I’ve never been a big fan of using hashtags to try and make change happen.
I’ve never even been one to try and make change happen, so I guess my opinion is an outlier that shouldn’t be counted.
Especially since I’m a huge hypocrite when under stress.
In my previous two posts, the talk of cosplay enforced sexual harassment was the focus. In the first post, I mentioned people who were faced with the harassment, and why it’s important to know about. In the second post, I showed results to a survey I sent out to 25 cosplayers, asking them about their experiences.
I’ve mentioned a group called Geeks for CONsent a few times in the past posts, as well. They’re a group of two girls, cosplayers, that have booths set up at conventions and raise awareness about sexual harassment at conventions; such as trying to help place stronger rules against it in Convention rules. They’ve also given people a place to talk about their experiences, and even get help with it; almost like a convention buddy system. No one goes alone.
For my agent of change, I decided to go against myself and use a tag on a social media site called Tumblr.
I had rounded up a group of people and asked them to reblog/repost photos that were posted by cosplayers and tag it with:
Which would eventually link back to a post made describing the project.
(Original post found here)
Out of the people recruited, only a few actually got back to me with their participation.
The following screenshots (along with the links to the original posts with the cosplay featured, not posted directly due to personal rights.) are the few I gathered.
Original posts found here, here, and here.
Original posts found here, here, here and here
Originally, I had planned to do a video. It was to be a public service announcement type thing, where cosplayers sent photos of themselves with signs in cosplay and talked about the things they’ve gone through if they wanted. But, sadly, not many people actually wanted to take part, or just didn’t have the time. So the idea flopped/
However, a few people have given me the permission to use their photos for example. Credit being given where asked, of course. (They’re actually both from the same fandom- how funny is that?)
![20150515_175501[1].jpg](https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/3Z5YJTuYtLI92EqchqnHftT6QDE0V0J_-mCqEq_TkqjVsIcHAT4xuU3tZofRQPpgWZWdDJGlOjBH7El5naWSOSVYfMqt3f1kK50qpW1zIRYfhDcl4hTnVUIALdt_zuuN3Lh2q8Q)
(http://that-multishipping-choirboy.tumblr.com)
Since starting this project, I’ve grown a lot more involved with this community. This project has changed my outlook on things, and made me realize that people become really good at covering things up about themselves until they’re actually asked about it. It’s also made people feel more comfortable with themselves. By talking about it with someone, they’re willing to face people with confidence, and they’re not afraid anymore. I think I can call this a success.
Moving forward, I think it’d be a good idea to keep this tag going, to try and expand it and make it a normal thing to do.
Make it kind of… a safe word.
There’s still a lot to do with preventing sexual harassment all together, not just at conventions alone, but we’re still fighting for it. And that’s what matters.
This is my second blog post for Obsessive Compulsive Disorder. Here is the link to the first blog post. My first blog post was mainly about what OCD is, and mentioned a few different kinds of compulsions.
I have created a simple survey to see what people knew and how they felt about OCD. I shared this with people I knew, my advisory, and a friend of mine shared it on facebook. I unfortunately only received 15 responses. Here is a link to my responses. This didn’t leave me much to work with. Out of these 15 people, almost all roughly knew what OCD was. 13%, or two people, out of the test takers had OCD.
I will be making an informational video for OCD awareness. This will be posted on social media sites. At first I was going to do a presentation, but I feel that a video would be more useful, as it could be shown to more people.
Things i could have done better was provide a better explanation. I will have to find and use more information on OCD. I have already found a packet that people can look to for reference.
color organized shelves
