Celebrating IWD2012 by Rethinking Pink!

To celebrate International Women's Day, I just launched my new website: Rethinking Pink! Check it out for weekly profiles of women globally, past & present. http://www.rethinkingpink.org/

Why Rethinking Pink?

Can you easily call to mind a list of women throughout history who inspire, who ignite? I want to, and I want you to as well. I do not often hear their voices in the news, their ideas on the screen. I want us to remember this cloud of witnesses so that together we can re-tell their stories and walk in their foot paths.

Why Rethinking Pink? The idea for this site originally grew out of my encounter with stories of women around the world who were boldly resisting violence and oppression with PINK functioning as their symbol of collective power. At the same time that I reflected on the resilience of these women, I would regularly see the phrase “think pink” displayed across the backsides of Victoria Secret models telling a very different story about pink – a retailer hijacking pink to commodify bodies with profound ignorance about our strength, our stories of purpose and vision.

This contradiction and an obscured rhetoric about women and girls in our media is what motivated me to create this space for women’s voices past and present, women of PINK who have resisted sexual and gender-based violence and oppression and who have fostered communities of healing. So in re-thinking, I invite you to a weekly remembrance – of our voices, stories, creativity, difference, resistance.

Stop by Rethinking Pink for a weekly profile of the voices of women globally, past and present, Laura Markle Downton