Pink cat-ear hats are sweeping nation
Women to wear them in marches
Pink cat-ear hats are becoming the latest fashion trend among women across the country. So much so that it’s sparked a run on pink yarn.
The sudden popularity in the shade is due to the Pussyhat Project, a national effort to flood the nation’s capital with women wearing pink cat-ear hats at the Women’s March on Washington, D.C., on Saturday.
The project’s goal is to make a visual statement on the first day of President-elect Donald Trump’s administration to show that women stand united when it comes to protecting their rights, said the project’s co-founder, Jayna Zweiman.
Many women are concerned that Trump will make good on campaign promises to repeal the Affordable Care Act, defund Planned Parenthood and appoint U.S. Supreme Court justices who are against abortion rights.
In response to the call to action, many crafters around the country are knitting, crocheting and sewing hats as quickly as they can to ensure those in Washington, D.C., and at sister marches in cities across the country have the pink hats to wear.
The goal is to deliver 1 million hats to Washington, D.C., for distribution at the march. Women are making them for themselves, for their sisters or daughters and even for strangers, before dropping them off at pickup points around the country. Any shade of pink is OK, but hot pink seems to be the most popular.
“I think it’s resonating a lot because we’re really saying that no matter who you are or where you are, you can be politically active,” said Zweiman, 38, of Los Angeles, who teamed up with her friend, 29year-old Krista Suh, to launch the project in late November.
As soon as the Women’s March on Washington was announced, Suh made plans to be there. But Zweiman is recovering from a concussion and can’t participate in person. They came up with a large-scale, national hat project to engage people — whether they’re marching or supporting someone else who is — and launched a website.
“It’s about the knitting, but it’s also about so much more,” Zweiman said. They used the term “pussyhat” for the project as a play on words referencing the way Trump bragged about groping unsuspecting women in a 2005 recording leaked during the presidential race.
“‘P----’ is a very charged word; I’m now very used to saying it, but it’s interesting to hear people talk about the word, and how they feel about the word.”