編織是女性的活動？（一）
Fabric craft is a women’s hobby?
Part 1

相信不少人對編織也有既定的刻板印象。但其實編織和女性的密切關聯並不是由一開始就有。

雖然編織的由來沒有一個準確的記錄，但是原來編織出奇地有很大機會是由男性開始(Rutt, 1987)。原因是因為以前出海的多數是男性，由於這麼長的海上生活，推斷他們需要自行製作魚網和保暖衣物。從而相信編織就是由這些技術衍生出來的。

亦不得不提14世紀的一幅名畫，可能是這個刻板印象的小開始。這幅名畫描繪了聖母瑪利亞編織的形象(Wills, 2007)。說明了編織是當時女性在家中的活動之一。

在工業革命之前，編織可算是男性的一項努力。 在第二次世界大戰期間，不分男女很多人也為了支持軍隊的戰爭而編織(Lloyd, 2007)。

In Hong Kong, many of us have this stereotype on fabric craft. But fabric craft and female is not correlated from the very beginning.

Although the history of fabric craft is foggy, it was possibly started by the male fishermen (Rutt, 1987). Due to the need for fishing nets and the long shipping time, they may need to make their fishing net and the clothes. This is why fabric craft could be modified from these needlework techniques.



Throwing back to the 14 century, the small starting point of this phenomenon. There was a famous drawing that depicted Jesus’s mother Mary was knitting (Wills, 2007). Although it is a movement of placing the Holy family in a domestic setting, it told us that fabric crafting was an activity that women did at home at that time.

Before the industrial revolution, knitting was a male endeavour. While during WW2, many men were knitting for supporting the war effort of armies (Lloyd, 2007).