayna Zweiman, a screenwriter and architect, respectively, are encouraging crafters to knit one or many copies of the simple rectangular “Pussy Power Hat” design. The project is also providing downloadable patterns for crocheters and people who sew to make similar hats. People are urged to mail the hats to the project for distribution at the march, or bring them along.
The site has a hat registry, and a Hat Tracker where the average registrant is making approximately eight hats. The goal is 1.7 million hats, but there is no official count available.
Yes, the project’s Mission Statement says, “pussy” is also a derogatory term for female genitalia. The goal is to reclaim the word and make it a symbol of empowerment.
Project is not without controversy
The word and the project is not without controversy. Writing in Slate, Christina Cauterucci notes:
“The best part of the hat project might be its connection to the tradition of craftivism, an art form that uses conventionally feminine crafts (needlepoint, knitting, quilting, and the like) in subversive acts of protest. Some people knit pink blankets for World War II tanks. Some cross-stitch banners against mass incarceration. Some crochet hats that look like cat ears … to wear at a march for women’s rights. Taking a domestic craft and turning it into a symbol against misogyny makes a more powerful statement than any connection to pink or pussies.”
So far, the organizers say, knitters range in age from seven to 99, and they estimate that some 200,000 hats have been made.
Suh and Zweiman told Catherine Pearson at The Huffington Post that they “believe the project has struck a nerve because knitting is at once meditative and communal, giving women and men time to, say, reflect on what’s at stake for women’s health under a Trump/Pence administration and to connect with others in yarn shops and in classes.”
Code Pink ought to seize the day and market the PussyHat — pay each knitter $10 a hat and sell them for $15. I’d buy several.
Before the march, people on Etsy were selling them for $35 and $40, but couldn’t guarantee that they’d arrive in time for the march. There surely is a market for them.