History Main / TextileWorkIsFeminine

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': [[Characters/GravityFallsMabelPines Mabel Pines]] is very much a GirlyGirl and knitting cute, colorful sweaters is one of her hobbies. She can be seen periodically working on new sweaters throughout the series.

* ''WesternAnimation/AvatarTheLastAirbender'': In ''[[Recap/AvatarTheLastAirbenderTheWarriorsOfKyoshi The Warriors of Kyoshi]]'', Katara is mending a tear in Sokka's pants, but when he starts spouting sexist rhetoric about girls being better at sewing than boys, she puts on a contrary smile and throws the garment back in his face, unfinished.

* ''WesternAnimation/GravityFalls'': Mabel Pines is very much a GirlyGirl and knitting cute, colorful sweaters is one of her hobbies. She can be seen periodically working on new sweaters throughout the series.

** Rarity is considerably the most feminine of the mane 6. She designs and sews her own fashions.
** Even the second place for the most feminine, Fluttershy, turns out to have "freaky knowledge" about sewing.

* Averted in ''WesternAnimation/TheOwlHouse'', where the only two characters who are ever shown with an affinity for sewing are Darius and Hunter, neither of whom are ever treated as being unmanly for it. Then again, most forms of discrimination flat out don't exist on the Boiling Isles, so the idea of traditional gender roles is probably a foreign concept.

* PlayedWith in ''Literature/KingThrushbeard.'' After a haughty princess drives her noble suitors off with unnecessary mocking, her enraged father tells her that she'll marry the first man who visits the palace. It turns out to be a beggar, and the beggar himself is very reluctant to marry her because [[SurprisinglyRealisticOutcome he knows she's never worked before.]] Sure enough, she can't weave cloth or spin thread because it makes her hands bleed, so [[ProperlyParanoid her new husband complains at how useless she is.]]

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. There's a scene where cyborg girl Henrietta (who's treated like a kid sister by her handler) is sewing up her shirt in her dorm room, while Rico (whose handler gave her a man's name and treats her like a weapon) is GunStripping her pistol. Subverted in that Henrietta sewing up a [[ConditionedToAcceptHorror bullethole in her shirt after washing all the blood out]] after [[MadeOfIron being shot]].

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. There's a scene where cyborg girl Henrietta (who's treated like a kid sister by her handler) is sewing up her shirt in her dorm room, while Rico (whose handler gave her a man's name and treats her like a weapon) is GunStripping her pistol.

* Averted/inverted in certain parts of the Arab World and India: there, most of the process of making new clothes -- particularly weaving -- has always been men's work among city people; weavers generally made cloth for themselves as well as to sell; tailors would generally buy cloth from weavers to make their own clothes as well as taking a fee for mending clothes and making new garments out of cloth third parties had bought from weavers. However, laundry was still women's work, as were minor repairs. And in the countryside, duties shifted to the women (as the men had to tend to crops and livestock) -- although to what degree depended on how far away you were from town (a farmer relatively close to a fairly large urban center might purchase new cloth and clothing in town, but have his wife do repairs).

* ''Manga/GunslingerGirl''. There's a scene where Henrietta is sewing up her shirt in her dorm room, while Rico (another cyborg girl who's been given a man's name by her handler) is GunStripping her pistol.

* In many variants of tale type ATU 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom" (a subtype that pertains to the tale type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband", to which ''Myth/CupidAndPsyche'' belongs), after the heroine loses her enchanted/cursed husband, she travels to the houses of three old women or witches, where she is given spinning apparatuses (e.g., a spindle, a spinning wheel, a reel, a loom, or a sewing needle). The heroine reaches the kingdom where her husband is, where is also to be married to another woman, and takes out the spinning objects (either she uses them or simply takes them out for show).

* ''Literature/HarryPotter'': Mostly played straight, with Molly Weasley and Hermione Granger showing proficiency in magic-aided knitting, and Sybil Trelawney and [[https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Characters/HarryPotterHogwartsStaff Minerva McGonagall]] referenced as enjoying needlework. Certain male characters also participate, with Rubeus Hagrid shown knitting on the train to London in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher’s Stone]]'', and Albus Dumbledore saying that he enjoys knitting patterns in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheHalfBloodPrince Half-Blood Prince]]''.

* In Creator/WilliamShakespeare's ''The Rape of Lucrece'', Lucrece, following the legend, is spinning while other women are reveling.

-->'''Mr. Adler:''' Now, does anybody know ''why'' you're in shop class?
-->'''Stan:''' Because we had to choose between this and Home Ec, and we didn't wanna be sissies?

* Averted/inverted in certain parts of the Arab World and India: there, most of the process of making new clothes--particularly weaving--has always been men's work among city people; weavers generally made cloth for themselves as well as to sell; tailors would generally buy cloth from weavers to make their own clothes as well as taking a fee for mending clothes and making new garments out of cloth third parties had bought from weavers. However, laundry was still women's work, as were minor repairs. And in the countryside, duties shifted to the women (as the men had to tend to crops and livestock)--although to what degree depended on how far away you were from town (a farmer relatively close to a fairly large urban center might purchase new cloth and clothing in town, but have his wife do repairs).

* '{{Spinster}}s' were almost always women, and the modern use of the word to mean 'woman who has never been married' (with the implication she's reached an undesirable age) ''does'' derive from the fact that they were usually women who'd failed to marry and had to support themselves (and as single women had little legal status, they didn't have many options. It's also never seen as a surname as women couldn't pass on their names and spinsters would generally be childless anyway). The actual assembly of clothes, right up until the sewing machine in the late 19th century, usually depended on the gender the clothes were intended for- tailoring was a respected profession, but ladies wouldn't like to think a man had handled their 'smallclothes'! (and women of all walks of life made simple garments, like shirts, at home.) Furthermore, "Webster" -- also a common name -- means a specifically female weaver.

The art most frequently depicted is spinning, which is the most time-consuming, and also easily portable and interruptible. This makes spinning, along with other textile arts such as weaving and knitting, very compatible with childcare. With a distaff, a woman can spin with one hand, leaving the other available to aid with nursing. Once a child is past infancy, they can aid in the textile process as well by teasing fleece, carding, and once they reach an age at which they have control of their hands, in the spinning itself. This historical fact is why, until well into the 20th century, textile arts excepting the more labor-intensive activities (such as fulling flax, rope-making, weaving, etc.) were feminine by default. [[note]]This is of course complex, and depends on what area of the world we're talking about. In Middle Ages Northern Europe, especially in cities, weaving was a male occupation, organized in guilds.[[/note]] Beginning in the latter part of the 20th century, this convention faded steadily due to a combination of industrialization, the craft movement, and increasing gender equality.

The UsefulNotes/IndustrialRevolution was the TropeBreaker, slowly working down the tasks. Though early textile mills relied on a young female workforce, spinning and weaving were among the first things that automation took over. In [[TheFifties the 1950s]], the {{Housewife}} had a sewing machine. Since then, textile arts have seesawed between "cool hobby" (which is where they are now) to "fit only for [[NeedleworkIsForOldPeople old ladies]]" (which is where they were in [[TheEighties the 1980s]]). Naturally, since most writers are middle-aged and grew up in the 1980s, media directed at young males mostly perpetuates the inaccurate (and rather strange) idea that nobody knits anymore. Cue laughter from the 8.5 million users (2% of whom are guys) of Ravelry.

These days being a FashionDesigner is largely the replacement, though not without carrying over some stereotypes from this trope.

[[caption-width-right:279:[-An OlderThanDirt relief of a woman spinning. Note her dress, hairdo and elaborate hassock indicate she is upper class-] ]]

* ''LightNovel/InvadersOfTheRokujyouma'': The school's Knitting Club [[ClubStub consists solely of]] the DelicateAndSickly Harumi and male protagonist Koutarou, the latter of whom laments that people probably think he just joined to find a girlfriend. When Harumi's graduation approaches, Koutarou asks one of his female friends to join the club as a figurehead president, believing that first-year girls wouldn't want to join a Knitting Club run by a guy (especially not one with [[FaceOfAThug a face as scary as his]]).

** During the Roman kingdom, once the men bet about their wives, back at Rome, and return to find all of them but Lucretia were partying; she was weaving with her maids. (This was the point at which Sextus Tarquinius resolved to rape her, which drove [[BreakTheCutie poor Lucretia to kill herself]]). [[ThisMeansWar The citizens of Rome did not take that kindly.]]

* Subverted in ''Webcomic/HetaliaAxisPowers''. Among the girls, we see Ukraine with sewing implements... and it's only because her shirt's buttons popped out due to her GagBoobs and she needs to fix it. The one seen actively embroidering is England, a ''man''. (See the "Real Life" section for possible reasons). Additionally, Ukraine's younger brother Russia is seen knitting.

* Early on in ''LightNovel/HighSchoolDXD'', Issei is stressing out the night before a [[ItMakesSenseInContext very important dodgeball game]] and decides to calm his nerves by... embroidering headbands for his team. The girls on the team are shocked that Issei, a very stereotypical teenage male horndog goofball, does enough of such a feminine skill to be so good at it. It's an early hint that there's a lot more to Issei than his behavior and narration let on.

* ''Series/BlakesSeven''. Subverted in an episode involving a planet where both sexes were at war; the leader of the male faction is showing sewing in his hut, instead of his (abducted) wife doing this chore.

** In the episode ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS20E6TheKingsDemons The King's Demons]]'', the lady of the castle embroiders while talking with her husband.
** In ''[[Recap/DoctorWhoS16E4TheAndroidsOfTara The Androids of Tara]]'' Strella is working on an embroidery frame in her cell, and she and Romana are mildly discussing the work when the Doctor finds them.
** The First Doctor companion Barbara does dressmaking as a hobby, but neither Susan nor Vicki can sew despite them both being interested in materials and always making a beeline for dress fabric in any settings where it's available (such as "The Romans" and "The Keys of Marinus"). In "The Chase", Vicki actually charges in on Barbara making her a dress while seeking attention, causing her to slice through the fabric and ruin it.

* In the ''Series/StarTrekTheOriginalSeries'' episode "Mudd's Women", sewing is one skill that ought to be considered above looks.
-->'''Eve''': ''Is this the kind of wife you want, Ben? Not someone to help you, not a wife to [[FeminineWomenCanCook cook]] and sew and cry and need, but this kind. Selfish, vain, useless. Is this what you really want?''