simeone says

Remember a couple of summers ago when everyone on your Facebook feed and their cousin was pouring buckets of ice water on their heads in the name of ALS?  What originally started out as a fundraiser for the ALS association swept the internet and before you can say “burr” everyone’s news feeds were flooded with videos of people blurting out they were taking the “challenge” followed by the name of friends to nominate to take the challenge before getting ice water poured on them.  All the while, there was barely any mention of what the “challenge” was or anything about ALS, why you should donate to the association, or what the money goes to.   It became a viral wet tee-shirt contest and while it raised money for ALS, when it was all said and done, what could people really say they knew about ALS that they didn’t know prior to dumping water on their head other than that it exists?  It also perfectly highlighted the world we live in and how trendy hash-tag activism has become.

April is sexual assault awareness month.  As someone who has experienced a sexual assault, this is important to me.  I can say honestly, however, that before I had been assaulted, it was just another awareness month.  I have now come to question what it even means to effectively bring awareness to something.  Does it come in the form of sharing statistics?  Or donating money?  Does it mean turning your profile picture teal to remind your friends that sexual assault exists?

Awareness months present opportunity.  A reason to talk about something that might not feel comfortable bringing up otherwise.  Or course, they will always be more important to the people touched by the issue than anyone else.  For people affected by the issue, whether it be sexual assault, ALS, breast cancer, or something else, we do not have the luxury of choosing when an issue is important or relevant.  It is not something you choose to think about; it is something you live with.  While sexual assault is something I think about every day of my life, I understand that for the next 30 day (27 by the time I get this up), is the only time it is relevant to some people.  This is the reason for having a sexual assault series on my blog this month.

I hope over the next month to put out content that can not only help other people in similar situations but also help bring “awareness” in a more meaningful way.  I hope this also gets people thinking about how they show their support for certain causes or issues.  I’m not saying every issue has to be important, however, I am saying that for those that you choose to support, there is so much more you can do other than putting a filter over your Facebook profile picture.