Yesterday (1/21), we talked about photoshopping here on the blog with mention of the Jezebel story, where they publicly offered $10,000 for the unaltered images of actress Lena Dunham from the recent issue of Vogue.
As we reported, that “bounty” did not sit well with many readers. One person that has decided to take action in response to Jezebel and their “bounty” is plus size fashion blogger Nicolette Mason.
With the tagline “$10K for Photos? Let’s Raise $10K for Women’s Empowerment“, Nicolette Mason has teamed up with musician Brad Walsh to set up a project to raise $10,000 to be donated to Step Up Womens Network, a non-profit organization dedicated to inspiring women to inspire girls.
As stated on the donation page, this project is meant to be for ‘the promotion of women rather than the sensationalizing of their bodies’.
“In response to Jezebel.com’s $10,000 bounty for pre-retouched photos of director & actress Lena Dunham, we have set up this project to raise $10,000 to be donated to the promotion of women rather than the sensationalizing of their bodies. We feel that this sort of body-centric “exposé” is distracting from real, positive, productive work and awareness. Sensationalizing bodies distracts from creating change. There is much else that can be done to promote women’s leadership, education, and self esteem. We hope to help re-center the conversation on positive change and away from in-fighting among supporters of feminism.
Rather than contribute page views (and therefore, ad revenue dollars) to a website that admits to spending $10,000 digging up pre-retouched photos of an actress with the purpose of publicly inspecting her body, we hope that you will give directly to Step Up women’s network via this fund. Any amount is appreciated, and your support of Step Up can make a big difference to women and girls who have ambition but lack sufficient resources.”
Step Up Women’s Network‘s motto is “Invest, Involve and Inspire” and their mission is a clear one:
“The mission of Step Up is to propel girls from under-resourced communities to fulfill their potential by empowering them to become confident, college-bound, career-focused and ready to join the next generation of professional women.”
To see more information on this project and donate, click here.
For more information about the Step Up Women’s Network, click here.