Media and Communication Ph.D. Dissertations
Title
I Knit Therefore I Am: An Ethnomethodological Study of Knitting as Constitutive of Gendered Identity
Date of Award
2006
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.)
Department
Communication Studies
First Advisor
John Warren (Advisor)
Abstract
This study examines the ways in which gender is constituted through everyday performances, with a specific focus on knitting. Because knitting has a feminine connotation in the United States, female and male knitters have much different experiences when engaging in this activity and as such, knitting influences the ways that they negotiate their performance of gender in varying ways. Through the theoretical lenses of ethnomethodology and critical gender and communication research, I use autoethnography to investigate my own experience with knitting as a gendering activity; I also use in-depth interviewing to gain insight from five male knitters about how they understand knitting in ways that reify and resist cultural norms. The study suggests that gender performance is a constant negotiation to establish believability or proficiency as masculine/feminine, rather than a static performance that either meets or does not meet the cultural norm of masculine/feminine. The study also offers insight into the often overlooked ways that we transgress gendered norms in our everyday lives.
Recommended Citation
Medford, Kristina M., "I Knit Therefore I Am: An Ethnomethodological Study of Knitting as Constitutive of Gendered Identity" (2006). Media and Communication Ph.D. Dissertations. 83.
https://scholarworks.bgsu.edu/media_comm_diss/83