Street Activism

I love to hear (and see!) how you're using your stickers.

Lauren in Seattle just sent some photos showing off how she used her This Insults Women stickers for some awesome street activism.

She's going to get free stickers and you can too! Send me your stories, pictures and ideas. I'll post them in my street activism gallery and give you 10 free stickers.



Here's what Lauren had to say:

"Bought some of your stickers and love them. Hope you don't mind I made some of my own via copymachine so I could make some larger ones of your version. Wanted to send you some pictures for your gallery though!"





"I live in Seattle Washington in a young "urban" club area and all the posters around here for shows and drunken theme nights at bars are covered with totally sexist images of women, not to mention there are plenty of American Apparel stores around here with all of their ridiculous ads."

"I just wanted to show what your stickers have spawned in terms of some feminist activism in Seattle. There is a big group of guys and gals who, after seeing all the stickers I was posting up, tracked me down and joined up in the stickering/postering fun. We've been trying to take pictures of what we do to encourage others to join in too."

Thanks so much to Lauren for all her street activism and for sharing the pictures. I hope you'll get out there with your stickers too! And remember to send your pictures and stories in to get free stickers.

10 Ways to Celebrate Your Body Sticker Sisters Style

October 18, 2007 is the National Organization for Women Foundation’s tenth annual Love Your Body Day.

10 Ways to Celebrate Love Your Body Day:
(adapted from the NOW Foundation's suggestion list with a little Sticker Sisters twist)

1. Go to a Love Your Body Day event or create your own. Sticker Sisters will be taking part in Hollywood NOW’s event.

2. Get some blank t-shirts and decorate them with body positive messages. Or proclaim Action Not Glamour or Girls Rock with a Sticker Sisters tee.

3. Don’t buy products from companies that use negative images of women in their ads. Send them letters letting them know how you feel about their ads.

4. Get a group together and go paste This Insults Women, This insults Girls and This Insults Everyone stickers on everything you find offensive.

5. Listen to positive music that makes you feel good about yourself and your body. Try India.Arie’s “Video,” Northern State’s “Girl For All Seasons ,”and Salt-N-Pepa’s “Ain’t Nothin’ But A She Thing” to get you started.

6. Write down some things you like about yourself. Write yourself a poem or a love letter. If you’re having trouble getting started, our Up Words Girls magnetic poetry kit will inspire your creative juices.

7. Get moving for fun not to fit into a smaller size. Spice up your running shoes with some Girl Power or Action Not Glamour shoelaces and take a long walk, do some bedroom dancing, shoot some hoops, whatever!

8. Throw an indulgence party where everyone wears whatever is most comfortable, eats whatever they want, talks openly, and guilt is left at the door. Pick up some Sticker Sisters party favors for your guests.

9. Don’t talk about your weight or weigh yourself (especially in front of young girls).

10. Spread the word about Love Your Body Day to your family and friends. The NOW Foundation even has some e-cards you can send.

Itty Bitty Titty Committee Movie

Hey, some Sticker Sisters stickers might be coming to the big screen in a town near you!

Our This Insults Women, Action Not Glamour, Defend Yourself, Hello My Name Isn’t Cutie or Honey, It’s…, and A Feminist Was Here stickers decorate the walls in Jamie Babbit’s new movie about a group of feminist activists. These photos from the set are like a treasure hunt for Sticker Sisters stickers. See how many you can count!

The Oct/Nov edition of Bust magazine has a review of the Itty Bitty Titty Committee. And they had this to say: "don't be surprised if you find yourself pasting up 'Riots, Not Diets' and 'This Insults Women' stickers all over your cubicle at work the next day."

Stock up on This Insults Women and A Feminist Was Here stickers so you’ll be ready when the mood strikes you.

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but Feminist Review has a good write-up:

Jamie Babbitt’s directorial follow-up to But I’m a Cheerleader was the dark drama The Quiet, starring Elisha Cuthbert as a popular teen that has a secret sexual relationship with her father. There isn’t much happiness or comic relief in the film, making it a stark contrast to her hit indie, quirky comedy about a camp for ex-lesbians (starring Natasha Leonne and Clea Duvall). Lucky for her lesbian following, Babbitt’s new film, Itty Bitty Titty Committee is almost as gay and hilarious — almost.

From the beginning of the film, viewers are trying to figure out Anna (Melonie Diaz), the protagonist. She’s out to her family, who takes no issue with her sexuality, and spends most of their time doting on her older sister, who is getting married. Anna is quiet and dresses for comfort in jeans, long-sleeved T-shirts and hoodies. She works as a receptionist at a plastic surgery office, uninspired, until she catches Sadie (Nicole Vicius) tagging her office with “A Woman is More than Her Parts” late one night. A Joey Lauren Adams look-and-sound-alike, Vicius is certainly a heartbreaker, but her character is emotionally unavailable, as Anna will come to find out the hard way. Sadie (strangely and without much discourse) invites Anna to a meeting of feminist minds, a group called Clits in Action (C.I.A.) and Anna, with nothing to do on her social calendar, accepts.

The C.I.A. is a tamer version of the Guerilla Girls, an activism-meets-feminist-art gaggle, despite their efforts to make change being distorted or ignored, that is unofficially led by Shuli (Carly Pope), who is a walking encyclopedia of feminist facts and theory to back up any comment or idea in question.

Read the rest of the review.

And watch a preview of the movie:

Another T-Shirt to Hate

Part of what pushed me to start making t-shirts was because there are so many awful ones out there. Well here’s the latest from Wal-Mart that I hope will make you as angry as it made me.

The t-shirt reads: "Some call it stalking, I call it love."

The Charlotte News&Observer says:

Its message was a slap in the face to the woman who called me Thursday after seeing it in her local Wal-Mart.

"Some say it's stalking, I call it love."

For the past two years, this woman has been stalked until she feels like a prisoner in her own life. She has been spied upon, bullied and threatened with her life..."It's reprehensible," said the woman, whose story is well documented but who asked not to be identified for fear that her stalker might retaliate.

"People don't realize how serious stalking is," she said. "You constantly live in fear, look over your shoulder and suffer from psychological and physical symptoms due to the stress of the stalker."

She wondered aloud: What's next? "Some say it's rape, I call it hot sex"? Or: "Some call it domestic violence, I say I'm just teaching her a lesson"?

The N.C. Coalition Against Domestic Violence has already sent a letter asking Wal-Mart to remove the t-shirts from stores.

The Charlotte News&Observer goes on to say:

The question now is how the world's largest retailer will respond. Tara Stewart, a spokeswoman for the company, forwarded me information about Wal-Mart partnering with the attorney general's office in South Carolina on a public education campaign to combat domestic violence.

"We work hard on this issue and do a great deal to bring awareness and help families in need," she wrote in an e-mail message.

And the T-shirts fit into that public education campaign how?

Want to let Wal-Mart know what you think?

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.
702 S.W. 8th Street
Bentonville, AR 72716
1-800-WALMART
479-273-4000

Or email them.

NOW Conference 2007 Report

It's taken me some time to recover and catch up from the NOW conference in Michigan. My mom and grandma came to help me at the booth. We're spread across the country so it was great to make a mini family reunion out of the conference.

I met cool feminists of all ages and had a great time. But I have to say that I was a little disappointed with the workshops I went to this year.

One was on "Sex, stereotypes, and beauty." They pointed out a lot of unbelievable stuff out there for little kids and adult women. Like did you know that Disney is now making princess wedding dresses for brides? They also showed a onesie (pink of course) that has a personal ad on it that says "Adorable future model seeks attractive boy with wealthy father. Call me: 123-CUTE." Jeez the baby's barely born and already she's having beauty expectations placed on her ("future model") and being told to find a man.

So in this workshop they spent pretty much the whole time pointing out examples like these. A few examples were good to get everyone into it and riled up. But that would have been plenty. It didn't seem like they were prepared to speak to a group of feminists who are already pretty aware of the problem. They only started to answer the question "So, what do we do?" in the last five minutes. And that was a very brief, standard "write letters to companies, get involved with things like love your body day, be a mentor" spiel. Where's the mention of the Allegheny County Girls as Grantmakers who organized a girlcott against Abercrombie & Fitch's offensive t-shirts? How about all the ways About-Face suggests taking action? How about some This Insults Women stickers?

I don't mean to rag on this one workshop, because this seemed to be a problem in several sessions--they would leave the making change part until the end and then run out of time. Even in a session called "Vision. Action Justice. Your Campaign for Change," some of the presenters started going off on tangents and they never even got to creating the "concrete plans" that the workshop description promised.

Those workshops are over, but I want to get the discussion going. What concrete actions have you done or thought of doing to make change?

Feminism, Abortion, Stickers

Those topics have all just collided in my mailbox. I got an order and on the front of the envelope is a sticker that says, “Women Do Regret Abortion.” Then on the back there’s another sticker that says, “As a Former Fetus I Oppose Abortion.”

I’d be angry seeing these stickers anywhere. But I’m extra troubled because they’re on an order for “This Insults Women” and “A feminist was here” stickers. There are countless uses for “This Insults Women” stickers, but anti-choice messages like those are something I’d use mine on.

This has all gotten me thinking about who calls themselves feminists, who doesn’t, what feminism means, and how reproductive rights fit in.

At the NOW conference last year I went to a workshop called “I’m Not a Feminist but…” There was a great discussion on why young people with feminist ideals are hesitant or resistant to identify as "feminist." Some see feminism as a movement made up of white women with class privilege. Others prefer Alice Walker’s term “womanist.”

W O M A N I S T
“A black feminist or feminist of color. From the black folk expression of mothers to female children, 'You acting womanish,' i.e., like a woman. Usually referring to outrageous, audacious, courageous or willful behavior. Wanting to know more and in greater depth than is considered 'good' for one. Interested in grown-up doings. Acting grown up. Being grown up."

“Womanist is to feminist as purple to lavender."

-Alice Walker
In Search of our Mother’s Gardens: Womanist ProseAnd then there are still those images of feminists (man-hating, bra-burning, hairy, militant, lesbian, the list goes on and on) that some people don’t want to be associated with. It’s funny, but I’ve identified as a feminist for as long as I can remember and for a little while I secretly hoped I wouldn’t be queer because I didn’t want to satisfy people’s assumptions about feminists. I thought it would be so revolutionary to be a straight feminist. Um yeah, glad I didn’t spend too much time working on that campaign. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of straight feminists that I admire. But I don’t find anything revolutionary about it. And the bigger lesson for me was that I was letting these stereotypes control me by trying so hard to be the opposite of them. Better to be a happy queer feminist and try to destroy the whole system of stereotypes.

Okay, but back to the whole anti-abortion feminist thing. I’m not one for wanting to exclude people or say someone isn’t really a feminist. But I don’t get people who call themselves feminists and are anti-choice, or anti-gay, or conservative. I don’t get it-- wow that was eloquent. Well bell hooks explains the conflict between feminism and anti-choice better than I can: “If feminism is a movement to end sexist oppression, and depriving females of reproductive rights is a form of sexist oppression, then one cannot be anti-choice and a feminist. A woman can insist she would never choose to have an abortion while affirming her support of the right of women to choose and still be an advocate of feminist politics. She cannot be anti-abortion and an advocate of feminism.”

What do you think?