Following up on yesterday’s post about International Women’s Day, I spent all week tracking the many different hashtags being used on Twitter to discuss this day and the events and initiatives associated with it this year. In addition to International Women’s Day, this week also included the annual day to End the R-Word, and the incredibly innovative all-in-ASL episode of the popular television drama, Switched at Birth. All three of these are important to various substantial but marginalized communities, and show the power of social media and the Internet to create awareness and include the voices of those who may not otherwise have a strong voice in shaping culture or policy.
Join us on Wednesday March 6th from 6-8 pm in the Wilkie Auditorium and help end the demeaning use of the #Rword! twitter.com/ASAatIU/status…
— Alpha Sigma Alpha IU (@ASAatIU) February 26, 2013
The End the R-Word campaign was unusual in that it only had one hashtag in common use. They’ve been doing this for several years now, and have succeeded in gathering a diverse range of voices with a unified message — to stop using hurtful language, specifically the word “retarded” as a general term.
Your tweets have made this campaign a huge success! THANK YOU to our 15,000 followers for helping put an end to the #Rword
— R-word Campaign (@EndTheWord) March 8, 2013
Stopping The R-word Is Not Enough: Culture — Not Just Language — Must Change huff.to/13uQGTK via @huffpostimpact #Rword #Inclusion
— Best Buddies (@BestBuddies) February 25, 2013
If you haven’t seen it, Switched at Birth tells the story of two families, one wealthy and one less privileged, who discover their teen daughters were switched at birth. The child from the less well-off family is deaf, and much of the show includes subplots and scenes developed around deaf culture. The deaf community and other fans of the show went all out this week with efforts to make this special episode of the show trend on Twitter to help raise awareness around deaf concerns and culture. Part of what made that succeed was connecting the episode to the Occupy Wall Street movement with the theme “Take Back Carlton”, with Carlton being the local School for the Deaf.
u all want to learn sign language? Watch next weeks #AllASLEpisode#SwitchedatBirth IT has captions & so beautiful!! youtube.com/watch?v=fxerHj…
— Constance Marie (@goconstance) February 26, 2013
I hear 100 kids at @gallaudet got together to watch last night’s #allaslepisode of #switchedatbirth. That’s pretty cool.
— Lizzy Weiss (@LizzyWeissSAB) March 6, 2013
Groundbreaking All ASL #SwitchedatBirthis Monday’s #1 Scripted Cable TV Across target demos! Congrats @lizzyweisssab and @abcfamilyYAY!!
— Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin) March 6, 2013
“@takebackcarlt0n: What did you guys think of Bays masterpiece for the #TakeBackCarlton? twitter.com/TakeBackCarlt0…” Looks amazing!
— Zach Taylor (@zGift) March 8, 2013
Without all the angry screaming, a protest just looks like a flash mob. #AllSilentSwitchedatBirth #TakeBackCarlton
— Erynn Claxton (@TheKlacker) March 5, 2013
#TakeBackCarlton is T R E N D I N G! WOO HOO! An awesome episode of @abcfsab #switchedatbirth eh?
— Marlee Matlin (@MarleeMatlin) March 5, 2013
#allaslepisode #allsilentSwitchedatBirth tomorrow night on @abcfsab. Deaf culture is spreading, we do music too! youtube.com/watch?v=06O5bW…
— Matt Maxey (@reeltalk6788) March 3, 2013
since the switched at birth is all signing i cant look away from the screen to text! haha #SwitchedAtBirth #AllASL
— Victoria ✌❤ (@vikkimandigo) March 5, 2013
With women being the largest of these three marginalized communities, and with over a century behind this specific event, it is perhaps no surprise that International Women’s Day shows the largest number of spinoff events, well developed issues, and the greatest diversity of hashtags used around the conversation. Irina mentioned two hashtags in her post — #WHM and #WMNhist. Those stand for Women’s History Month and Women’s History. Closely aligned with these is #RWHP which today stands for Radical Women’s History Project, but usually stands for Rural Women’s Health Project.
100 years ago today, women marched down Pennsylvania Ave. & demanded suffrage. bit.ly/13uCK0H #WHM #wmnhist
— AAUW (@AAUW) March 3, 2013
3/6/1870: Wyoming allows women on juries; the right was later taken away until the 1950s, when women again admitted to serve. #RWHP #wmnhist
— ShelbyKnox (@ShelbyKnox) March 7, 2013
We’re celebrating #WHM by honoring women’s history archivists bit.ly/YNyp0t #wmnhist #rwhp cc @chickhistory @wikipatia @shelbyknox
— AAUW Media Relations (@AAUWPress) March 6, 2013
Meanwhile, the actual official hashtags for International Women’s Day are #IWD2013 and #IWD13, with many also using the simpler #IWD, #WomensDay or just #Women.
Happy International Women’s Day! RT this to spread the word. #women #olympics twitter.com/Olympics/statu…
— Olympics (@Olympics) March 8, 2013
On International Women’s Day, who is most important woman in history of mental health? I’d say Melanie Klein. #IWD13 twitter.com/ProfLAppleby/s…
— louis appleby (@ProfLAppleby) March 8, 2013
Statement by United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay on International Women’s Day goo.gl/nvHJP #HRC22 #IWD13
— UN Geneva (@unisgeneva) March 8, 2013
Reducing the vulnerability of #women & girls is a key Oxfam priority: bit.ly/W9Vv4Y @oxfamamerica #darfur #IWD #IWD2013
— Oxfam International (@Oxfam) March 8, 2013
PAHO/WHO calls for improved health sector response for women survivors of violence #iwd13new.paho.org/hq/index.php?o…
— PAHO/WHO Equity (@eqpaho) March 8, 2013
The sexist ‘laddism’ emanating from our universities gu.com/p/3ea8h/tw | @everydaysexism for @commentisfree #IWD
— The Guardian (@guardian) March 8, 2013
The Google Africa page is having an International Women’s Day Hangout at 12:45p UTC about Women Who Inspire: goo.gl/tLo5u #IWD
— Life at Google (@googlejobs) March 8, 2013
Violence against women leads to injuries, unwanted pregnancies, unsafe abortions, increased risk of STIs goo.gl/6zCaE #WomensDay
— WHO (@WHO) March 8, 2013
Happy International Women’s Day! Here’s a post on some truly inspirational microbiologists – micromicrobe.co.uk/post/448483466… #womensday
— MicroMicrobe (@MicroMicrobe) March 8, 2013
It is only to be expected that issues of women’s health and violence against women surface today as highlights of the conversations around International Women’s Day, with increased calls for awareness and support. The hashtags for violence against women today include these: #EndVAW; #VAW; #timetoact; #sayucommit. The hashtags for women’s health include #WomensHealth and #SRHR (for Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights).
Ethicist Arthur Caplan has thoughts about the limits of surrogacy in creating familiesow.ly/ixoQH #fertility #womenshealth
— harriseve (@harriseve) March 8, 2013
Every minute, a young woman is infected with HIV – see this UNAIDS infographic for more info unaids.org/en/resources/i… #SRHR
— CHOICE for Youth (@CHOICEforYouth) March 8, 2013
BMC Women’s Health is proud to promote #womenshealth: ow.ly/iyvhL #womensday @womensday
— BMC Series (@BMC_series) March 8, 2013
The Pixel Project selection: 16 films about Violence Against Women 2012 bit.ly/UgHuyM #VAW
— The Pixel Project(@PixelProject) March 8, 2013
Related strongly to the health conversations is the broader #GenderEquality, which includes some phenomenal content.
#Indigenous women speak about sexual violence and discrimination, today International Women’s Day #GenderEquality: forestpeoples.org/topics/un-huma…
— Project COBRA (@project_cobra) March 8, 2013
Did you know the #EU has had a #genderequality strategy since 2010? Find out more:ec.europa.eu/justice/gender…
— EU Delegation Turkey (@EUDelegationTur) March 8, 2013
Terrific interactive map – International Women’s Day: political rights around the world gu.com/p/3ea8a/tw #womensrights #genderequality
— Two Little Girls (@TLGfilm) March 8, 2013
#IWD – a good time to read new IDS working paper on #genderequality and #economicgrowth ids.ac.uk/publication/ge…
— IDS UK (@IDS_UK) March 8, 2013
#internationalwomensday Lets all pledge 2 b global ambassadors 4 #genderequality@usaid_info @socialgood @ambheffern twitter.com/CounterpartAM/…
— Counterpart Armenia (@CounterpartAM) March 8, 2013
1st day #CSW57:why important to measure&monitor discriminatory social institutions&influence on #genderequality?bit.ly/Vh89zM
— Wikigender (@Wikigender) March 4, 2013
I could go on for days with the hashtags for IWD. Instead of embedding many more tweets, I will instead share additional hashtags and hope that you can find time to explore them yourself. There are several conferences, events, and organizations actively engaged in extending the reach of IWD.
#AAUW = American Association of University Women
#bachelet = Michelle Bachelet’s speech opening the 5th Annual Women’s Empowerment and Principles event.
#EqualityMonday = United Nations Development Program initiative. This series also includes #EmpowerTuesday; #GreenWednesday; #EndHIVThursday; #EndPovertyFriday; #Democracy Saturday; #ResilienceSunday. Storify from this Monday available here.
#fem2 = General hashtag for feminism, may have begun with the Fem 2.0 conference in 2009.
#cswusnc = United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. U.S. National Committee for UN Women (USNC)
#CSW57 = United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, 57th Session
#NGOWGG = NGO Working Group on Girls
Among the initiatives and special releases for International Women’s Day are included a number of film and music events celebrating the rights of girls and women. Here are some of the hashtags being used, but if you want the free music or to view the films, you’ll have to go look.
#GirlUp
#RiseUp
#GirlRisingHero
#WhereIsGirlRising
#reasontorise
#1BillionRising
#1woman
[...] Originally posted at the THL Blog: http://thlibrary.wordpress.com/2013/03/08/hashtags-of-the-week-hotw-womens-day-r-word-asl-week-of-ma… [...]