Posts tagged twitter

With all this buzz about International Women’s Day in our news and twitter feeds, we found ourselves wondering what this day is really all about. Because a day dedicated to women couldn’t really only be about creating lists of “the most powerful women on twitter,” James Bond dressing as a woman, or buying flowers for women in our lives.

According to their website, IWD started more than 100 years ago as a day of unified, collective activism. Many of the first Days focused on labor rights and suffrage. As the event became international in scope, more advocacy campaigns were incorporated, including protests against WWI.

But, in 2011, what has IWD become? After a quick perusal of their site, it appears that the US IWD activists have little to no collective voice, demands or approach. This year’s theme is  “Equal access to education, training and science and technology: Pathway to decent work for women,” which sounds blogical. But we have yet to see any media coverage of meaningful, unified IWD advocacy in the US. Are we missing something? Have you been working on a campaign that just didn’t get the same coverage as Daniel Craig in a dress?

The past few months of assaults on women’s rights across the country have been particularly troubling, and the opportunity that IWD presents to speak up for Planned Parenthood with one voice, or to demand an end to laws that make it even more difficult for women to get a perfectly legal abortion.

IWD sticks to a narrow definition of gender (trans and genderqueer voices are notably absent from its narrative). But besides just ignoring a wider definition of gender equality, IWD in the US fails to address plain ol’ sexism.

Don’t despair, women around the world are making use of the day to engage in advocacy. For example, one million women marched in Cairo to call for women’s input on the drafting of Egypt’s constitution, legislative changes that will ensure gender equality, and in tribute to the 12 women that died in protest of former Pres. Hosni Mubarak. And in Mexico City and Turkey, women protested violence against women.

on crafting the perfect tweet to an idolized celeb, best known for her role on a certain 90s cult TV show:

“don’t say empowering. she’s an actress, not a human rights activist.” and “tweet! stop trying to be clever.”

— ev to lebvs, 1/11/2011

thank god one of us was an english major! (how do you like that sentence construction?)