You Are Beautiful

My first grassroots revolt of April was making out these post-it notes.

My plan is to stick them on advertisements or products in local retailers. So if there is anything in Target or Wal-Mart that catches my eye, be it an advert for Ava Longoria selling mascara or a tub of skin lightener in the ethnic beauty aisle, it will get my post-it note.

I want women to feel beautiful and comfortable in their own skin and it's hard to feel that way, in America, when you're being bombarded with consumerism. In my case, I don't start to feel less than until I flip through a copy of Glamour and see all the clothes and beauty products I could buy. All of a sudden, I start to feel as though these "things" can make me a better woman.

That can't be right. I also get that "less than" feeling when I walk through a shopping mall. I'm surrounded with slim petite mannequins that can wear the latest fashions that I either can't fit in or afford. That can't be right either.

When I wake up in the morning, I am satisfied with myself. I like my body, I like my clothes, I feel good. But once you leave the safety of your home, things can get hairy. So from now on, I'm going to take my post-its with me. I want to remind myself and others that my worth and self-esteem can't be bought.

Present Day Slavery

I watched Whistleblower, starring Rachel Weisz, and was disturbed by what I saw. Women and girls of economically depressed countries are still being sold into sex slavery and from what I saw in this film, there seems to be very little we can do about it. In the movie, which takes place in the 1990's war torn Bosnia, UN peacekeepers were helping keep this industry afloat.

Men who were sent to keep people safe were working hand in hand with local traffickers. They profited in the selling of women and there was nothing the UN could do to stop them. Since peacekeepers have diplomatic immunity, there was no way to arrest or reprimand those in the wrong. Rachel Weisz's character was a cop from Nebraska who came to Bosnia to become a peacekeeper and blew the lid off of the huge sex scandal and risking her life to do so.

It's based on a true story and this sort of things goes on all over the world today. Young women are lured into the business or sold by family members. They are shipped to other countries, their passports are taken from them and they believe they must work off a debt in order to regain their freedom. No one ever works off that arbitrary debt. These women are disposable commodities, when they're used up or if they dissent, they are killed.

As I said before, it seems there is very little that anyone can do to stop such an atrocity. I really hope I'm wrong. There are thousands of organizations and activists who work hard everyday to help these women towards safety. It's a huge protected circle of disfunctional economics that keeps this going. But I suggest you see this film and check out these websites to learn about what you can do to "re-abolish" slavery:

http://www.notforsalecampaign.org/

http://www.endhumantrafficking.org/

http://www.womensfundingnetwork.org/resource/past-articles/enslaved-in-america-sex-trafficking-in-the-united-states