Over a year ago (maybe even 2 years?), I started this blog in hopes of sharing my crafting and cooking and whatever else. Needless to say, I didn’t do a great job at actively keeping up with it. Writing about and trying to remember to take pictures of things I do when I’m bored at home just kinda messed with my flow. I have recently found it in myself that activism is a route I wish to follow in my life. The word “activist” makes me want to roll my eyes, if that’s what you’re thinking too. I’m not planning on pushing liberal beliefs on everyone, I just hope to shed light on real issues going on around us that most people have no clue about. I wasn’t even aware of how much I didn’t know until recently. I’m going to start using my blog to share articles that strike a place in my heart, as well as easy ways to give back to the world. I hope to not only be able to educate myself further, but to help others in educated themselves as well.

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This post stemmed from reading about the speech Emma Watson gave to the U.N. about feminism, the White House’s new sexual assault campaign, and the following article about domestic violence in the world: http://thinkprogress.org/health/2014/09/10/3565601/domestic-violence-cost/

The end of the article reads, “This whole culture for so long has put the onus on the woman. What were you wearing? What did you say? What did you do to provoke? That is never the appropriate question.”

I LOVE that there are movements finally happening to let men both actively and passively stand up for women. In past articles and studies I’ve read, an alarming number of women think about half of the women who say they’ve been assaulted are just “crying wolf because they can” when, in fact, only a very small percentage have lied. And like most cases, the few “bad ones” give the honest ones a bad rep. Women have been standing up for women since the beginning, it’s great to see a growth in actual organizational movements for men to stand up for women as well. Women are the abusers as well in rising numbers of cases as well. I believe in everyone standing up for everyone.

As I was reading about these topics, I wanted to know what I could do. Well, the biggest start is to help raise awareness–without scaring people off. I’m not the kind of person that finds something and wants to rub it everyone’s face until they crumble and agree. I believe in person freedoms, but I know that ignorance stands in the way of so much potential (including my own, for a long time). I am very excited to actively educate myself and try to see both sides to every story. Little victories add up!

I came across this website last week, in which you can choose what cause to support for everything that you purchase. My first purchase was a red bracelet (https://thehungersite.greatergood.com/store/ths/item/54930/red-thread-movement-bracelet?source=10-1146235001-1) for the Red Thread Movement, which “provides life-saving income for a Nepalese girl rescued from a life of slavery along the Nepal-India border,” among other things. I shopped through the Hunger site, and the shopping cart shows how many cups of food each item funds. One $5 bracelet that helps girls saved from human trafficking also buys 50 cups of food. WHY DIDN’T I KNOW ABOUT THIS BEFORE?! I know people have reservations about things like this, and I understand. I don’t expect all of you to go buy something. It’s just something that made me feel great, and maybe someone reading this will too.

Happy Tuesday!

-Bee