In the wake of the exposure of movie producer Harvey Weinstein’s long history of sexual harassment, women have taken to social media to share other stories of sexual harassment, often under the hashtag #MeToo. One image that has gone viral in association with these posts comes from the Badass Cross Stitch Instagram account.
This fabulous account belongs to Shannon Downey, who calls herself a “craftivist” and declares “The resistance will be stitched!” Her website explains further, saying that her work is meant to “inspire, enable, encourage, push boundaries, change shit, and engage.” Naturally, I’m obsessed.
I was also interested to see what Downey went through in the past week, as her design popped up everywhere with no credit attached, especially after a number of white, male celebrities shared it. Downey wasn’t having it, as she explains in this Instagram post.
Her point that her medium of cross stitch doesn’t get respect as an art because it’s “women’s work” reminded me of the jewelry exhibit I saw in Paris that dealt with the way jewelry is similarly dismissed. That makes me extra happy that Downey didn’t stand for being denied credit. Instead she received apologies and had meaningful conversations with some of the people who shared her work.
She’s now selling t-shirts, phone cases and other items, with all proceeds going to the nonprofit she works for, Advancing Justice Chicago. Go shopping here, and don’t forget to follow the Badass Cross Stitch Instagram account. I’m especially into this barbed wire design.
Shout out to Vogue for doing this story on Downey. That was the first time I saw the proper credit!
UPDATED TUESDAY, OCT. 17, TO ADD: Speaking of giving credit, journalist Britni Danielle pointed out that the “Me Too” hashtag — which went viral after actress Alyssa Milano tweeted it — was actually started by a black woman named Tarana Burke 10 years ago. Of course, this is far from the first time that black women have worked for years on a project only to see it get “whitewashed.” In an interview with Ebony, Burke said:
“In this instance, the celebrities who popularized the hashtag didn’t take a moment to see if there was work already being done, but they also were trying to make a larger point. I don’t fault them for that part, I don’t think it was intentional but somehow sisters still managed to get diminished or erased in these situations.”
Go to metoo.support to find out more about Burke’s work.