A friend of mine recently posted this article on her facebook wall. It is by Stephanie Fusco, a writer who went to Queens and is doing something with Public Relations and actually gets more than 10 people on her site each month (of which I’m jealous for).
Anyhow, it’s an article on Slacktivism. Slutty Slacktivism specifically. She brings up the uselessness of women randomly putting the colour of their bra’s as a facebook status. This somehow was supposed to support breast cancer awareness. This year, you’re supposed to write where you put your purse when you get home. “I like it on the counter/nightstand/hanging on the front door”.
Fusco articulates exactly how I feel about this uselessness.
Firstly – this entire campaign relies on sexualizing breast cancer and capitalizing on slut-shaming. There is nothing sexy about cancer. However, for whatever reason, the people who perpetuate this meme believe that including where they like to “put their purse when they get home” in their Facebook statuses – in a way that is clearly meant to imply where they like to get it on – is the way to draw attention to breast cancer awareness month. Sorry, friends. All it does is make you look a bit silly. No one is going to draw the connection between “where you put your purse” and “raising awareness about breast cancer”
She also quotes a friend named Ashley Judd who says:
“This whole thing was really an exercise in using the associated shame of sluttiness to supposedly draw attention to a good cause. It wouldn’t have been provocative if slut shaming weren’t so big. So it was slutty, it was totally meant to be. Women were supposed to sacrifice their reputation for a moment to grab the attention of others.”
I’ll let Fucso carry the argument about breast cancer and feminism and how slutty slactivism doesn’t help, but almost exploits women. She’s better at it than I am.
I will however, point out that her word is what really bothers me about my nemesis Bono.
Slactivism. Specifically Stadium Slactivism. The likes of literally, what Bono and U2 and anyone else involved with Live Aid (yes, I’m still pissed about those stupid concerts). There was a great political cartoon I remember seeing in (most likely) the Globe and Mail back when Live Aid came out where two people walk by a poor African kid saying “didn’t we just host a concert for you last week?” Going to a concert does nothing to solve any of the world’s problems. Going to a U2 concert and hearing Bono take a phone call from a War Zone makes people tolerate and buy songs from “how to dismantle and atomic bomb” because it somehow makes them think that they’re helping make AIDS obscure (extra social points if you buy the red iPod)
Red AIDS iPod
Slactivism pisses me off (and I’m really glad to have a simple word to describe what I’m pissed off at now). I remember an ex girlfriend of mine posting her bra colour what that was the rage last year. I thought it was stupid then (especially since it was far after breast cancer awareness month had come and gone) and I think this purse placing post is stupid now. I find it equally annoying when people talk about about how awful life is according to something they saw on television or heard at a rock concert. They talk about it briefly, feel like they’ve done something and move on to the next thing in their lives.
As Fusco said, there’s nothing sexy about cancer. There’s also nothing trendy about poverty, stylish about wars or cool about AIDS. So don’t pretend to be doing something positive for the world at large when you go to an event like Live Aid/8 when, next month you’re complaining about the Natives in Walpole or Fort Qu’Appelle (who have the worst health rates of any group in Canada, for every disease).
And you, Rehdbear, the one with the first comment on Fusco’s site who wrote something about how posting on facebook doesn’t necessarily make a point moot – why don’t you volunteer for a men’s shelter or something instead of wasting our time talking about talking, or I’m going to be forced to assume you liked “Elevation” and think Geldof deserves a Peace Prize.