Bunting is the death of feminism

It is raining incessantly in Leeds. My son is at Cub camp in this deluge and probably having a fabulous time as only small, soggy boys can. We have had a quiet few weeks: I was ill and then he was at his Dad's so we haven't had the chance to have any adventures together.

Last night he was under canvas so I went out on Light Night Leeds to see art projects and happenings in the evening. It's a fabulous juxtaposition: lots of art fans filling the streets in coats and scarves next to drunken young things in tiny dresses and precipitous heels.

The main sites I visited were a medieval pageant at Millennium square



Alongside an art gallery in a tiny caravan



I also went into the Carriageworks community theatre which had a hilarious Art Shipping forecast which didn't lend itself to photography and a post-it note installation which I used as a suitable medium to propose to David Tennant, should he be passing.




At Leeds' imposing Victorian Town Hall there was an installation considering the way that disabled people are treated but which just reminded me of Pink Floyd








In the recently renovated cells below the Town Hall was a Craft Garden. The queue for this was immense but an impromptu ukelele and kazoo concert made it a pleasure



Inside the cells were items made by the Craft Club of Leeds: knitted cakes, bunting, lots of origami and made objects

















I have a difficult relationship with crafting and the modern obsession with Cath Kidston and bunting. Whilst I love the patterns I fear a subtext about redefining female as feminine and that we are headed back into the dangerous waters that Betty Friedan was writing about in 'The Feminine Mystique' in the 1950s. It seems to me that there's a move back to women being expected to 'homemake' and that this movement is sold as a fun pastime to be sold on Folksy and Etsy as Mumpreneurship. However, the implied requirement to be able to hold down a full time career, be a parent AND then to have a fulfilling home life that involves making tiny cupcakes and sewing bunting just sets even harder goals for women who already are knackered from the impossible task of balancing work and kids. But, y'know, it is pretty.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone