Elizabeth Plank on starting a massive petition to support female boxers and why you don’t need a smart phone to be a smart activist
It all began with a tweet.
I’m assuming you know I’m not referring to the chirp of a two-legged creature but rather to the most novel (d)evolution in human communication: the 140 character statement. Some say you can’t convey any substance in so little space, but it was still enough to change everything.
It started out a standard Tuesday afternoon. I left class with the expectation of getting on top of readings and finally getting to the grocery store so that my fridge would contain more than a just a questionable container of I can’t Believe It’s not Butter! Typically, I didn’t end up accomplishing any of those things. Instead, I ended up ogling at my computer screen. There comes a time in everyone’s life when even a diet solely composed of expired simulated butter products can’t detract from the comfort of a serial tab-opening frenzy.
I came across a petition started by Change.org with a few hundred signatures asking for the amateur international boxing agency (AIBA) to reconsider its recommendation to force Olympic female boxers to wear skirts in the ring. If that wasn’t enough to make my blood boil, their reasoning was. In an attempt to preserve women’s “elegance” and guarantee they be easily “distinguishable” from their male counterparts, the AIBA claimed it was necessary for them to sport micro-minis. I resisted the initial impulse to pull out my hair, lip-syncing to a tinny version of “What’s Going On” by Four Non Blonds and start shovelling crappy seashell-shaped truffles down my throat to anesthetize my anger. Rather than choosing the chaotic (yet arguably entertaining) option of self-numbing with 90s feminist anthems and a cheap chocolate flavoured haze, I decide to calmly appose my name to the petition instead. Since I had just taken up boxing recently at my local gym, I felt compelled to advocate for more signatures.
So I did what any committed and dedicated activist of the 21st century does: I tweeted it.
I shared the petition on Twitter, and that was that. I concluded my daily procrastination session with a classic Chinese cat video (which usually marks the lowest point in the life of a procrastinator) until I realized I needed to self-actualize, model myself on other grown-ups and like, buy food.
Shortly after this, Change.org contacted me asking if I wanted to jump on board with their campaign and petition. Although I pretended to be super casual about it, my high-pitched exclamations conveyed zero coolness. They instantly suggested I take on the petition under my name and asked if I could write a blog post for them. Within days, it snowballed into a life-altering experience I wouldn’t even have imagined in my wildest dreams. Considering the majority of my dreams would even leave Freud weirded out, this was massive.
Within a few days, my petition grew exponentially totaling more than 52 000 signatures from all over the world. Every major news outlet from The Telegraph to The Independent is covering the campaign. I have spoken with journalists from the CBC, the BBC, The Evening Standard and have been quoted by more than 45 news outlets or online blogs. The HuffingtonPost has recently published my blog post, which now means that as a HuffPost Blogger, I can submit posts about any topic I am passionate about. The editors can decide not to publish my posts, but hey, at least I get to be rejected by the flippin’ Huffington Post.
It’s important to mention that throughout this experience and to this day, I still own a consistently unreliable prehistoric excuse for a cell phone containing approximately four cents in credit. If that’s not proof that you don’t need a smart phone to be a smart activist, I don’t know what is.
Social media offers a world of opportunities and its impact on the way we communicate has increased the accessibility of activism – especially when it comes to young people. Networking used to be about who you knew and now it’s about what you know and what you’re able to do with it.
Social media offers you a platform that can serve as a megaphone to get your message across. Sure it won’t hurt to design some artsy fartsy business cards and buy a suit with some shoulder pads for that job fair you signed up for, but always remember that social media can be a tool that can allow you to network in your sweatpants instead.
Exceptional organizations like Change.org have successfully created a platform where activism has become genuinely accessible to anyone. Just like social media, these organizational clusters serve to amplify the voices of those who often don’t get to be heard.
Ultimately, as an activist I hope to have the ability to expand the voices of others as well. If everyone used their voice to magnify another, then everyone would be able to speak.
So just get out there already. Make some noise. Get your message across whether it be through a lengthy blog post or a tiny tweet. Take a chance, because you never know where the next 140 characters can take you.
To see where Elizabeth’s 140 characters continue to take her, follow her on twitter @feministabulous
