Connie K.

Chen

BIS 224

Dr. Thea Quiray Tagle

08/21/2020

Skirt Wars Movement

This proposal was inspired by our pioneer #MeToo movement. Women around

the world have been using the hashtag #MeToo to tell stories of sexual assault or

harassment. The movement has brought down not only industry leaders but also by

dignitaries. Instead of saying it's about sex, it's more about power. Sex and power

cannot be discussed separately, and we can only look at them intersectional. The

problem of so many sexual crimes and violence occur is really a problem of power

difference.

The #MeToo movement has raised many new questions for this era, many of

which remain unanswered. On the positive side, the #MeToo movement has at least

made women's complaints taken seriously by the public. In addition to legal

loopholes, lack of social institutions and lax law enforcement, every time a sexual

crime occurs, society can give the victim a variety of reasons to believe that “you

deserve to be harassed.” With all the reports of rape, we can see many kinds of ugly

words that are used to judge women. For a long time, when women came forward to

accuse men, the finger of suspicion eventually falls back on women. The New York

Times published an article about several women who reported being sexually

harassed and abused by the Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein. Weinstein was

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fired from his media company four days later (Arriaza Ibarra 154). Unfortunately, this

is not a victory won with the help of the judiciary. It is the courage of individuals and

the power of public opinion.

However, sex crime and violence have its own particularity. Unlike other crimes,

sexual assault and sexual harassment can be difficult to prove and often rely on the

testimony of both parties. What's more, sexual assault cases often have unequal power

relationships, and normal channels of appeal don't work. In the article “If We Abolish

Police, What Happens to Rapists?”, the author mentioned that every 1000 sexual

assaults, about 230 of those are reported. Of the 230 reported cases, fewer than 5

result in incarceration (Mensah 2020). From statistics, the ultimate punishment for

sexual violence by the judiciary is light, and most rapists do not go to jail. These

questions gave us a lot of thought about why sexual violence is so rampant. Due to the

punishment and consequences are not very serious, the perpetrators use violence

against women with impunity and easy. What we need to do is to actively respond to

this situation and push for stricter penalties at the state and national level.

Inspired by The Combahee River Collective Statement, we have decided to take

action against sexual violence. To address this issue, our collective wants to come up

with a new program, which we call "Skirt Wars," because we want women around the

world not to be afraid that wearing a skirt will be considered a cause of sexual

violence and assault. It will be divided into two parts. For the first part, we are going

to launch the "Skirt Wars" manifesto and protest march. We will organize all the

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women working on this movement to wear their favorite skirts and take to the streets

to shout to the world.

In addition, we are integrating hip hop feminism and inviting hip hop female

rapper to create a theme song for this movement, which we will channel to all major

social media platforms to promote. considering that hip-hop culture has been

commercialized in the marketplace, and records have been produced to cater to gangs,

violence, crime, sex, and misogyny (Rose 6). For this reason, Hip-hop culture

sometimes gives people a false sense of disrespect for women, and derogatory lyrics

have become a hip-hop tradition. Money and women have always been two

indispensable factors in the male rapper world. It's the privilege of male hip-hop

artists to have sexy women on the left and on the right, not only to assert their control

over money, power, and beauty, but also to express their desire, and even disdain for

women in the lyrics (Hurt et al. 2015). While women's rights have soared at all levels

of society, female hip-hop artists remain a relatively small minority in the still male-

dominated hip-hop scene. We expect to promote the movement among feminists who

love hip-hop music, and we want to make it clear that women don't wear beautiful

dresses to attract men, they just want to please themselves.

In the second part, we will establish an online platform dedicated to helping

women who have been victimized by sexual violence or assault seek legal assistance.

Something has been in the public discourse of politicians for years, but this has led to

piecemeal and weak action that has not solved the problem (Arriaza Ibarra 155).

Therefore, our action will not be the same as referring victims' cases to a legal aid

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center or helping them find a solicitor. We will accept all eligible women without

distinction and personally defend them. We will also launch an online campaign to get

more people to show their support for women who have been victims of violence. In

the era of traditional media, as most power is concentrated in the hands of men,

women lack the channels to express their demands publicly, and media access rights

cannot be implemented. When we mention the women who toil to write the local

news and report on the most important issues of daily life, most of us probably won't

be able to name the reporters responsible for those key stories. This shows that

women are badly under-represented in the media (Peters 2018). But the empowerment

of Internet media has become an “age of microphones for everyone”. Although some

of the exposure is not well-known, but its information involves well-known people,

still can attract many forwarding attention; Moreover, it is the low threshold of

information release that enables more non-opinion leaders to participate and makes

the public realize the prevalence and seriousness of the problem. Therefore, we now

have online channels to raise the awareness of gender and power through education,

to criticize and correct the patriarchal society in a certain economic and cultural

context, and to promote new female images.

The current acceleration development of media technology encouraged the spread

of openness and freedom in the current environment, female voice to rise gradually.

Mass communication changed public opinion environment, reconstruction of female

voice. At the same time, the agenda setting of more open online media influences the

society to change the phenomenon of marginalization of women in the current media

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environment with its own power. It works to increase the awareness of women in

constant interaction and dares to break up patriarchal incarceration. The public

opinion environment for women's rights and equality between men and women has

gradually formed, allowing women to be more active in expressing their voices. The

spread of female consciousness is conducive to the communication and interaction of

feminist thoughts and has a great influence on promoting the awakening of female

consciousness and defending their rights.

In conclusion, we believe that this problem needs to be addressed and that we

need to correct male complacency. We appeal to the world that we wear skirts

because we think they're pretty and we like them, and that doesn't mean we dress

casually and want to seduce men. Victims of sexual violence should not be blamed for

this reason, and perpetrators should not be excused for it. We are against any form,

any degree of victim condemnation. I think my suggestion is necessary and urgent at

this time of emergency. The development of the Internet era, while giving women a

voice, has also encouraged online trolls to spread offensive remarks at will in news

reports of sexual violence. This kind of cyberbullying is eroding women's

communities and threatening to stop women’s right from wearing skirts and walking

on the street.

Our collective group dictating each and every part of the skirt wars movement is

a cohesive unit, involved in every single aspect of the movement, in order to have a

result that we’ve envisioned. We are the ones in the frontline, handling every word on

the statement, scouting online platform, to even the legalities. Each and every single

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member of this collective aspires to get their hands dirty and be genuinely involved

with what we hope to be, an act to change the world. Now it’s your turn to support our

movement. Please provide us with the funds so that we can get to the real work as

soon as possible. We will use this fund to start an online support platform, to hire

lawyers, and to truly stand up for women who have been victims of sexual violence

and assault.

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 Work Cited

Arriaza Ibarra, Karen. “Global Perspectives on the #MeToo Movement: From 'Big

Noise' to 'Discrete Oblivion'?” Interactions: Studies in Communication &

Culture, vol. 10, no. 3, 2019, pp. 153–158.

Hurt, Byron, et al. "Hip-Hop (Beyond Beats & Rhymes)." Online video clip. SAGE

Video. Media Education Foundation, 16 Apr. 2015. Web. 8 Aug. 2020.

Mensah, Cassandra. “If We Abolish Police, What Happens to Rapists?”, TEEN

VOGUE, June 24, 2020, https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-happens-to-

rapists-if-abolish-police.

Peters, Jennifer. “Why Women's Voices Matter In Media.” News Media Alliance, 26

Sept. 2018, www.newsmediaalliance.org/why-womens-voices-matter/.

Rose, Tricia. The Hip Hop Wars. New York: Basic Books, 2008. Print.