Knitting backlash?

Someone on the Knitlist posted a link to this Charlotte Observer article. In it, a columnist goes all snippy about the "trend" of knitting and other handcrafts - she seems to think it's either a move by women to bury their heads in the sand, or even more insiduously, somehow a move to get women back barefoot, pregnant, and in the home.

No one is forcing these women to knit, and I dare say, many knitters would be the first to raise weapons (their needles) if a "Handmaid's Tale" society began establishing itself.

ack ptui. I knit not to bury my head in the sand. I am too aware that the world we live in is far from perfect and filled with people who give in to their evil impulses. For me, knitting is like meditation - or prayer - or talking it out with loved ones - in that it allows me to better cope with the situations at hand. I am not avoiding, I am dealing.

for gosh sakes, what is so horrid and backwards about allowing yourself a few moments out of the world, allowing yourself quiet and an opportunity for your mind to rest on something other than the constant struggles and sorrows we face on this earth? If I spent my whole life contemplating the bad things of the world, I would either go mad or I would become the sourest, meanest woman on earth.

I dare this columnist to write a similar column about meditation or religious faith as a coping strategy. Because for me, that's what my knitting is - an adjunct to prayer and meditation (and exercise, and taking care of myself, and gardening, and talking to people I care about) in my attempt to make it through life being as sane as possible and as kind as possible.