Etsy & Crafting & Feminism, Oh My!

Last week I read an article that frustrated me. It was all about Etsy.com, and feminism, and I’ve written about sixteen different responses in my head since then.  I think my inner voices will only be quieted if I finally commit these thoughts to the keyboard.

For those who would like to read it, here’s a link to the post. Below I’ve listed the points that are the most important me that I need to express, and beyond that I’ll leave it to the other bloggers out there to hash it out (like the undercut pricing debate). We all have out hot issue triggers, and here are mine – your mileage may vary.

Before I get into the article, here is a brief overview of what Etsy is: Etsy is a site where handcrafters can sell their goods online. In exchange for paying posting fees (20 cents per items) and selling fees (3.5% of the sale price) to Etsy sellers receive server space, forums, and access to the built in audience Etsy can provide. Etsy is a for-profit business, and for it to stay profitable, it needs more sellers to post more items and sell more goods. It is in Etsy’s best interest to bring as many sellers and buyers to their site as possible.

OK, now we can get to the article.

The article’s author, Sara Mosle, starts out with a description of Etsy very similar to mine above. But her sticking point is that the number of female sellers on Etsy far (far, far) outnumber the number of male sellers. Which leads her to the following conclusions and theories:

1. Due to the disparity in the number of male and female sellers, Etsy is a “female ghetto.”

As Inigo said to Vizzini in The Princess Bride, “…that word. I do not think it means what you think it means.” To imply that Etsy is a female ghetto insinuates that the women populating the site are there due to discrimination elsewhere, that they are forced there because they can’t escape from Etsy to sell their crafts on other online handcraft selling sites. If that’s the case, point me to this alternative, discriminatory handcraft selling site, and I’ll gladly edit this paragraph to reflect it.

2. According to Mosle, the average Etsy seller is in her mid-30s, with a college education and an above average income. Which prompts her to ask, “These should, in sum, be highly employable women. So, what are they doing, often pursuing hobbies, or working only part-time, on Etsy?”

Maybe because I craft in my spare time as my hobby, this seems to be a no-brainer to me. I suspect that many of these woman are, indeed, pursuing their hobbies and selling their products while maintaining full-time jobs, either as stay-at-home-moms (a full time job if ever there was one) or out of home in the workforce. Just because you see a seller on Etsy doesn’t mean that it is their only source of income or employment.

3. The idea of creating and selling crafts as a well-paying career while raising children in the home is a feminist “promise” that cannot be delivered, therefore making this promise a fantasy.

This is the one I just don’t get. It seems to me that the feminist promise is the equality for a woman to pursue her life as she chooses, without restrictions based on her gender. That promise casts a wide net, allowing women to choose to craft items to sell while the baby naps, or have access to a private place to breastfeed between meetings, or pursue a career instead of having children without prejudice. Saying that the promise is not delivered, and therefore a fantasy, because not every woman has the ability or drive to sustain an online craft business from the home while raising a family is incredibly narrow-minded, in my opinion.

4. Etsy perpetuates  and “peddles” this feminist fantasy.

As stated above, Etsy is a for-profit business. It is in Etsy’s best interest to maintain and grow the number of sellers on their site. They want their sellers to be successful, because they have a stake in each item these sellers post and sell. Etsy offers articles with topics on how to establish a full-time crafting business through Etsy, or spotlights sellers that have been able to pursue their craft business full-time, not to peddle a feminist fantasy but because it’s good business for Etsy to keep sellers on their site and successful. In fact, it’s in Etsy’s best interest to attract sellers of both genders, because it only increases their profit-base. Etsy knows this, and has tried to attract more male sellers to the site, unfortunately with little success at this point, but I will bet that they are looking for new ways all the time.

5. It is not likely that most sellers will be able to pursue a full-time, highly-profitable storefront on Etsy. Women have been so taken by the fantasy outlined above, that they’re still selling on Etsy despite the lack of profitability. Men, however, have done the math and found that Etsy isn’t profitable, and that’s why there aren’t as many male sellers on Etsy.

Well, if that point doesn’t make all of the female sellers on Etsy sound like they have quilt-batting for brains, I don’t know what does. This is the point that really got my blood boiling, because it makes it sound like women are suckers who are unable or unwilling to evaluate the business prospects of Etsy, and make a rational decision whether or not to sell there, while men are too smart to even set up shop there if the profits will be so low. I’m not even going to spend time refuting this, because I know all of you reading this are smart enough to know that it’s a load of BS.

I will concede the point that not all sellers on Etsy drive large sales and generate huge profits. But let’s not forget that  while many people would love to make a full-time living crafting, just as many people craft for pleasure or artistic expression. While many people feel their crafts are valuable and worth selling, they may not want the pressure of selling full-time, because that’s not the driving force behind their hobby. Maybe some Etsy sellers love their day jobs, and the security and benefits these day jobs provide, and wouldn’t be comfortable being their own boss and depending on their handcrafts for full-time employment. I know I wouldn’t, and I love crafting.

Then why post on Etsy? Because maybe their friends and family are up to their ears in quilts or handmade jewelry. Who knows. Who cares? The point is, not everyone needs or wants to be a full-time craft seller.

Or just the opposite,  some people may be so successful that they don’t need to sell on Etsy. Sure, some people have worked hard to create successful Etsy stores, and that’s great! But some sellers have seen that because they list so many items, or sell so frequently, that it doesn’t make good business sense to continue to pay Etsy their fees when they have the web-design, marketing and entrepreneurial skills to open their own storefront elsewhere. Or they’ve seen such a rise in the number of sellers on Etsy, that they’ve seen a decrease in “foot traffic” and have found they don’t need Etsy anymore for that reason (I’m thinking of Splityarn’s Caro and her post regarding Etsy). And I’m betting there are dozens of reason I’m not even thinking of that business-minded men AND women have based their decisions to not sell on Etsy.

If you’ll indulge me a second Princess Bride quote: Let me sum up.

6. The fact that there are more female sellers than male sellers on Etsy means something.

To me? It really doesn’t mean anything at all.

If the male crafters are out there selling their stuff, and are doing a good job promoting themselves, I’ll find them. If I find what I’m looking for on Etsy, I’ll shop there. If I continue to find great shops that don’t have an Etsy presence (like Splityarn), I’ll stalk them for updates. Really, I don’t care about the gender of the people behind the shops. I just want to find the handcrafts that I like and will enjoy.

Phew! That was much longer than I intended, and if you made it this far, I really appreciate your time and attention. It had been bugging me for days, and I know that writing about crafts while there’s so much going on in the world (Iran, I’m looking at you) may seem a little self-indulgent, but there you go.

If you think I’m off base, or think I missed something, please feel free to leave a comment. I’m more than happy to discuss this further if you think I missed a major point or was just too thin-skinned regarding the original article. Just keep it clean and polite, that’s all I ask.