We at About-Face have a very special reason to be sending out our next mailing: About-Face was in O magazine! (You may have already heard.) So we want to tell EVERYONE on our mailing list, which means… envelope stuffing!
Snacks and/or dinner will be provided, you’ll get to meet and talk with other cool people who are About-Face supporters, and help us out big time.
Thursday, May 27, 2010, 6-9pm (come later if you need to)
Tuesday, May 25, 2:30-6pm
AND/OR Thursday, May 27, 2-6pm
About-Face office in downtown San Francisco, at California and Kearny (e-mail us for exact location)
If you can be there, e-mail us at info@about-face.org, or phone our office at (415) 839-6779. We hope to see you there!
So we know we’ve been talking about this action a LOT. Like, a lot a lot. But we’re just so proud! And we’ve really just been building up tothispost. So here it is, the moment you’ve been waiting for:
Hey, About-Facers! Remember that action we were planning against American Apparel’s sexist advertising campaigns? Well we did it, and it was awesome.
We assembled and performed our street theater on loop outside of the Haight St. American Apparel location for about an hour on Saturday. The police eventually came to ask us to leave (it’s not a real protest ’til someone calls the cops, you know?), but not before we handed out piles of fliers and got the American Apparel employees all riled up. Overall, it was a success!
Here’s a teaser; check out more photos after the jump! (All photos here are thanks to the awesome Anita over at Feminist Frequency!)
Our reporter asks "Dov" hard-hitting questions as his "model" looks on
Dov engages his audience and gets really excited about press
We ask the hard hitting questions; Dov gets distracted by cameras.
One of our awesome volunteers with the fliers we distributed
It's not exploitation if there's a waiver, right Dov?!
This action was a ton of fun! HUGE THANKS to everyone who helped out, in person and online! We couldn’t have done this without you!
If you couldn’t make it out but still want to show your support, you can. Join our Facebook group, sign our petition, and make your voice heard!
By now, you know how much we despise American Apparel’s advertising. Well, here’s your chance to make your voice heard TOMORROW, whether you’re in San Francisco or supporting from afar:
An Afternoon with Dov Charney
Saturday, May 1 at 1:00pm
Haight St. (at Clayton), San Francisco (and online)
Using street theater and performance art, this parody interview with American Apparel CEO and President Dov Charney will give “Mr. Charney” (i.e. a friend of About-Face playing the CEO) a ribbing for the company’s treatment of its female models in its advertising.
When you arrive, there will be a way for you to be a part of the action immediately.
Can’t make it in person? Here are some other ways to support “An Afternoon with Dov Charney”.
Sunday was our bake sale and cupcake contest at Dolores Park. We had a variety of tasty treats to share, along with 18 different cupcake flavors! Judges for the cupcake contest sampled each flavor and voted for their top five favorites. Want to know whose cupcakes took the cake? Here are the results:
How sweet of Sweet to donate these cupcakes! (photo by Naomi)
By the end of the day, we raised $540! All proceeds will go to continue our media-literacy workshops, keep our website up and running, and fund future Take Action groups.
On August 15, 2009, the About-Face Take Action group members, About-Face volunteers, and their friends posted decals with positive messages on various stores’ fitting room mirrors in the heavily populated Union Square area and downtown shopping area in San Francisco.
They also handed out decals to others who wished to do the same or to keep one for their mirrors at home.
On the same day, our Take Action Group also set up its own “dressing room” at Powell St. and Market St. in downtown San Francisco and invited people to write inspirational messages about body image on the walls. Watch our video and see how it went!:
To learn more about this action, check out this page.
Who: Passionate activists! Quiet behind-the-scenes helpers! Education-minded world changers! New and familiar faces are welcome! (Volunteers must be ages 13 and up).
Why: To help About-Face equip women and girls with tools to understand and resist harmful media messages that affect their self-esteem and body image.
How: At this Volunteer Meetup, you will learn more about our small but effective organization and the many ways we can work together! You will also get to enjoy a free dinner with others who are interested in this issue!
In the early part of the meeting, About-Face staff will introduce the organization and talk about the many volunteer opportunities we have open, which range from a couple hours to a couple months.
If you like, you can stay and start volunteering RIGHT AWAY! We’ll have a few projects to do until the end of the meeting.
You can also sign up for longer-term volunteer opportunities and get to know us better.
If you have a laptop with Microsoft Office (Word, Excel) on it, we’d love for you to bring it.
Please try to RSVP so we are sure we have enough food (and to let us know if you have any food restrictions, which we will try to accommodate): iwanttovolunteer@about-face.org or (415) 436-0212. But we’re not going to turn you away if you don’t RSVP!
We wish we could hear from women and girls who went into those 200 fitting rooms after us: What did you think when you saw “You are Beautiful!” and “Beauty Fits Every Size,” among other messages, on the mirror?
Thanks all our friends and About-Face supporters who came out to put up decals and write on the walls of our “dressing room” on Market and Powell Streets!
We’re also making a video, which you’ll see on our site next week sometime… watch for it.
Carol Normandi (co-founder of Beyond Hunger), Darryl Roberts, me, and Laurelee Roark (co-founder of Beyond Hunger)
Way back in August ’08, I had the pleasure of catching this little indie film, “America the Beautiful,” as it showed briefly in San Francisco. I thought to myself “If About-Face made a film, this is the film it would make.” And I sure had a lot to say about it when I walked out of that theater, as evidenced here! From that blog entry:
There are just so many pertinent, poignant bits in this film, one being that the whole thing flows really well and nails the problem of our culture’s beauty obsession in a way that no somewhat-smart woman can deny.
Even more than the gratitude I felt in August that “America the Beautiful” had been produced at all, I wanted (no, needed) to help bring it back again to San Francisco so all of our About-Face supporters could also see it. So you know what? We did that on May 27 and 28. It took some instigation from a firebrand community member (Christa! Yay!) and her fellow yoga teacher Vajra (yay!). We added many planning hours and joined up with Beyond Hunger, another great org that helps women, teens, and men with severe eating disorders. Then we stirred it all up.
Two screenings followed — one in San Francisco and one in San Rafael (up in Marin County), and we had such an outpouring of support for the film, and for About-Face and Beyond Hunger. Our awesome founder, Kathy Bruin, took her rightful place as an About-Face schmoozer, all our supportive board members (Mara, Kelly, Kristen, Jennifer, and Vivian) supported us, and my wonderful friends came (Trish! Kim! Alison! Kendra!) too.
Our beautiful audience at the Clay Theatre.
The best part, really, was that 350 more people got to see “America the Beautiful” in our area.
Darryl Roberts, the filmmaker (a tall man with a heart of gold) did a Q&A session after each screening, and told some great stories (yes, Oprah was mentioned). Basically, everyone was just hanging on his every word.
I heard from so many friends, acquaintances, and strangers after the screenings, saying they’d never considered how much our culture damages young women with messages about “beauty.” I even ran into one friend on the street the day after she saw the film, and she was still thinking about it, and mulling over how to talk to her very young daughter about body image issues.
Get this film to your area! Click here to go to the site.
What’s that? You say you missed it this time? Or you’re not nearby? “America the Beautiful” is not on DVD as of this writing, but it will be soon. Here are some other ways to see and bring “America the Beautiful to your community:
Head on over to the film’s web site and sign up to be alerted when the DVD is released
When the DVD comes out in the fall, contact us, and we’ll help you throw the party so you can show friends the film at your home
Go to the film’s web siteand invite Darryl Roberts, the filmmaker, to speak to your group after a screening
And a little extra goodness: How fun would it be to have an “About-Face film series” in San Francisco or nearby, made up of some of the best media/body image/women’s self-esteem movies out there? (Jean Kilbourne’s “Killing Us Softly 3,” anyone? “Lovely and Amazing” anybody?) If you’re interested in attending or helping organize that, e-mail me directly and be sure to comment below to register your support!
