Hardy Girls thinks too many people underestimate the power of girls' voices. That's why we're committed to doing all we can to support girls who want to make the world a better place. We take girls seriously and know they have the power to challenge injustice and create the change they want and need to see. In turn, they do amazing things. Check out these girls in action!
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Girls Advisory Board member Beth wrote to Seventeen Magazine about the contradictory messages the magazine in sending to girls:
Dear Seventeen,
I have been getting your magazine for a little while now and I love your message about being who you are and loving your body. It's really great. What I don't understand is that you say that, but then go around and tell us we have to wear certain clothes, pluck our eyebrows, and be sexy. I want to be myself, not what other people tell me to be.
And they replied:
Hey Beth!
This is Heather, writing from Seventeen. We think your letter's really great and are considering including it in one of our upcoming issues! All we need from you is a picture, it should be a close-up of your face so that we can include it on our "What you think" page. Feel free to call me if you have any questions, my phone number is listed below. We'd appreciate it if you could send us the photo as soon as possible as we do have tight deadlines.
Thanks and congrats!
Heather
After one group member talked about the sexual violence she experienced as a child and another expressed the pain of living with an alcoholic parent, this girls coalition group decided they needed to do something to show their support for their sisters and all the other students in their school who have been the victims of abuse, members of alcoholic families, or are living with other kinds of pain and hurt. They initiated a Day of Hope. One member suggested that everyone in the school wear white on this day; then another suggested they sell white "There is Hope" bracelets to raise money for the local Family Violence Project. The girls made posters, notices, and talked with other students at their school. When the day arrived and most of the school turned up in white, including their principal, they were completely energized by this totally girl-initiated, girl-led social action project. The girls also invited other Girls' Coalition Groups in their area to sign on and make The Day of Hope an annual junior high school event. Oh, and they raised over $400 for the Family Violence Project. The event was covered in the local paper. link
The Girls Advisory Board (GAB) was busy in December 2006 collecting money and supplies for the local family violence project shelter when one of Hardy Girls' supporters brought the Problem Solved t-shirt to their attention. On the shelves of the local Kmart, sold in little boys' sizes, was a Route 66 "attitude tee" that depicted violence between a cartoon boy and girl. In the first panel a stick figure wearing a skirt is waving her arms and shouting at a stick figure boy. In the second panel the boy is smiling, after just having pushed the girl out of the panel; she's falling down the shirt, about to land on her head. See the t-shirt on our blog: hghw.blogspot.com. GAB president and vice president Thalia and Deahna were quick to call attention to the offensive tee - working with Hardy Girls staff to draft letters and petitions to Kmart's parent company, Sears Holdings and to rally support at a press conference. They spread the word far and wide and even inspired a rally in Toledo, Ohio and rants on numerous blogs and list-servs throughout the country. Despite Kmart's insistence that the t-shirt was "lighthearted" these gals' perseverance paid off when Kmart announced they had removed the shirts from their shelves across the country!
Read more here:
Demonstrators protest 'problem solved' T-shirts
Protesters Want T-shirts Pulled from K-Mart's Shelves
Mother of murder victim outraged by shirt she says promotes violence
Groups Denounce Kmart Shirts
Groups to Kmart: Pull crude T-shirt
After conducting an activity around the difference of flirting versus hurting, all members of the 8th grade Girls' Coalition Group realized that they had experienced a form of sexual harassment in their lives while in junior high. That's when the girls wondered what the policy was around sexual harassment for their school. To their horror, no such policy existed! Upon further investigation, the group found there were guidelines about inappropriate behavior between student and faculty in the faculty handbook and there was information about the use of weapons, profanity and rudeness even about public displays of affection, but nothing regarding the rights and policies for students around sexual harassment. While the procedure and policy around drug/alcohol and tobacco use occupied over 3 pages of the handbook, nothing was listed to identify what sexual harassment was let alone what to do if it was happening. The group decided that this had to change and through several meetings, drafted and submitted to their school principal a policy that would identify what sexual harassment was and what the disciplinary procedure should be for their school. With the endorsement of their guidance counselor and the group muse, that policy is in the works to be included in the student handbook.
In another Girls' Coalition Group, twelve-year-old Pearle noticed that in her middle school girls were subjected differently to the school dress code, depending on how developed their breasts were. Those who were physically developed were more likely to be reprimanded for wearing tops with spaghetti straps. She wrote a petition challenging this unfairness and asked that the dress code be applied to all girls equally, regardless of body size. More than 200 people signed Pearle's petition, including parents, teachers and students. The petition went like this:
This is a petition stating that all girls should have equal rights in the clothing they wear. It seems that some girls are allowed to wear inappropriate clothing that is revealing and goes against school policy, while others are punished for wearing the same type of clothing. We would like you to sign this petition if u agree with this statement.
Pearle's petition campaign was successful and thereafter the school dress code was enforced equally among all the students.
Two of the GAB members who spoke at the press conference at the state house asking Kmart to remove offensive t-shirts from their stores.
The Kmart t-shirt that offended our Girls Advisory Board and launched them into action.
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