Walking Down Memory Lane
I have been walking down memory lane lately – you can totally blame Facebook for that. Each day they show me what I have been doing on this day in the past 5 years since I joined the devil which shall not be named but sucks up my time – ahem. In any case yesterday it burped up my post about diversity in the quilt world and got me thinking. Here it is a year later and where are we?
Are We There Yet?
Have we made even the smallest bit of progress at becoming the group of people we can be? To letting the world know how diverse we really are and how spec-fucking-tacular so many of the people in this industry are? Are we being active in inviting men, and punks, and youths, and those who are gay or trans or disabled or just don’t fit the mold… are we doing anything to invite them into our world? Or at the very least are we not leaving them out with our actions, our words or more?
Drawing A Blank
I am thinking hard here and I am not coming up with much of anything in the past year that makes me think that the world as a whole knows enough about us to even think that we are more than the woman that commercial mass marketing wants them to see. If you know of something please share in the comments.
Consulting The Magic 8-Ball
For kicks I consulted the all knowing Goggle and used the first hit when typing in the word quilter in image search.
And while I am sure this sweet woman is totally delightful she does not represent the diversity of our craft and yet she is the first hit … this is what the non-quilting world thinks of us.
Time to Shine
In my previous post I talked about ways to help so you can check those out as you also consider that your very actions make you the very best ambassador for quilting. By letting people know that you quilt you change their perception of the art and what it can be.
If you are in a place of influence make sure that your guild/group/store is clear on their website that EVERYONE is welcome. Heck, steal my diversity image or make your own and slap it up on your page so that it is clear that the hesitant guest will find themselves welcome.
Be clear on your blog page ( should you happen to have one) that you support diversity in quilting.
On my part I think I am going to create a pin to wear to all my quilting functions that helps my weird light of inclusion and diversity shine bright. Which of course made me think of this little poster. Shine on people, shine on!
