Queering the Subversive Stitch: Men and the Culture of Needlework

by Joseph McBrinn

In Queering the Subversive Stitch, Joseph McBrinn uses Queer Theory to address the history of men's relationship with needlecrafts, to 'queer' the narratives and contest widely-held assumptions that perpetuate misogynistic and homophobic ideas.

Thirty years after Rozsika Parker published her seminal work on embroidery and the making of the feminine, McBrinn argues that, in fact, men have engaged with needlework throughout history, yet such activities have become stigmatized over the past two hundred years, even shameful. As a result, needlework can be - and often is - used by men as a means of deviance and subversion, many historical and contemporary examples of which are explored in this book. From Ernest Thesiger's public embroidering that shocked society in interwar London, to David Wojnarowicz sewing his mouth shut in 1980s New York to draw attention to the censorship of gay artists and art about AIDS, McBrinn illustrates the importance of needlework produced by men in understanding history, identity, emotions and agency.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Queer, Art, Historical, Knitting

224 pages, Hardcover

Published January 28, 2021

Reviews

[Rachel Pollock · Rating 5 out of 5]

I was absolutely thrilled to receive a review copy of Joseph McBrinn's new book, Queering the Subversive Stitch: Men & the Culture of Needlework, published by Bloomsbury.

McBrinn excavates the history of needlework, embroidery, knitting, and other textile arts in Western cultures, seeking evidence of male practitioners. In antiquity, garment work and needlecrafts were not so starkly gendered as they became under Victorian societal judgements.

No one will be surprised that this book illuminates how hypermasculine sensibilities have conflated needlecrafts and fiber arts with femininity to the detriment of both female and male artists/artisans working in the medium. Scholarly, well-researched, academic in tone--read it if you want to get pissed off and cross-stitch a bunch of revolutionary samplers.

Queering the Subversive Stitch features full-color illustrations of embroidery examples, photographs, and more.

[Letizia · Rating 1 out of 5]

Rozsika Parker: "le donne sono sempre state soggiogate dagli uomini e la loro esperienza completamente sminuita, anche nei lavori tessili"

Joseph McBrinn: "SÌ MA ANCHE GLI UOMINI RICAMAVANO"

ok

[Linda Moore · Rating 3 out of 5]

Very mixed feelings about this book in the end. It’s beginnings are murky and difficult to read. It seems to present a desire to analyze male stitchery that predates needlework’s association with and confinement to femininity, but research in this direction is quickly usurped by the author’s documentation of later associations of stitching with dangers to masculinity. Little coverage is given to the professionalism of male stitching into guilds or male stitching associated with the church. It hits its stride presenting some prominent stitching artists of the early 21st century, then closes by criticizing the paltry coverage given by other authors of the very theme —pre-Victorian stitching by men, that it fails to explore. McBrinn is taking the subversive history of embroidery in an important direction here, but I will be hoping to find more satisfaction in his other work.

[Beau Brannick · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this book so interesting and a great alternative/accompanying read to The Subversive Stitch by Rozsika Parker.

I particularly enjoyed reading more on Ernest Thesiger, a personal favourite of mine and works around the AIDS crisis including the AIDS Memorial Quilt.

[Alejandro Nanga · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh… I was not expecting this to be more of a coffee table book