Virtual reality gets real in latest campaigns

October 8, 2016

It’s difficult to imagine how LGBT campaigning can integrate VR. Would an experience of rejection and discrimination filmed on VR and brought to the viewer be an effective tool? VR has been called the “empathy machine” but there is little experiment yet to as how far this goes. Anyway, there are bound to be many discussions on this in future, so LGBT campaigners should probably get themselves on top of things.

From Greenpeace’s Mobilisation Lab

Virtual reality gets real in latest campaigns

Learning from the frontlines of VR at Greenpeace and beyond

by Ben Valentine on September 30, 2016

Since the first mission to remote Amchitka, Alaska, in 1971, Greenpeace has heightened awareness by pushing the boundaries of reporting. Storytelling – and bringing people into the conversation about what’s at stake – is always evolving as technologies, cultural sensitivities, and the problems themselves shift.

This summer, in keeping with this evolution and tradition of experimentation, Greenpeace launched A Journey to the Arctic. The project was the organisation’s first virtual reality (VR) campaign about the rapid and devastating impact of climate change in the Arctic.

Using new technology – not to mention an expensive and uncharted one that asks viewers to wear silly masks that can cause motion sickness – is always a leap of faith. How did Greenpeace pull this campaign off and what can we learn?

Taking People to a Place Nobody Ever Sees

A Journey to the Arctic depicts the sublime beauty of Northern Svalbard, (a pristine Norwegian archipelago) immersing us within the beautiful, remote, and yet integrally important arctic region that has become increasingly fragile due to human-related climate change. With a VR-viewer strapped to your face and your head swirling around to explore, you begin your journey in front of the Arctic Sunrise as it breaks its way through ice to Svalbard.

A Journey to the Arctic Slowly takes viewers deep inside of a glacier to hints of all the wildlife hidden within the snow and ice. You even see a mother polar bear with a cub, curiously investigating the camera – or rather six GoPro cameras for 360 degree video.

Bringing people from around the world to the frontlines of climate change is critical, especially as Arctic ice melt accelerates. Yet doing so without further damaging the environment requires a mediated experience. Rasmus Törnqvist, the project’s Director of Photography, chose VR for its power to transport people and elicit emotional responses.

Empathy and Ecotourism 2.0

Törnqvist, who began working for Greenpeace as a campaigner 11 years ago, told us that VR “provides a unique opportunity to take millions of people to the arctic,” calling it Ecotourism 2.0.

The VR experience is still too new for definitive results, Törnqvist says, but initial findings are promising. A Journey to the Arctic was created with face-to-face campaigning in mind. The film may be viewed anywhere but at 3.5 minutes it was made to test how VR works with campaigners and fundraisers on the street.

When people on the street see the VR video, “most of the time they’re amazed and ready to support,” said Törnqvist. In some instances, campaigners have credited VR for more than doubling donations. Törnqvist hopes that within a few more months of campaigning, they will have provable stats to see just how effective this new technology is for Greenpeace.

Getting to Behavior Change (and Impact)

This positive response mirrors results found by Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab. The Lab’s former Hardware Manager, Cody Karutz, told us by email that several studies show VR can nourish empathy and, more importantly, behavior change, in relation to the environment. One study showed a relationship between immersive video and reductions in hot water use. Two other studies found that VR can be used to give people an animal’s perspective and thereby create greater feelings of connection between the self and nature.

Karutz told us that A Journey to the Arctic “gives the user enough time to accommodate to the Arctic spaces.” However, he says, “the piece is still focused on showcasing an exotic space.” This helps reduce one’s psychological distance from the issue, which is important. But bringing the issue home to the user’s local reality is integral to the work’s success. The campaigner, the human handing the viewer the VR goggles, needs to frame the story and give the user a hook integral part of the piece.

An Empathy Machine is not Enough

The conversation around VR in tech spaces tends to highlight its empathetic powers. In a 2015 TED talk, Vrse CEO and founder Chris Milk called VR an “empathy machine.” Törnqvist takes inspiration from Milk’s work but rejects that framing, instead calling VR an “amplifier of emotion.”

The technology can isolate, enrage, or build empathy; the context, framing, and work is what makes the difference. As Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of the Stanford lab on VR, said, “It’s up to us to choose.”

Ainsley Sutherland, a fellow at BuzzFeed Open Lab who studied VR and empathy while at MIT, has also been critical of efforts to cast empathy creation as the most important aspect of virtual reality. Sutherland wrote that VR “cannot reproduce internal states, only the physical conditions that might influence that.” There are hundreds of relational factors, such as where you use VR, how it is presented to the user, and by whom the story is framed that can create, hinder, or alter the emotional connection between the VR environment and the viewer.

The VR Experience is More than Goggles

Contexts (and campaigners) frame the story. Greenpeace’s Törnqvist notes the continued primary and powerful role of the campaigner – and campaign. Greenpeace found that the setting in which the VR is shared influences the user experience. On a crowded street, few people will agree to sit and wear awkward headgear. Those that do have a less immersive experience than users at festivals or other locations. Törnqvist attributed this to a more relaxed, convivial setting. The quality of the VR experience matters, but context can make or break the VR as well.

Törnqvist tells us that anyone who says they know how to make great VR films is either lying or from the future. However, he and others have some important lessons based on countless hours of filming. In largely stationary shots that allow the viewer to control where they look, building a didactical narrative is less effective.

Place as story. Evan Wexler, Technical Director and Cinematographer for On the Brink of Famine, talks about the key value of VR is building an experience of the site itself. Wexler calls this “place as story.” We see this in A Journey to the Arctic when the narrator invites us upon arrival to Svalbard to simply “just look around.” Wexler and Törnqvist both note that it’s important to find the right location at which to focus the viewer’s attention – the place where their presence may have a transformative effect.

Positive emotions are more powerful. Törnqvist also found that positive emotions tend to create more powerful experiences. He sought Svalbard as an environment still largely untouched by humans in order to “offer the same awe and passion that we [at Greenpeace] feel about the planet.” The media shows what sublime landscape is at stake, not what is already lost.

Create depth. Wexler and Törnqvist also discussed the importance and challenge of creating depth. 360 degree stationary camera rigs do not offer a large depth of field. Have the key subject nearby and other objects of value at middle and far distances to create a richer environment. This obviously presented some challenges in Svalbard, a land largely comprised of snow.

Where’s the audience? The empathy and impact of any communications medium depends on the reader or viewer. In his TED talk, Chris Milk points out the importance of connecting his film for the United Nations, Clouds Over Sidra, to those with the power to make a difference.

The UN screened Milk’s film about Sidra, a 12-year-old Syrian girl in the Zaatari Refugee Camp, at the World Economic Forum’s meeting in Davos, Switzerland. It’s useful for campaigns to consider how and where their targeted audiences will view VR stories.

Where to Go with Virtual Reality

Karutz notes that there is a great lack of interaction in most VR video, including A Journey to the Arctic. Without“embodied engagement with the user and the VR environment,” Karutz says, there could be less lasting behavior change. This can be mediated by the campaigners but Greenpeace is already working on pushing VR even further.

Pete Speller of Greenpeace International is working with The Feelies, a multi-sensory design team, and Alchemy VR, experts in creating compelling virtual reality narrative experiences, on a VR project that takes takes viewers inside Sawré Muybu village, home of the Munduruku Indigenous People in the Amazon rainforest.

In the Tapajós project, as it’s called, multi-sensory viewing pods will complement the VR film to create an immersive experience incorporating sounds, imagery, motion, smell and touch. The goal is to create a deeper connection to the Munduruku people and Amazon rainforest. The work will be publicly launched in Rio de Janeiro in early 2017.

“A fundamental of Greenpeace has always been the act of bearing witness,” Törnqvist told me. “Now, with VR, we have an opportunity for anyone to do so.” VR is a new way of telling stories but using it effectively requires a creative coupling with all the old tools campaigners have been honing for decades. Finding that balance remains the challenge.

Build a safe space policy

September 30, 2016

Whether it’s at a protest, public event, or at an established community space, it’s always important to ensure that every one, regardless of background, is free to engage with your community. When it comes to the LGBTQ community safe spaces are incredibly important, especially for young people and minorities that may face widespread discrimination within mainstream society.

Safer spaces policies are the rules by which a community agrees to operate. They help make sure that marginalised individuals are free to be themselves, and help prevent some of the problems common in mainstream society (such as racism, sexism or transphobia) from becoming a part of the community. In preparation for IDAHOT 2016 we’re sharing a few short tips that you should know before creating an official safer spaces policy for your event or community space.

Understand your community

Before starting to create a safer spaces policy it’s good to know which members of your community would benefit most from it. Within LGBTQ circles women, trans and non-binary people, and people with disabilities are often marginalised and excluded from the conversation more than other groups. (In Western countries also people of colour face similar issues).

A safer spaces policy should exist to ensure that those voices within your community can still thrive and contribute. Looking at your community and understanding who would benefit is the best way to start making a policy that tackles these important issues.

Preempt problems

Before even starting a policy it’s also important to understand the problems that are common. Do men dominate conversations and action? Do people with disabilities struggle to engage? Is the language you use accessible and easy for everyone?

Look at some of the common problems your community faces, both in mainstream society and in your own spaces, and attempt to identity some ways in which they could be avoided. Every community in every country is different, so there is never a one-size-fits-all solution to these issues.

Promote cooperation

Rather than making a set of rules that bans some people from acting in certain ways it’s always much more useful to promote cooperation instead. If one group, for example, tends to talk while another listens then you should try to promote behaviour in which these roles are reversed. You should always try to encourage others to voluntarily give up their typical role rather than try to take it away from them.

By making everyone aware of their own behaviour, and how it effects others, you can also foster cooperation that can be hugely powerful in mainstream society too.

Avoid alienating and generalisations

In a similar way, it’s also important to remember that your policy does not help to further alienate certain people from the community, even if they do typically hold a position of power within it. Bad safer spaces policies from the past typically relied on rules that excluded those individuals from participating instead.

Although it may seem like this is an easy way of addressing power imbalances, it often only helps to exclude individuals from your community entirely. Remember that the primary aim should be to prevent issues common in the mainstream and to build a community that is entirely inclusive in ways that mainstream society is not.

An important part of this effort is not making assumptions about anyone’s background or identity. Although it can be easier to generalize this can lead to many problems, which within the LGBTQ community should always be avoided.

Get feedback

If you’re writing the policy on your own, or as part of a small team, make sure you get feedback from the rest of the community. If a rule or suggestion isn’t working you might want to remove it. If something is missing you might want to add it.

It’s difficult sometimes to address the needs of everyone on your own, which is why it’s important to take feedback and criticisms from those individuals themselves. Encourage your community to share input on their own needs and wishes, and try whenever possible to include these within your policy.

Know your legal rights

Sometimes a community will be forced to exclude individuals or groups that make it difficult or impossible to operate. If someone breaks your rules, either on purpose or through continued ignorance, then you may wish to exclude them from your space. In these cases it’s important to know where you stand legally. Every country will have different laws around removing someone from a property or event, so make sure you check in advance to know where you stand in case a worst-case scenario occurs.

In some cases legal standards will make it easier to enforce the rules you’ve set. In some countries these laws may make it difficult to operate freely. It’s always important to make sure your policy operates within legal parameters, so that everyone within the community is safe from further issues.

Make your policy known

Publish your policy online and in-person whenever possible. If you are in a shared or public space make sure you have physical copies, or a display, at entrances and in key areas. This will ensure that everyone understands the policy and can operate by its standards.

At the same time make sure people know how, and to whom, to give feedback. The policy should also make it clear where to report other concerns, and what to do in certain situations.

A policy is only useful if it’s known and agreed upon!

Learn from others

Although every safe spaces policy is different a lot of them follow similar lines. If you’re still unsure on what to include then try researching groups in your area that might have their own policies. It’s also important to learn from the mistakes of others that you might have encountered, so you ensure you don’t repeat them!

Safer spaces policies fro several groups can easily be found online in many cases. Using these as a template or jumping off point is a good way to start. However, make sure not to simply copy-and-paste the policy of another community, as your own issues may not be fully addressed within!

Make sure to check out our website in the next few days for more information and ideas for action. For updates, news and more also make sure to follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Why I think LGBTI women should support the #NoSizeFitsAll campaign

September 28, 2016

From GayStarNews

Why I think LGBTI women should support the #NoSizeFitsAll campaign

Jenny Fallover is backing the #NoSizeFitsAll campaign

28 September 2016

by Jenny Fallover

I tweeted for the #NoSizeFitsAll campaign as soon as I read about it.

Why do I think it’s important? I will be the first to confess I don’t know a lot about fashion and I am more of a jeans and t-shirt girl myself but maybe that’s because I have never really seen myself reflected in fashion.

I am sure other gender non-conforming LGBT women probably feel the same. There are amazingly cool androgynous and gender fluid models out there (Ruby Rose who created the Break Free video for example) but the problem is that they are all size ‘impossible’ to achieve for most women.

What effect does being constantly bombarded with unachievable ideals that foster negative body images have upon women (and men who are increasingly falling foul to the pressures of conforming to a certain body image)?

The Women’s Equality Party have some alarming statistics:

‘Eating disorders affect 1.6 million people in the UK, 89% of whom are female. 14-25 year olds are the demographic most affected by an eating disorder, with 5% of girls and women suffering from anorexia—the most deadly psychiatric disease (10-20% of cases are fatal).’

There is also a financial cost as a result of women having a negative body image:

‘Health care costs for eating disorders in England have been estimated as £80-100m with overall economic cost likely to be more than £1.26bn per year.’

Looking back at pictures of my younger self I was alarmed at my perception of myself at the time. In some photographs I was very slim, skinny in some and yet I covered my body with very baggy clothing as I felt my thighs and rear were huge and that my stomach wasn’t flat enough.

The #NoSizeFitsAll campaign wants the fashion world to do more to showcase diverse body images

As a result, like most women, I went on one yo-yo or fad diet after another throughout my twenties.

Then I came out as a lesbian and had an epiphany. I realized I no longer had to conform to the gender stereotypes that are supposedly in place in order to attract heterosexual men (though most of the men I know prefer women with curves).

Whilst I still didn’t really know where I would fit into the lesbian community, I suddenly felt somewhat liberated.

Women are all shapes and sizes and we should celebrate our differences rather than beat ourselves up about it.

Whatever gender you identify as, if you feel as strongly as I do about this issue then visit the Women’s Equality page, go to the act section and support this campaign.

Jenny Fallover (@jfallover) is Delivery Program Manager, Enterprise Business Systems at Thomson Reuters, and is part of the Global Leadership Team and EMEA Co-Lead with the company’s Pride at Work network group. She is also London City Director for Lesbians Who Tech and on the committee of the Gay Women’s Network.

Catwalk image: Art Comments licensed via CreativeCommons2.0

Campaign strategy analysis: direct networked action

September 8, 2016

Fight for $15: Directed-network campaigning in action

A well coordinated campaign is opening up grassroots power and crossing movement boundaries

by Tom Liacas on September 8, 2016

American unions have been losing members and influence for over 30 years so it’s notable when a labor campaign changes wage policies across the U.S. and forces corporate giants such as Walmart and McDonald’sto bend to its demands. Using directed-network campaigning, the Fight for $15 is shifting power in the direction of America’s workers.

The Service Employees International Union (SEIU)-supported Fight for $15 seeks a $15 per hour minimum wage across the United States. The campaign is being fought at the federal level, where the minimum wage is currently a paltry $7.25, while also targeting big retail employers with demands for higher worker pay. So far, the campaign’s greatest successes have been at the state and local level. Fight for $15 has secured wage increases in over 20 states and several major American cities including Los Angeles, Seattle and San Francisco.

Robert Reich, former Labor Secretary during Bill Clinton’s presidency, noted that the movement’s organising strategy and tactics are fundamentally different than other recent labor campaigns.

“It’s more decentralized, for one thing, with lots of people getting involved in all sorts of ways,” Reich told us. Traditional labor campaigns focus on one employer at a time while this movement crosses boundaries to involve workers from sectors as diverse as fast food, giant retailers, major hotels and hospitals.

Fight for $15 is also breaking ground using directed-network campaign strategies similar to those used by other breakthrough campaigns including Bernie Sanders’ primary race and various fronts of the global climate movement.

The Networked Change Report: A blueprint for 21st century campaigning

Together with Jason Mogus and colleagues at NetChange Consulting, I recently completed a deep dive into the modern advocacy landscape with the intention of uncovering the common patterns behind today’s winning campaigns. Our study focused on 47 campaigns achieving some degree of policy or cultural change and especially those that punched above their weight.

While we looked at big institutional campaigns like those of the American Association of Retired People and grassroots upstart movements like Occupy Wall Street, we were most interested in newer campaigns that had run on a mix of grassroots power and central strategic control, a model that we call “directed-network campaigning.”

In a nutshell, directed-network campaigning is a hybrid form of top-down and bottom-up mobilization exemplified by the Bernie Sanders presidential campaign, 350.org and the Fight for $15. All of the above married old power and new while enabling extensive grassroots-led initiatives. They also powerfully framed their causes and directed campaign momentum towards shared goals and milestones. As a result, these campaigns were able to rapidly scale participation and resources while scoring impressive national victories.

Fight for $15 brings directed-network campaigning principles to life

The strategic and tactical approaches common to all directed-network campaigns may be grouped into four principles. Collectively, these four principles map out how campaigners are running efficient blends of people-power and central control. These include opening to grassroots power, building cross-movement network hubs, framing a compelling cause and running with focus and discipline. Fight for $15 roots itself firmly in each one of these areas.

Opening to grassroots power, the Fight for $15 uses a distributed model to spark local worker-led protests and strikes all across the country. These self-starting events are supported by resources such as “how to start a local strike” guides and support staff who train local leaders. The result is a vast constellation of city and state-based Fight for $15 groups across the U.S. and several other countries, each with its own local branding and messaging. The voices of local organisers and worker-activists are heavily favored over those of union bosses in movement communications and press work.

From the beginning, Fight for $15 was configured to make wider adoption by cross-movement networkspossible and probable. Whereas traditional union drives focus on rank and file members, Fight for $15 opened up to workers of all sectors on the low end of the pay scale, including many not affiliated with the SEIU. Campaign organisers made conscious efforts to reach out to Occupy Wall Street sympathizers and the Movement for Black Lives (Black Lives Matter), lending their support on the streets after racial justice protests erupted in Ferguson, Missouri. In this way, they brought a diverse and powerful alliance of outside groups to support the workers during strikes and marches.

Fight for $15’s approach to issue framing also helps explain its appeal beyond labor circles. By lining up with larger issues of social and racial inequality as well as economic injustice, Fight for $15 plugged into deeper social currents already active in the U.S. The campaign chose as villains big corporations that could afford to pay higher wages (Walmart and McDonalds). These companies became focal points for organising actions. Using clever storytelling, the campaign exposed scandalous corporate worker policies, such as McDonalds encouraging its workers to use food stamps, to help underline the basic injustices that low-paid workers regularly face in America.

While clearly open to local leadership and wider cross-movement input, the Fight for $15 also runs a tight ship internally. Along with the financial and staff resources SEIU provides, Fight for $15 partners closely with experienced campaign consulting and public relations firms. Together, leaders centralise planning to guide local groups towards shared moments and milestones such as their April 15th cross-country strike actions. This coordination helps ensure that the Fight for $15’s impact is felt at the local, state and national levels as all play crucial roles in American wage policy decisions.

Big risk, big rewards

Unlike traditional union campaigns that focus on improving benefits and/or wages only for members, Fight for $15 took a big risk by expanding its scope of workers – and targets. Union executives would have been under fire if big investments in funding and staff time did not lead to clear impact. The risk has paid off for both union and wider constituencies.

A Fight for $15 leader we spoke with off the record reports that the campaign has led to unprecedented gains in union negotiations with major employers nationwide. Wage justice has become a national conversation as cities and states across the country have raised the minimum wage and Hillary Clinton has supported the movement throughout her presidential campaign. During a recent international SEIU conference, a large majority of union members expressed their satisfaction with this progress and voted to renew their support for the campaign.

Hopefully, the Fight for $15 will inspire others to open up campaign tactics and to reach for greater impact. Many organisations today rely on a traditional top-down campaigning model that struggles to integrate people’s contributions and build power. Fight for $15 shows how a sizeable organisation, in this case a union, can experiment with new hybrid campaigning models that maintain some controls over strategy, timing and framing while unleashing the energy of self-starting grassroots supporters. The results have been encouraging. With wide cross-sector support and an engaged grassroots base of affected workers, the campaign is finding ways to scale up power to match the scope of the problems facing American workers.

Fashion-Conscious Activism!

August 9, 2016

Great read for any fashion conscious activist, from Racket.com

Activists Are Targeted For Their Beliefs — And How They Dress

“There is no contradiction with fabulous shoes and serious social justice work,” Melissa Harris Perry wrote in Elle

BY NADRA NITTLE AUG 9, 2016, 10:32AM EDT

Patrisse Cullors and Tanya Bernard stand before a tense crowd at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Los Angeles. Both artists are leaders in the Black Lives Matter movement — Cullors is co-founder and Bernard is art and culture director.

They’re at MOCA on a somber evening to give a lecture on art and activism. For two days straight, the public has watched the macabre but familiar footage of black men, Philando Castile and Alton Sterling, shot dead by police.

The killings prompt Cullors and Bernard to abandon the program planned for July 7th, the same night a Dallas sniper will kill five police officers. Instead of discussing art and activism, the women ask each other to envision a future in which blacks have true freedom.

Bernard (L) and Cullors. Photo: The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles. Photo by Casey Winkleman.

“I think about how much we’ve allowed for our imagination to only believe in black death and how much we need to actually imagine black life… thriving black life,” Cullors says. “Like black folks running in fields, dressing how they want to dress, in all types of ways.”

Wearing Birkenstocks, fabric hoop earrings and a sleeveless sweatshirt proclaiming, “Black Girl Magic,” Cullors looks as if she’s already dressing how she wants. The same goes for the Black Lives Matter members who halted the Pride Toronto parade July 2nd wearing matching face jewels and capes. Their ensembles brought to mind Beyonce’s “Formation” dancers channeling the Black Panthers at the Super Bowl in February. But the boldness of their outfits belied the fact that critics of activists — be they in Black Lives Matter, Occupy Wall Street, or the radical and counterculture groups of the 1960s and ‘70s — have long been targeted for what they wear.

Dress too extravagantly and a protester risks being characterized as a hypocrite. Dress in striking colors and a protester risks being singled out by law enforcement. Wear a T-shirt with the name of a cause on it and risk confrontations with school officials, employers, or strangers. Even the people protesters rally for have come under fire for their clothing choices.

Activists and scholars describe this trend as a witches’ brew of bigotry, victim-blaming, and respectability politics.

Expensive Goods Make Activists Targets

When Black Lives Matter activist DeRay McKesson visited “The Daily Show” in January, he explained the goals of the movement and discussed misconceptions about police violence. But as the interview wrapped, host Trevor Noah landed a surprise jab.

“You’re wearing an Apple watch and talking about oppression.”

“You’re wearing an Apple watch and talking about oppression,” he quipped to McKesson.

Although Noah’s smile suggested he was joking, it was hardly the first time an activist’s credibility had been called into question for a fashion choice. In October 2011, at the height of Occupy Wall Street’s popularity, British newspaper the Daily Mail published an article pointing out that not all protesters were as aggrieved as they appeared to be.

“The flash of a designer belt, a watch or even, in one case, a huge wad of cash reveals many activists are not quite so hard done by,” stated the article.

The Washington Post reported that actual Wall Street bankers dropped by the Occupy protest in Manhattan’s Zucotti Park to scold demonstrators for protesting income inequality while wearing designer clothes, using iPads, and daring to have enough money for food.

“There is no contradiction with fabulous shoes and serious social justice work.”

Protesters at a recent Black Lives Matter rally outside the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters could be attacked on similar grounds. Some wore the kind of flowing sundress protester Ieshia Evans dons in the iconic July 5th photo of her face off with riot police. Many wore Dashikis, bold prints, and T-shirts inscribed with political messages, like “No Justice! No Peace!” Others clutched Louis Vuitton purses and Marc Jacobs backpacks.

Wake Forest University Professor Melissa Harris-Perry has challenged the idea that protesters must be impoverished to fight oppression.

“There is no contradiction with fabulous shoes and serious social justice work,” she remarked last month in Elle, where she’s editor-at-large.

And others agree with her — to an extent.

Joshua Miller, a professor in the government and law department of Lafayette College in Pennsylvania, authored the research paper “Dressed for Revolution: Fashion as Political Protest.” He says he found the criticism of the Occupy Wall Street protesters condescending and “an easy way to dismiss activism.”

A protestor at a BLM rally in LA. Photo: Nadra Nittle

He balks at the suggestion that the privileged should sit out protests.

“Why should well-off people not take part in movements that go against their own material interests?” he asks.

People of privilege supported Occupy Wall Street and currently support Black Lives Matter — and they often pay a price. A lawyer in Youngstown, Ohio, was sentenced to five days in jailfor wearing a Black Lives Matter button, and three teams in the Women’s National Basketball Association were fined $5,000 apiece because players wore Black Lives Matter T-shirts during warmups (the fines have since been rescinded).

While Miller supports people of all class backgrounds protesting inequality, he says, “There is something strange about protesting inequality in a society while wearing high fashion.”

Cullors is more concerned about the production of clothing than she is with its cost.

She says protesters should be aware of where their clothes come from and how they’re made and processed.

“I think it’s nuanced,” she says. “I think that it’s okay for us to decide what we want to wear and how we wear it and that we have a particular responsibility, especially in leadership, that comes with being mindful of what we’re buying and where we’re buying it from.”

Policing the Other

Cherno Biko, a Brooklyn-based activist who created Black Trans Lives Matter, shows up to protests in black cocktail dresses, head wraps, and heels. She often wears all black to mourn her ancestors and to lessen the chance police will notice her. She says that head wraps prevent the authorities from grabbing her by the hair.

“I’ve been arrested in my head wrap, and I was able to take the head wrap down and use it as a blanket, so I didn’t have to sit on the nasty floor of the jail cell.”

“Many of the activists are so intentional about how we express our fashion,” Biko explains. “There are so many reasons that inform what we wear. I’ve been arrested in my head wrap, and I was able to take the head wrap down and use it as a blanket, so I didn’t have to sit on the nasty floor of the jail cell.”

Unlike DeRay McKesson, she can’t afford an Apple watch. But when Baton Rouge police arrested McKesson on July 9th for obstructing a highway while protesting Alton Sterling’s killing, Biko suggested the activist, who’s gay, was targeted partly because of his sexual orientation.

McKesson has adopted a uniform of sorts at protests, a blue Patagonia vest and bright red gym shoes. In Baton Rouge, he ditched the vest, but his trademark footwear caught the eye of a police officer.

“You with them loud shoes, I see you on the road,” the officer told McKesson, who live-streamed his encounter with law enforcement. “If I get close to you, you’re going to jail. You better keep walking.”

“When will they stop policing what #FolksLikeUs wear?”

Dismayed police singled out McKesson this way, Biko took to Twitter.

“Even without the blue vest they still noticed him bc of the ‘loud shoes,’” she wrote. “When will they stop policing what#FolksLikeUs wear?”

Members of the LGBTQ community, especially those of color, are vulnerable to being stopped by police because of their clothing. The book Queer (In) Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States discusses the history of sumptuary laws, which until the 1980s allowed police to arrest people for not wearing a minimum of three clothing items associated with their biological sex.

While arrests for gender impersonation are no longer commonplace, transgender women of color continue to be police targets. The term “walking while trans,” a play on the term “driving while black,” describes the discrimination trans women encounter from law enforcement.

A protestor at a BLM rally in LA. Photo: Nadra Nittle

“Transgender women often cannot walk down the street without being stopped, harassed, verbally, sexually and physically abused, and arrested, regardless of what they are doing at the time,” states Queer (In) Justice. “Gender nonconformity is perceived to be enough to signal ‘intent to prostitute,’ regardless of whether any evidence exists to support such an inference.”

What LGBTQ people wear has been policed so steadily over the years that Biko can’t tolerate anyone being faulted for a clothing choice. She says activists can wear what they like and still be engaged protesters.

“I am so over people coming after folks for choosing to express themselves,” she says. “If you’ve got it, flaunt it.”

The attacks on what activists and politicians wear often target women, making them misogynistic, according to Caroline Heldman, an associate professor of politics at Occidental College in Los Angeles.

“It’s another way to dismiss women’s work,” she says. Heldman calls the focus on fashion a distraction from the real enemies, which she characterized as state sanctioned violence, killer cops, and multinational corporations exploiting workers. She says the enemy is not the soup kitchen volunteer in an Armani suit.

“We use dress to delegitimize women and their expertise, be they women activists, female leaders, or even rape survivors,” Heldman says. “It’s just tired, old patriarchy, and it’s especially true for women of color.”

Victim-Blaming and Respectability Politics

The clothing Trayvon Martin wore when a neighborhood watchman killed him in Florida four years ago played a central role in the public’s perception of him. Martin’s killer, who said the teen looked suspicious in a gated community, described the youth as wearing a hoodie to a police dispatcher. The mundane form of outerwear has been linked to Martin ever since.

Activists staged a Million Hoodie March in solidarity, but others criticized the teen for his apparel, arguing he’d caused his own demise by wearing it.

Protestors at a BLM rally in LA. Photo: Nadra Nittle

“He wore an outfit that allowed someone to respond in this irrational, overzealous way and if he had been dressed more appropriately, I think unless it’s raining out, or you’re at a track meet, leave the hoodie home,” Geraldo Rivera said on “Fox & Friends,” sparking outrage.

In fact, it was raining when Martin was killed, but including that detail would have made Rivera’s argument even less compelling. His finger-pointing at the dead teenager resembled how rape victims are shamed and blamed for their dress after attacks.

It’s because of how people perceive we wear our blackness that makes our hoodie look like gang attire. It’s not just about clothes.

Cullors says the clothes black people wear don’t make them targets; blackness makes them targets.

“Black people are hyper criticized and we are criminalized,” she says. “That happens when we wear a hoodie or if we wear suit. It’s because of how people perceive we wear our blackness that makes our hoodie look like gang attire. It’s not just about clothes.”

Biko says that respectability politics — the effort to look respectable and behave as such at all times to avoid oppression — won’t save the marginalized. Three black congressman acknowledged as much when they appeared on CNN to discuss race relations after the Dallas police killings.

The problem, they said, is that they don’t look like politicians all the time.

“You take off the suit and put on a T-shirt, and we could be going through what Alton or Philando were going through,” said Minnesota Rep. Keith Ellison.

Texas Rep. Marc Veasey said he feels anxious about being pulled over any time he’s not in a suit, whether he’s in the South or the nation’s capital. And Louisiana Rep. Cedric Richmond revealed that when he’s dressed down, he’s treated much differently from how he’s treated while wearing his suit and congressional pin.

Protestors at a BLM rally in LA. Photo: Nadra Nittle

But a suit is no remedy for racial profiling and anti-black violence. The Rev. Martin Luther Jr. wore a suit while fighting for civil rights yet still died at the hands of a vigilante, Biko points out.

“We have to push a counter narrative,” she says. “However we show up, whatever we wear, whether we’re in a mini skirt or gray sweatpants or a hoodie or nothing at all, our lives still matter.”

16 Striking Campaigns for the Cause to End Violence Against Women

July 30, 2016

Striking examples of powerful campaigns to get inspiration from !

Curated by PIXEL

While we at The Pixel Project always seek to emphasise the positive, the fact remains that, in many places in the world, activists working to end Violence Against Women (VAW) face considerable obstacles: denial of the problem; cultural taboos that prevent open and honest discussion; viewing VAW as a “women’s issue instead of a human issue; and hostility from men’s rights activists and extremists who seek to keep women “in their place.” The latter was tragically and recently seen in the early October shooting of Pakistani girls’ rights activist Malala Yousafzai.

Given the hostility they often face, many VAW activists recognise that they have to be more creative than activists working in more popular causes (e.g. cancer, children’s issues, animal rights and the green movement). A sense of humour and a penchant for effecting change from within also does not go amiss.

So today, in honour of all VAW activists, nonprofits and grassroots group to toil in such thankless situations to bring about positive change to the lives of women and girls facing violence, we present 16 of the most striking campaigns/programmes we have come across in the last year of our work, in no particular order. That many of them include men is an encouraging sign that the issue of VAW is starting to gain traction as a human rights issue, not just a women’s issue.

What these campaigns have in common are:

The built-in “water-cooler” factor that gets the community buzzing about the campaign and by extension, the issue of VAW.
A good sense of what works in and for the culture and community where the activist/nonprofit/grassroots group is trying to effect change.

We hope that these campaigns and initiatives inspire you to take action and get on board the cause to end VAW.

It’s time to stop violence against women. Together.

Creative VAW Campaign 1: Using Technology to Show Where and When VAW Occurs – India

When a survey noted that India is the fourth most dangerous place in the world to be a woman, P. Sheemer was shocked and decided to take action. He set up “Maps4Aid”, which allows anyone to submit reports of violence against women through a variety of means, including SMS and email. The report is then recorded and posted to social networking sites. The project hopes to reinforce the idea that violence against women is a terrifying and everyday occurrence in the country, and lists reports according to date and location. The eventual aim is to take the project beyond documentation into intervention, by mapping the most dangerous streets and areas across India, and pressing authorities to provide extra security measures in these areas.

Creative VAW Campaign 2: NGOs Unite to Encourage Men to Challenge VAW – Kenya

A new branch of the international organisation MenEngage launched in Kenya, a country where a 2009 survey found that 47% of married women had experienced domestic violence, an increase of 21% since the 2003 survey. MenEngage Kenya Network calls on men in Kenya, particularly those in positions of authority, to make increased efforts in challenging violence against women and championing non-violent conflict resolution. The campaign will function alongside and strengthen existing work to address more specific forms of violence against women present in Kenya, including female genital mutilation (FGM).

Creative VAW Campaign 3: Photo Contest Motivates People to Fight for a More Equal Society for Women – Costa Rica

A number of organisations, including the Museum of Women of Costa Rica, have launched a national photography contest with the goals of raising awareness of the consequences of aggression against women and inspiring people to work towards a more equal society. It is the first contest of its kind in the country. Photographs must be related to “any of the manifestations of violence (physical, psychological, sexual, economic, symbolic, etc), myths and misconceptions that contribute to maintaining the cycle of violence against women, and resources to overcome it.” Winners will be announced on November 21, 2012 as part of the celebration of the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women.

Creative Campaign 4: Butterflies Highlight the Plight of Abused Women in Nicaragua – UK

British designer Robert Kennett decided to use his entry in the Hampton Court Palace Flower Show to draw attention to VAW in Nicaragua. His garden featured butterflies and frangipani, a flower native to Nicaragua. Mr. Kennett was inspired by an Amnesty International campaign called Butterflies of Hope, through which he learned that more than 14,000 women in Nicaragua, many younger than 17, had been raped in the past ten years. In talking about his inspiration he said, “There’s a real stigma there…it’s thought of as the victim’s fault…Altogether I thought there were many women silenced there and I could help express things they couldn’t say.”

Creative VAW Campaign 5: Professional Athletes Speak Out – United States and Canada

North American male athletes are stepping up and speaking out about VAW. In June, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden helped launch the 1 is 2 Many campaign, featuring a PSA with well-known male athletes including soccer star David Beckham, basketball player Jeremy Lin, and National Football League star Eli Manning. “Young boys and men get a lot of mixed signals about what constitutes manhood … that’s why it’s so important today that these incredible athletes, these guys got together, stepped up, and did this,” said the American Vice President. In Canada, the B.C. Lions football team joined forces with the Ending Violence Association, government, and labour groups on the “Be More Than a Bystander” campaign which speaks to the majority of men who do not commit violence against women, encouraging them to condemn and speak out against the minority that do.

Creative VAW Campaign 6: Father’s Club Addresses Violence Against Women – Haiti

In this small Caribbean country where sexist attitudes are widespread, past initiatives to reduce gender-based violence have tended to exclude men. In an effort to get more men involved, one man in a rural community about 90 minutes from Haitian capital Port-Au-Prince decided to establish a fathers’ group to discuss issues like meaningful consent and the importance of not using violence. Group members receive training from CARE. Group members also go door-to-door in their community to talk to other men about VAW. “Children see their fathers beating their mothers and some carry on the cycle of violence when they grow up. We’re trying to show other fathers it’s not okay to do that,” said fathers’ group founder Rorny Amile.

Creative VAW Campaign 7: Red Dresses Draw Attention to Violence Against Aboriginal Women – Canada

Jaime Black has found an interesting way to draw attention to the high number of missing and murdered Aboriginal women in Canada. There are 600 official cases of missing or murdered Aboriginal women in the country, 300 of which have not been solved. Ms. Black’s art installation features red dresses hung around the campus of the University of Alberta in Edmonton. Dresses were donated and represent all ages and roles that women in society hold.

Creative VAW Campaign 8: Documenting VAW in “Paradise” – Norway

Photographer Walter Astrada, featured in a previous post in our blog, continues his work to raise awareness of VAW through photography. Having previously photographed women in Guatemala and Congo, he decided to turn his lens to a country with relatively few social ills to demonstrate that, even in a place that many think of as a paradise, violence against women occurs. TRIGGER WARNING: Mr. Astrada’s photographs, featured in the New York Times article linked to above, may trigger strong responses in anyone who has experienced domestic or sexual violence.

Creative VAW Campaign 9: Stopping Harassment of Women on Public Transit – Sri Lanka

The organisation Sri Lanka Unites tried a novel approach to addressing harassment of women on public transit. Hundreds of young men received training and then ventured onto buses to speak with people about public transit harassment. They apologised to women for any harassment they had endured, informed them of the legal recourse available to them in the event of harassment, and challenged men to take responsibility for the problem. In just one week, these young men boarded over 1,000 buses and reached over 30,000 commuters in the city of Colombo. According to event organisers, the response from the public was very positive, with many asking for more information.

Creative VAW Campaign 10: Alerting Police to Girls in Brothels with Secret Photos – Cambodia

Somaly Mam was forced into prostitution as a child but escaped and now works to free other young victims of sex trafficking. Her efforts led brothel owners to kidnap and rape her daughter, and issue death threats against Somaly herself. Still, she carries on, using techniques like sneaking into a brothel and surreptitiously photographing the young girls there. Presenting her photographic evidence to authorities has led to raids with mixed results but, as New York Times writer Nicholas Kristof says, this is how the battle against human trafficking is being fought around the world.

Creative VAW Campaign 11: New Stove Decreases Risk of Rape – Sudan

Women in the Zam Zam refugee camp in Darfur risked rape by Sudanese militiamen every time they left the camp to collect wood for their cooking fires. If they chose not to venture out, they would have to spend scarce money on firewood. Ashok Gadgil heard about the problem and worked with Darfuri women and other engineers to create an affordable wood-fired stove that would use less wood. In fact, it uses four times less wood than open fires, saving the women money. The end result—80% of the women can now afford to buy firewood since their new stoves run so efficiently, meaning they do not have to leave the camp to search for wood.

Creative VAW Campaign 12: Black Friday Condemns VAW – Jamaica

Stories of the brutal rapes of four women and a young girl in a home invasion galvanised public sentiment in Jamaica. Fifteen organisations in the country came together to launch a protest, encouraging people to wear black and stand across various locations as a sign of solidarity against VAW and sexual abuse. The protest was supported by Prime Minister Portia Simpson-Miller who issued a public statement asking members of the public to participate.

Creative Campaign 13: Red Shoes Protest VAW in Juarez – Mexico

Another visual artist used red to highlight violence against a particular group of women. In this case, it was Mexican artist Elina Chauvet. She placed red shoes outside the Mexican consulate in El Paso, Texas to protest against VAW in Juarez and elsewhere in Mexico.

Creative VAW Campaign/Programme 14: Martial Arts Help Girls Resist Threat of Sexual Violence – Lebanon

The Lebanese Council to Resist Violence Against Women organised a program to teach girls Aikido, a Japanese martial art that teaches people to redirect the force of an attacker rather than rely on physical strength. The Aikido instruction was part of a year-long “Together We Make Change…Stop Sexual Abuse” campaign that taught over 2,500 male and female school students about sexual abuse and harassment and how to defend themselves. Organiser Randa Yassir noted that the Aikido element of the program would help girls combat the traditionally held notion that females are weaker and should surrender rather than fight back when attacked.

Creative VAW Campaign/Programme 15: Engaging Men and Women in Struggle to End Domestic Violence and Child Marriage – Pakistan

Qamar Naseem began his role as an activist with the organisation Blue Vein which worked to raise awareness about breast cancer. In conservative areas of his country, this caused some degree of backlash from people who saw this as a discussion of women’s sexuality. “We faced a lot of resistance,” he said. “We learned that women are not allowed to make decisions about their own bodies.” He realised that to really effect change, programs had to involve men and women. He organised community support groups where community members can talk about issues like domestic violence and delaying the age of marriage for girls. He has also worked to increase girls’ access to education, even when that means challenging militant elements in a community.

Creative VAW Campaign/Programme 16: Combating Street Harassment – Egypt

The Egyptian Centre for Women’s Rights conducted a study in 2008 that showed that 83% of Egyptian women and 98% of foreign women reported incidents of harassment that included sexual touching, grabbing and cursing. In response, Egyptian women’s groups carried out the Faouda Watch initiative in which they monitored how the country’s president performed regarding women’s rights during a one-month period. They are hopeful that they can convince the president to make street harassment a criminal offense. Other initiatives by Egyptian NGOs and women’s groups include volunteer street patrols, with photographs to document incidents, and an open mic night where women could speak out about their experiences with sexual harassment.

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