Global efforts to empower women and achieve gender equality are at
the forefront of human rights struggles in the twenty-first century, applicable
in Germany, the US, and Poland. As members of the group dedicated to women’s
empowerment, we believe that both women and men have roles to play when it
comes to fighting for gender equality.
Our group, comprised of two women and one man, has worked together to contribute to positive societal change.
Our top choice for the issue in Polish society we wanted to research
and address was women’s empowerment, but we were not immediately sure what
specific topic would be measurable and achievable. After meeting with my
assigned group and partnering with MamyGłos, an NGO dedicated to the
empowerment of Polish teenage girls, we discussed how the increasing influence
of globalization and neoliberalism has led to a great rise in advertisements
around the world featuring women with unrealistic beauty standards. It was
clear to us that increased body shaming and decreased body positivity are
issues that need to be addressed.
Our campaign centered around the creation of five videos of young
women sharing their own body stories and what makes them unique. We created
graphics for our initiative and used the MamyGłos Facebook page to spread our
message. Within a few hours our first video garnered over 8,000 views and the
MamyGłos page increased by over 280 likes. As of mid-July, this initial post
reached over 108,000 Facebook users. Moreover, numerous women have already
submitted videos to document their own body story. Our ultimate goal is that
teenage girls will see these videos and make their own to empower themselves,
their friends, and other girls. Fortunately, MamyGłos will be administering the
campaign even after the 2017 Humanity in Action Poland program concludes,
eventually culminating with them dedicating funds to body positivity workshops
around Poland.
From the beginning, there was a strong group consensus on the
importance of addressing the issue of body shaming. Related to personal
observations and experiences, each of us wanted to create an impactful campaign
to bring positive change within Polish society. Although we easily agreed on
the topic, we soon realized it was difficult to narrow down. This was mainly due
to our topic's applicability to all people of all ages and identities, whose experiences and awareness toward body
shaming vary significantly. As such, we
had to accept the fact that, in order to create an efficient and clear message,
we would have to limit ourselves.
Our main challenge was to decide on our target group, ultimately Polish
teenage girls, and then decide on an applicable campaign format to successfully
reach out to them. “Killing our darlings” was an insightful challenge, since it
meant to dismiss overly-ambitious ideas, which required us to distant ourselves
from personal agendas. Our group consisted of three strong individuals with
different gender identities and life stories. Rather than inhibiting our
group's success, however, our differences were a source of inspiration.
Empathy, compromise, and especially clear communication were all necessary to
channel each person's skills and expectations regarding the working process and
final outcome. In the end, each one of us complemented one another and combined
our passions to create a successful #bodystory campaign to play a small role in
addressing gender inequality around the globe
Needless to say, this was exactly
the type of hands-on work for which we were looking. Additionally, this entire
process has been indispensable in our journey to better understanding women’s
empowerment. Throughout this process, we learned about the personal stories of
five incredible women. One of our group members, Ola, shared her story about
learning to love herself despite societal beauty norms. We believe stories like
Ola’s are exactly what also needs to be seen on a young girl’s newsfeed. Our
sincere hope is that at least one young girl watched it and was inspired by the
message. Over the next
months, to truly impact our target group of Polish teenage girls requires
dedication and persistence in sharing our five videos, promoting the hashtag,
and spreading our message of body positivity. As such, we dedicated ourselves
to create videos, graphics, and sharing our message so MamyGłos will continue
our work. We anticipate as our other videos become published, more people will
both view and share them to increase awareness about the #bodystory campaign.
Ultimately, this campaign has
shown us the potential influence of body positivity and how it relates to
gender socialization. Finally, focusing on women’s empowerment in Polish
society has shown us the beauty of human rights advocacy. These issues are not
limited to one nationality, ethnicity, religion, gender identity or any
identifying factor. These issues are transnational. This experience has
reinforced our preconceived notion that, as human rights activists, we must
recognize the inherent dignity of every person and bring out the best in the
world. For women in our global society, promoting topics like body positivity
can move us forward on our long journey for gender equality.
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