Soap Box Minute: Back-off Pinterest Basher!

Earlier this week, my dear sweet husband forwarded me this article about my favorite website ever: Pinterest…and now, he probably wishes he never did! (For those of you who haven’t had the “pleasure” of reading this uninformative, nationally syndicated article from a female columnist at the Washington Post… feel free to pause and read it now so that you can insert your own adjective at each *)

Here are a few of my “favorite” excerpts… and necessary observations/rebuttals…
[Pinterest is] the photo scrapbook of hopes, dreams and desires for grown-ups, mostly those of the female persuasion. And that raises the question of whether it's actually a healthy thing for grown women to be spending time compiling a virtual hope chest.

A “virtual hope chest”??? I think it’s more like a virtual corkboard and recipe file. AND… Not everyone pins their “hopes and dreams” *lady. Sure, some of us pin (which is simply like a visual bookmark for those of you who aren’t pinners… yet!) ideas for our “dream house,” but (speaking for myself & my pin-loving friends) most of our pins are quite useful… recipes, craft projects, tutorials, fun kid ideas, potential hairstyles, etc. Think of it as dog-earring a magazine, but then being able to pull up a recipe on your phone or computer instead of digging out an old Southern Living.

Pinterest boards […] advertise only your hopes and dreams, the Stilton Gold style you aspire to, rather than the Velveeta life you live.

1. Velveeta??? YUCK! My life is sharp cheddar *lady! And I am proud of it!
2. We aren’t all “advertising” or pretending to be something we aren’t… why else would we pin craft projects that involve toilet paper tubes and noodles??? HELLO!


Pinterest revolves around the idealistic, stylized catalog scenes and magazine photos I have worked hard to ban from my life because they inevitably leave me feeling inadequate, messy, hideous and hopeless.

See previous rebuttal… and add to it… #3… my life is messy, but these “stylized scenes” have led me to try lots of new things from green cleaning products to homemade bread (much to the joy of my husband), most of which turned out very well, thank you very much!


And my absolute “favorite…
It's so crafty and girly, I can almost wonder if it's part of a sinister plot - aligned with the attack on Planned Parenthood, Girl Scouts and access to contraception - to enmesh women in yarn craft and divert them from political action. Back to the kitchen and crafting table, ladies!


Ok, that’s it! You’ve gone too far *lady! How in the world did you take a fantastic interweb tool and turn it into a “sinister plot” aimed at demeaning women???? I marvel at your feministic logic. HOWEVER… what’s wrong with being in the kitchen? And you can just back-up-off yarn craft! (or any craft for that matter!) In all seriousness, what’s so terrible about women who like to cook and craft? My crafty mommy friends and I don’t go around bashing insulting Washington Post writers or any other women who do not share the same interests as we do, so why must you *lady rare your *head at those of us who choose to Pin our recipes and projects, making them readily accessible and sharing them with our friends who might also find these things helpful… and dare I say, fun?

Though in the end, the author decides pinterest isn’t so bad… I for one do not care for her snide, ultra-feminist, craft-bashing, stereotyping, uninformative remarks. So there! I will now step off the soap box… feel free to take a turn if you need to!