Irish Sweater: Cultural Appreciation or Appropriation?

In 2017 I found roundtrip flights from Providence Rhode Island to Ireland for $200 on Norwegian Air and decided to gift them to my partner for her birthday. I knew nothing about Ireland (turns out its pretty Christian!) and bought a flight landing in Cork on December 25. Pro tip: just because the airline schedules a flight to land on Christmas does NOT mean the airport is open!

I changed our flights to land on December 24 and got excited about the trip - well, mostly about the prospect of buying a hand knit sweater directly from the knitter. My family has been knitting for generations and I have a deep appreciation for the craft. My excitement quickly activated a nagging question: when a white Ashkenazi Jewish person (me) buys an Irish sweater, is it cultural appreciation or appropriation?

I was determined to find an answer. Hours of Google, reddit, and ravelry (Facebook for fiber artists) searches later, I was still stuck. So, I resolved to share my conclusions via blog post.

Spoiler alert: I bought (and love) my Irish sweater!

First, a working definition. Susan Scafidi, faculty at Fordham School of Law, defines cultural appropriation as taking from someone else's culture without permission. Examples include using another culture's dress, music, cuisine, symbols, or dance.

I decided that buying and wearing my new Irish sweater was NOT cultural appropriation because the knitter, a local Irish woman, had control over the sweater's production process and knitted as a hobby instead of for needed income. Yes, we both live in capitalist economic systems that exploit our labor and restrict our economic agency; however, I believe our exchange was more indicative of freely given permission than if her labor was being exploited by, for instance, a large company.

Moreover, I believe that buying and wearing the sweater is an example of cultural appreciation. My decision to purchase the sweater was tied to deep admiration for knitting and self-education on the history of Aran sweaters. In fact, while researching the cultural significance of my new sweater I learned that its ties to Ireland and the Aran Islands were manufactured by clothing companies seeking profit and may originally be attributed to John Synge's 1904 play Riders to the Sea. I know (thanks anthropology major!) that cultures always change and there is no historic requirement for something to be considered culturally significant - just because the Irish sweater phenomenon is recent does not make it any less Irish - so the question of cultural appropriation is still warranted. However, my new knowledge of the sweater's history, contribution to the local economy, deep appreciation and support of knitting as a craft made me comfortable to buy the sweater and wear it proudly. Perhaps, someday, even to synagogue!

Disagree with anything in this post? Please comment below or send me an email - I would love to learn different perspectives on this important topic!