Another day, another stupid online awareness campaign (or three). Awareness campaigns are very popular online as they allow people to pat themselves on the back for doing something good while not actually accomplishing anything of note. I’ve talked in the past about the ice bucket challenge, but that one at least raised money for ALS. That kind of thing typically doesn’t happen online.
The first is the black dot campaign. Intended to raise awareness about domestic abuse, it tells women who may not be able to speak freely to put a dot on their hands, which signals that they are in need of help. The campaign has gone viral, with people posting about it on Facebook and spreading the message.
There are many problems with this. First, the goal is to be able to signal for help if your abuser is constantly watching you. If they are constantly watching you, they are likely to notice a random black dot on your hand and ask what it’s for.
Second, the black dot is supposed to be a secret way to signal someone, which kind of defeats the purpose when it goes viral so that everyone – including abusers – knows what it is. This is especially dangerous because domestic abuse typically ramps up if the abuser finds out the victim is planning to leave. Third, this is not a campaign co-ordinated with any domestic abuse networks or organizations, meaning it’s possible that not all of them will understand what it means if they see it.
Another big problem is that somewhere along the way, the point of the campaign got muddled. Instead of asking domestic abuse victims to put a dot on their hands to signal their abuse, people started asking others to put a black dot on their hands in solidarity or if they wanted to raise awareness about domestic abuse. So how are people supposed to tell the difference between a cry for help and a sign of solidarity?
Around the same time, a new awareness campaign started up for breast cancer, the disease that people definitely don’t know about yet. It invited women to show their support for people with breast cancer by not wearing a bra and taking a picture and posting it to social media. This definitely doesn’t sound like a campaign created by men with an ulterior motive, or anything. Even putting aside the fact that posting a picture to social media does exactly nothing, there’s this weird trend where breast cancer awareness campaigns focus almost exclusively on the breasts and how men relate to them; “Save Second Base” and “Save the Boobies” are two gross campaigns that come to mind. Breasts are, crazy enough, about more than what men like about them, and there is, crazy enough, more to women than their breasts. Breast cancer isn’t sexy, or wacky, or fun: it’s a disease that is (obviously) harmful, and it’s a big deal to women if they have to get a mastectomy. I haven’t been exposed to cancer, but I imagine it might sting a little for a woman without breasts to see all these idiots celebrating the fact that they still have theirs. In the excellent documentary “Pink Ribbons, Inc.” one woman undergoing treatment for breast cancer talks about how angry all the cute stuffed animals and merchandise made her, since her disease wasn’t cute.
Breast cancer doesn’t need any more awareness. What does need awareness is the common occurrence of companies using breast cancer awareness as a marketing tool while donating very little to the cause.
Think before you contribute to a cause. Ask yourself, “Am I sexualizing disease victims?” “Am I actually contributing anything?” If the answer is yes, just don’t do it. Concrete actions bring concrete results – donate or volunteer.
Note from the Editor: This is Robin Tarnowetzki’s last week at the Humboldt Journal and East Central Trader. everyone here at the office really enjoyed working with her and we wish her luck on her future endeavours.
