SPARK a Movement!
1. (noun) a movement to speak out, push back on the sexualization of girls, and have fun while fighting for girls' rights to healthy sexuality.
2. (verb) to rouse strong feeling or action
SPARK is an intergenerational movement fueled by girl activists & their allies. Get at us on Facebook, Twitter, & and SPARKmovement.org!
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Given the conversation around Princess Sofia and what it means to “look” Latin@, it seemed like now would be a good time to bring back this absolutely amazing video about being black & Latin@ in the US, and especially in the media.
A Girl Like Me: Color is more than skin deep for young African-American women struggling to define themselves.
In the August issues of Teen Vogue and Seventeen, thin white women dominate. While one issue of a magazine does not reflect a year’s worth of content, The Daily Beast conducted an informal study to get a general sense of the images. On the editorial pages of Teen Vogue in August, we counted 95 images that include white women and 19 images that include ethnically diverse women. On the editorial pages of Seventeen in August, we counted 154 images that include white women and 72 images that include ethnically diverse women. The cover of Seventeen features a Filipino-Spanish-Irish actress named Shay Mitchell. On the cover of Teen Vogue are Spider Man stars Emma Stone and Andrew Garfield.
“Teens hate hypocrisy,” says Steiner-Adair of the imbalanced images. “If you’re really trying to sell beauty and body acceptance, walk the walk.”
An actress on Twitter writes: ”I didn’t make #PowerRangers said I was great but they already casted a black guy so they can’t cast a black girl too WHY is race an issue”
Power Rangers has had a lot of diverse casting, but since it was bought by Nickelodeon it seems to have regressed to “old school” diversity. For example, in 2010 they only allowed white actors to audition for the lead role and Racebending.com had to write a letter requesting they open up the casting call.
(via fuckyeahwomenprotesting2)
“I used to draw myself as a white girl in my first grade journal, until I realized that I didn’t look like that and it was OK—it was more than OK.”
When Seventeen Magazine’s editor in chief Ann Shoket told Julia Bluhm that Seventeen “celebrates girls for being their authentic selves,” and that “there is no other magazine that highlights such a diversity of size, shape, skin tone and ethnicity,” a few eyebrows went up. Here, teen girls from Sisters Action Media respond to that statement while going through the latest issue of Seventeen.
“They do have a few girls of other races and a few girls of other body types, but when I think about “diversity” I think about an even amount, and they definitely don’t have an even amount at all. There’s definitely more white skinny girls in this magazine than anything else.” [Turns out there are only 14 girls of color in the whole mag—and only one of them had a darker skintone.]
What do you think? Join the conversation on #TalkBack17.
Clara como el Agua is a short fiction film about the tales and half-truths that surround the origins of Clara, a light-skinned black girl with kinky, blond hair and gray eyes, who is incessantly teased by her dark-skinned peers; until she ventures into the magical waters of the bioluminescent bay to change her skin color and possibly herself.
TW for sexual assault
Last week popular hip-hop magazine XXL posted a video on its website (XXL.com) from Too $hort, a 45-year old rapper who came to prominence in the late 80’s for his raunchy lyrics and videos. In what was called his “fatherly advice” video, the rapper instructed 12, 13, and 14-year-old boys on how to “turn out” their female classmates. In a transcript from the video, he said: “A lot of the boys are going to be running around trying to get kisses from the girls; we’re going way past that. I’m taking you to the hole. …You push her up against the wall. You take your finger and put a little spit on it and you stick your finger in her underwear and you rub it on there and watch what happens.”
As a response, a coalition of outraged Black and Latina activists, artists, and writers – all of whom have a long history in social justice activism – have come together to ensure that this does not happen again and have named themselves the We Are the 44% coalition. The coalition’s name aims to give voice to the many teen survivors of sexual assault. Too $hort’s video specifically targeted adolescent students. This group is consistent with the appalling statistic that 44% of sexual assault survivors are under 18 years old (visit the Rape, Abuse, and Incest National Network website: www.rainn.org/statistics). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention also reports that 1 out 5 women in the United States have been raped in their lifetime (www.cdc.gov/ViolencePrevention/sexualviolence/index.html). Because Too $hort’s video blatantly promoted sexual violence against girls, and because boys are also being advised to develop irresponsible, abusive and ultimately criminal behavior compelled, the all-women coalition decided to take pointed actions (see demands listed below).
The coalition recognizes this video—and the fact that XXL gave it a platform — as part of the larger issue of sexual assault against our women and children, particularly Black and Latina girls. The coalition also recognizes that the aforementioned statistics do not reflect the countless abuses that go unreported, including that of teenage boys who are often the unrecognized survivors of sexual assault. And most importantly, the coalition recognizes the urgent need to create heightened awareness and broad, uncategorized support for the eradication of sexual violence against children.
swintons | darkjez | septembur:
Why are there so few female and non-white directors?
Steve McQueen asking a lineup of six white male directors why they so rarely cast minorities in movies. Also, how about that telling list of only three female directors at the beginning?
Steve McQueen’s bewilderment at the difference between “movie reality” and “real reality” re: the total imbalance of race representation onscreen is a beautiful thing…especially when pit against the arms-crossed, refusal to answer the question of WHY directors never cast minorities in their films from a selection of white directors who never cast minorities in their films.
Not only is the silence after the interviewer asks them directly is the most uncomfortable I’ve ever seen (and I watched Gervais’ Extras religiously, soooo), but Reitman breaks it with, “I’m not gonna step in that” when “stepping in” the problem of whitewashing onscreen is EXACTLY what he and everyone else needs to do.
