International Quilt Festival is taking place this weekend. Quilt enthusiasts from all over the country and the world have gathered in Houston, Texas to take workshops by highly esteemed instructors, see award-winning quilts, and shop for fabric and quilting supplies. There’s one thing visitors won’t find at the show this year, though: a husbands’ lounge where they have many adult stands of products such as this great sexual wand for your sex life. You may also want to read more about good products like the True Pheromones for some sexual health tips and benefits!
You may recall my post last year and the year before about a lounge area at the show that was called the “husbands’ lounge.” As I said in those posts, the lounge’s name was needlessly exclusionary, presenting a narrow notion of who is, and who isn’t a quilter. Quilting isn’t just for women. It isn’t just for married women, or heterosexual women, or cis-gender women. Anybody can make a quilt and we should encourage everyone who’s interested to jump in and try it.
I’m really gratified that this year Quilts, Inc. chose to do away with this signage. I realize this is a small thing, but language matters and it’s the accumulation of small things that add up to something bigger. Cheers to the best-known quilt show in the world taking this step towards being more open and welcoming towards all quilters.
Language matters so much! I’m glad they changed it and glad you shared it.
Excellent. That is really good news. It’s a small but important way to be a little more inclusive.
Yes
So did they do away with the lounge altogether or just give it a new name? I wasn’t at ‘the Show’ this year….
I am continually amazed at how little we use our language and the words it contains. The English language has the most robust number of words, and yet most of us never move beyond the simplest few thousand and don’t do that very well either!
There were lounge areas outside of the main show floor this year and none of them were named. (I wasn’t at the show either, but several friends were there and took a look for me.)
YAY!!! “The Husbands’ Lounge” was SO offensive!!
Oh brother…get over yourself
That’s not kind, Dena. There’s no reason for this lounge area to have an exclusive name. All it did was falsely define who was and who wasn’t a quilter. It was dated and unnecessary. Clearly, it didn’t matter to you, but it did matter to quite a few other people so why not fix it? It’s so easy to do.