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| The “Hero’s Welcome” editorial cartoon by Canadian artist Pia Guerra. (Courtesy of Pia Guerra) |
Hi Mom,
So many things...
The Internet just gives and gives.
So, Sunday night, I am watching the Oscars because my family wanted to watch the Oscars until they all left the room leaving me watching the Oscars alone, at which point I decided to watch an episode of Star Trek Discovery and then go to bed.
Before that time, I saw the empowering Twitter ad that like many I mistook for a Dove ad, and so I hunted the Internet the next day to make a post about it, discovering it's really a Twitter ad for a campaign called #hereweare.
More about this ad farther along.
So, this post was only going to be about the #hereweare ad, and then I spotted this next link to a comic reported about at a site I never heard of called thelily.com, which is a blog from the Washington Post.
"The Lily was the first U.S. newspaper by women. We’re bringing it back." reads the line at the top of the mission page.
Enter The Lily of 2017. A revival. A comeback. A publication for women, sure. But the curious ones. The ones who have something to say and who want to be heard.
Our mission is two-fold: Empower with news and information and promote inclusivity by exposing diverse voices.
I spotted the ad for this comic and the corresponding article among paid links on ESPN's site. Normally, I do not click on the paid links, but this one caught my eye as the art looked familiar. Turns out, it was art by Pia Guerra, who illustrated the wonderful Y The Last Man comic.
And so... this comic is so beautiful. Okay, yeah, she needed more people of color in the group in obvious ways, and she admits that, but come on... it's still a beautiful image.
So this blog became about two things: the comic and the #hereweare. First, some stuff about the comic from the Lily.
This artist’s cartoon about school shootings is striking a chord with thousands of people
The image came to her in the middle of the night
It was the middle of the night, and Pia Guerrera, a 46-year-old Vancouver-based artist, felt helpless. News of the deadly mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. had just unfolded over Valentine’s Day, and she couldn’t bring herself to go to sleep.
One of the first victims identified among the 17 people killed was Aaron Feis, an assistant football coach and security guard. Feis was shot after reportedly throwing himself in front of students during the rampage. Guerra was moved by the thought of this heroic man, the father of a young child, standing in front of bullets for students.
“I need to get this down before time dilutes it,” she recalled thinking as she began to sketch the image.
Public response
Guerra’s cartoon evoked striking responses across social media. By Tuesday morning, the image had been retweeted more than 20,000 times, and Guerra’s Twitter account had been overwhelmed with emotional messages.
In addition to significant praise, Guerra’s cartoon also drew a wave of criticism for seemingly portraying only white children and adults, despite the fact that many people of color have died in these shootings.
“That was a direct result of rushing and not paying more attention to the makeup of the crowd, and maybe making a point about how these things always seem to happen in white suburbia and totally mucking it up,” Guerra said. She lamented the lack of representation in the image.
“I’m taking the note and I promise to do better,” said Guerra, whose father is Chilean and mother is Finnish. She was born in New Jersey and moved to Canada when she was 6 years old.
It's funny how I am not the only one who mistook this Twitter ad for the #HereWeAre campaign for a Dove campaign.
I have a student writing about the Dove ad campaigns, which I have been critical of in the past and it was his paper that brought this to my attention: racist ad 2017?
And this - new Dove ad 2015 Bitch Magazine.
So I was going to share the new ad I saw on the Oscars with this student, and I quickly found out that it was not a Dove ad but a Twitter ad:
That ‘Dove’ ad for strong women during the Oscars was actually a Twitter ad
social media went haywire over the ad, which featured women of all ages. Twitter’s new #HereWeAre campaign starred Denice Frohman, who narrated the footage to her own original poem, #SheInspiresMe. Movie makers Issa Rae, Ava Duvernay, Julie Dash and Jennifer Brea also made an appearance, as well as former Under Secretary of State Charlotte Beers.
#HereWeAre comes after the #MeToo and #TimesUp movements gained momentum in Hollywood following countless sexual harassment allegations. Also discussed at Oscars was #NeverAgain, a hashtag created by student survivors at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School shooting in Parkland, Florida.
“In honor of #HereWeAre, uniting women and making their voices heard and their presence known, I’m devoting my social media this entire week to the survivors and facilitators of my program #SheHerdPower,” wrote Beth Behrs on Twitter.
Users on social media called the ad “fierce, powerful and inspiring.” Some even joked it should have been nominated for an Oscar itself
Happy to join fellow women of color storytellers @IssaRae @JenBrea and the legendary @JulieDash. Fierce poem by @DeniceFrohman. #HereWeAre pic.twitter.com/L4SPqwIlX0— Ava DuVernay (@ava) March 5, 2018
Twitter ad empowering but hypocritical?
Despite the ad receiving tons of praise -- and I do think it's quite good, see the video below -- others were critical (because, you know, you have to be because it's the Internet, right?).
But others found Twitter’s message of female empowerment – and its nod to the #MeToo movement – hypocritical. Many accuse Twitter of being slow to police the rampant harassment of women on its platform.
Last year, thousands of women promised to boycott Twitter after it temporarily suspended actress Rose McGowan — one of the loudest voices of the #MeToo movement who accused Weinstein of raping her — for tweeting “a private phone number.”
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Something this powerful takes time and effort and planning and the release during the Oscars, often a highly rated program, was BRILLIANT (and cheaper than trying to get it on the Super Bowl).
I say GO TWITTER!!
http://www.adweek.com/digital/twitters-powerful-anthem-to-women-makes-its-tv-debut-during-the-oscars/
She inspires me?
Twitter, Denice Frohman, and everyone involved, YOU inspire me.
"This is how you create a new world."
Ditto the comic. It's the same kind of thing, innit?
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Reflect and connect.
Have someone give you a kiss, and tell you that I love you, Mom.
I miss you so very much, Mom.
Talk to you tomorrow, Mom.
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- Days ago = 976 days ago
- Bloggery committed by chris tower - 1803.06 - 10:10
NEW (written 1708.27) NOTE on time: I am now in the same time zone as Google! So, when I post at 10:10 a.m. PDT to coincide with the time of your death, Mom, I am now actually posting late, so it's really 1:10 p.m. EDT. But I will continue to use the time stamp of 10:10 a.m. to remember the time of your death, Mom. I know this only matters to me, and to you, Mom.
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