"We refused to accept that, for defending her life, Bresha would be further victimized by state violence, compounding her existing trauma and adding her to the list of girls and women filling cages nationwide — to be counted among the fastest-growing segment of the incarcerated population. We connected Bresha’s placement on suicide watch to the traumatic effects of incarceration and isolation on youth and adults. We tied our need to increase support for Bresha to organizing a...gainst the suicide crisis in California women’s prisons, demanding an end to the deadly practice of incarceration. We refused to exceptionalize survivor freedom as we organized in solidarity with movements to end the criminalization of survival of all kinds. We made Bresha’s case visible, to demand her freedom and to pressure prosecutors to stop pressing charges against survivors, if for no better reason than to avoid the organized threat of public exposure and shame. In Ohio, we heard from people who would know that prosecutors were nervous and concerned about the level of public attention and public pressure being brought to bear around Bresha’s case. The sheer number of media outlets from around the world calling to ask permission to film Bresha’s trial was a testament to the attention. We did this." -
Mariame Kaba and Colby Lenz, via Teen Vogue

"I have a belief that we are all put here on this earth to take care of each other. If I don’t use my political, social, economic capital to affect change then what am I actually doing? I haven’t always been this way. Back in 2005, I was not someone you’d want to speak to about these issues. I was so selfish, I was going through the world just saying, 'How much can I get for Wade?' I was doing everything I could to appear traditionally masculine, to appear as straight. I just... wanted to be the next Deion Sanders. I didn’t know who Gloria Steinem, James Baldwin or bell hooks were. Now I want to follow in their footsteps. To have young people come up to me and say a message I gave or a story I told impacted their life—that is something that I can't train for or lift weights for. It something that happens when you move about world focused on helping others." - Wade A. Davis II, via ATTN:

It's the #SuperBowl this weekend and we're reflecting back. Last year, the ads featured important and heartwarming messages like supporting paid family leave and celebrating diversity across America. So it's hard to believe only four years ago, nearly every ad featured a limiting and often harmful message about women. From Carl's Jr. to Go Daddy to Victoria's Secret, brands told us time and time again that a woman's value lays solely in her youth, beauty, and sexuality.

From ...our first screening of "Miss Representation," The Representation Project challenged our society's messages that say girls’ and women’s value lies in their appearance not in their capacity as leaders. When we value people as whole human beings, not gendered stereotypes, movements like #NotBuyingIt and #MeToo have the power to change our culture.