A German artist created a brilliant anti-rape campaign that uses one of things that makes men stand aghast in horror: sanitary napkins.
Elone, the German artist who got the idea to “post” all sorts of anti-rape, pro-feminist messages (for example: “Rapists rape people, not outfits”) atop sanitary napkins throughout her German city after she saw this hilariously true tweet from @cutequeer96:
Elone embarked on this artistic journey to show that feminism is all about equality and not about hating men. To promote her project, Elone posted photos of her work across Instagram and Tumblr and, surprise – she’s received a lot of attention.
According to Care2, her anti-rape campaign has been replicated in other countries, such as Brazil, Sweden, and the United States.
While this project is great for one obvious reason (it gets people to take notice) it also “Touches on two very important feminist issues: Shame around women’s bodies and menstruation as well as sexual assault,” reports Care2.
As Care2 points out, this piece of activism is just one instance on a growing list of attention-worthy social media campaigns that support feminism and women who have been raped. Other recent cases of hashtag activism include the following:
1. #BeenRapedNeverReported: This hashtag was started after Lucy DeCoutere, a Canadian actress, said she was one of the women who was assaulted by Jian Ghomeshi, a former CBC host. Other women who had been raped but never reported the instance took to Twitter to defend DeCoutere and her all-too-common story.
2. #RapeCultureIsWhen: This hashtag popped up as a response to “right-wing narratives that claim that the idea of rape culture is not real but rather is an idea that has been blown up by feminists,” Care2 reports. As a woman who has been raped and was told that my rape wasn’t “real” because it wasn’t “that violent,” I can report that rape culture is, indeed, alive and well.
Do you have a favorite hashtag to use to promote women’s rights and equality? My two favorites are #FuckYeahFeminism and #StrongWomen. Also: What do you think about Elone’s project? Would you replicate it in your town?
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