The Always “like a girl” campaign

You may know about the controversies around the Dove “Real Beauty” ad campaign and related videos. Now the Always product line has entered the fray,  As MS magazine reports, “Last week, Always released a new commercial that challenges the notion that doing something “like a girl” means anything less than doing it well.imgres-1

“The ad first features people who are supposedly auditioning for a commercial. When the director (who is a woman) tells them to “run like a girl” or “fight like a girl,” the actors make themselves look weak and silly while half-heartedly performing the actions. Then, the commercial changes to show young girls performing the same activities “like a girl”—but they act out running and fighting as fast and as fierce as they can. The commercial asks the audience: When did doing something ‘like a girl’ become an insult?

“The director asks the actors what happens to girls when they are told that behaving like a girl or performing an action like a girl is considered a negative thing, particularly when they are approaching puberty and trying to discover themselves while getting past insecurities. One actor, when asked what advice she would give young girls who are told they do something “like a girl,” says: ‘Keep doing it, ’cause it’s working. If somebody else says that running like a girl, or kicking like a girl, or shooting like a girl is something that you shouldn’t be doing, that’s their problem. Because if you’re still scoring, and you’re still getting to the ball on time, and you’re still being first, you’re doing it right. It doesn’t matter what they say. I mean, yes. I kick like a girl, and I swim like a girl, and I walk like a girl, and I get up in the morning like a girl because I am a girl. And that is not something I should be ashamed of, so I’m going to do it anyway. That’s what they should do.” Continue reading “The Always “like a girl” campaign”

On state licensing of bigotry

“Foes of equality see the writing on the wall,” writes Chad Griffen, President of the Human Rights Campaign (HRC) in a letter to supporters today:imgres

“State by state, they are losing the fight for marriage equality. So they are resorting to an insidious new tactic to undermine lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) civil rights:

“Using religion as a weapon to legalize discrimination against LGBT people. Last month HRC supporters helped shut down abominable “License to Discriminate” bills in Arizona and, for now, Kansas and South Dakota. Unbelievably, the bills – thinly veiled ploys to allow discrimination against LGBT people – could have made it legal to discriminate against individuals on the grounds of “religious freedom.” If these bills had gone through as intended, private businesses in these states could have legally refused an LGBT person anything from a seat at a restaurant, to photography services for their wedding, to accounting and tax counsel – all because of who they are or who they love.Tens of thousands of HRC supporters, fair-minded business leaders and people of faith said “NO!” to these sickening anti-equality ploys because treating people differently based on who they are is discrimination. Lawmakers listened, and many of these hateful bills have stopped in their tracks – at least for now.

“But this new and dangerous form of attack on LGBT equality is just the beginning. We have concerns that efforts like these could be revived in any of the 33 states that do not protect LGBT people at the state level. Even in states like Maine, where there are state-level protections for LGBT people, we recently had to fight back efforts to carve out an exception that would have deliberately exposed LGBT people to legalized discrimination. We must be prepared to move swiftly to shut down these efforts to divide and discriminate wherever they appear. Our immediate goal is to raise $150,000 by March 31st to fight back against these efforts and continue to press forward for non-discrimination initiatives in the next 90 days. Continue reading “On state licensing of bigotry”

Where your charitable gift really goes

If you’re thinking of giving to charity this holiday season, you might want to take a second to find out where your money is going.

“A report released today by New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman found that a staggering amount of the money raised by charitable telemarketing winds up going to pay the telemarketing companies, and all too often, little if any money actually makes it to the cause in question,” states today’s Village Voice.

“How bad is it? Schneiderman investigated 602 charitable telemarketing campaigns from 2011, which together raised more than $240 million. In 78 percent of the campaigns, less than half of the money raised actually went to the charity. In 76 of the campaigns, the charity actually lost money on the deal — zero money went to the cause, and the charity paid the telemarketers out of pocket.telemarketer-pic-dec-2008

“New York City organizations fared slightly better than average, with about 46 percent of money raised going to charity. Long Island charities were the worst in the state, keeping a scant 27 percent.

There’s a pattern here — the percentage of gross receipts from New York charitable telemarketing campaigns has hovered between 30 and 40 percent for the past decade.That’s not to say that different charities and telemarketing companies aren’t better than others. Oxfam America, USAFA Endowment, and Child Fund International pass along more than 90 percent of their telemarketing revenues. They were the only ones.

“But according to the Attorney General’s report, if you donated to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center through a telemarketer last year, exactly none of your money found its way to its intended target. Same for the Brooklyn Botanic Gardens, the Christopher Reeve Foundation, Ducks Unlimited, Feed the Children, the Food Bank for New York City, and the International Rescue Committee, to name a few. Why big-name charities accept such a miserable return on investment isn’t clear.”

For complete story, see:  http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2012/12/the_charitable.php