A Day for Charity

You may remember that I recently wrote A Charity Case on my blog further to the recent Facebook no makeup selfie thing on Facebook for Cancer.

The point in my post was that these Facebook games are always about the same charity and what I wanted to do was emphasis that although charities like Cancer Research are important; there are others out there too that need help and support.

Everyone has a charity that means something to them because a friend or relative is or has been affected or indeed themselves and those charities need support just as much.

The idea was that a date would be arranged for next month whereby we would all post on our blogs/Facebook/Twitter/Pinterest accounts etc a picture of ourselves holding a sign with the name of a charity that you support, together with the link or text message number of how you can donate and the hashtag #IDonated.

I was excited to see that many of you contacted me and said that this was something that you wished to be involved in. I have decided to use Friday 11^thApril 2014 as the day for everyone to post and hope that you will become involved.

I thought that I would tell you a little about the charity that I have chosen, which is one that I have heard about recently.

Capes 4 Heroes is a non profit organisation that have a very simple, but very powerful idea. Here’s what they have to say:

“We make and personalize superhero capes for kids with disabilities, kids with life threatening illnesses and kids who just need to feel empowered. We hope our capes give these deserving kids an extra boost of strength and courage and make them feel like the superheroes they truly are!”

Sometimes it isn’t about trying to cure a disease, sometimes it is as simple as putting a smile on a child’s face when they really need to smile.

You can donate a cape to a child for $30 or alternatively whatever you can afford to via Paypal on this link You can also nominate a child who you think needs a superhero cape of their own on the website. They also send capes to the UK.

I look forward to seeing your posts on the 11^th!

Vicky x

Slut Shaming

This picture, and variations thereof, has been making it’s way around the internet recently and it is really starting to tick me off.

It is a prime example of slut shaming.  It isn’t a joke.

Let’s look at the photo.  Why is she a slut exactly?  Because she is wearing heavy makeup and a low cut top?  She is wearing makeup because it makes her happy and because she likes the way it looks.  An extra flick of eyeliner or another layer of mascara do not say anything about how she chooses to behave and how many people she has slept with.

The girl in the picture also has large breasts.  Whether she chooses to wear a polo neck or a round neck top, this does not make any difference to the size of her breasts.  She has the right to wear what she wants without being labelled a whore.

I have personal experience of this.  Having large breasts myself I can confirm that no matter what type of clothing I am wearing, they always seem to come up in conversation which, whilst frankly bored by it, I am used to.  However, when I have worn something that shows a bit of cleavage I have, on many more times that I can count, been judged as “easy”, a whore, or have had my breasts grabbed at because I look “like that sort of girl”. 

What has scared me more than being grabbed at was not the actual grabbing, it was the reaction of the assailant (yes, assailant is the right word) and of those around us of shock when I have dared to complain.  The fact that I have large breasts does not give anyway a free pass to touch me.  It is sexual assault.

The picture is being passed around as a joke but I what I say that it is preserving the idea that women can be judged according to how they look and what they wear and then treated accordingly. 

Laughing at a picture of woman being called a whore is one step on the ladder to the frame of mind that says that she deserves to be/have been raped because of the way she looks or dresses.

In any case, whether a woman is a virgin or has slept with 50 men (what exact number crosses the appropriate line anyhow?) it is not your business.  If you want to judge someone then please, do it silently and to yourself.

Unless we stand up and say that these things are offensive they are going to continue.  So I am standing up and shouting back. 

Enough.

Bon Marche Spring/Summer

I was recently sent the Spring/Summer lookbook for +Bonmarche and was yet again very pleasantly surprised by some of the pieces available.

I have put together some of my favourite images and am happy to confirm that I have been given a 10% discount code which is valid for one month which can be used by you!

When checking out just copy and paste this code:  SFD23XP9VMW

Check out the new in section at BonMarche and see what you can find!