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Trang Nguyen
Professor Kimberly Merenda
Women Studies and Social Change
8 April 2015
Blogging as Activism
He for She is an organizational movement that addresses gender
inequality as, not only a womens issue, but a human rights issue, an
issue that affects everyone, from women and girls, to men and boys.
The UN Women created this organization in order to allow men to play
a part in achieving gender equality and womens rights, also, to have
them recognize that they have a very influential voice when it comes
to eliminating discrimination and violence against women. While it is
mentioned in the He for She campaign the advocacy of womens
empowerment can be essential in all spheres of life, i.e. economic
growth, social justice and environmental stability, it also advocates
that the campaign isnt only about women nor men, but a stepping
stone into creating a movement that everyone can participate in to
end gender inequality and in order to do so the organization wants to
create programs for men and boys whom support gender equality to
participate in and transform it into something bigger, and to
interact/collaborate with government officials, mens organizations,
and universities to raise awareness in local chapters and communities.

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This organization as a whole, I feel, directly represents and
correlates with everything we have learned in class as a whole. From
the true meaning of feminism, to gender equality, however, theres a
slight twist with the He for She campaign; theyre including men within
raising awareness on this issue. Discussing the topic of feminism in
class, majority of the time it would be women advocating for rights and
pushing for awareness, and it would be men who would be completely
opposed to the idea of women being seen on the same level as a man,
therefore, utterly dismissing the topic as a whole. From the many
videos we watched in class, i.e. Lacy Green, the subject feminism is
addressed but she also acknowledges that men go through social
injustices too, so that is also an issue that isnt completely ignored and
I think He for She does a wonderful job with incorporating mens input
into ending gender inequality for, not only women, but for themselves
as well.

Prior to further reading into the goals of He for She, I had already
known that it was an organization aimed towards men to assist in
raising awareness on the issue of gender equality, but I had thought it
was another way to advocate that women should have equal rights in
various fields in society as men do. After looking more into the
organization, I now realize that its not only for women, but for the
beneficiary of men as well, and I think it is to clever to incorporate both

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genders to help one another as they both experience injustices simply
for the fact that we are all human, which seems to be the main
message and concept of He for She and I find it very inspiring that an
organization has finally realized that everyone is affected by inequality
in society, not only women.

Blogging seems to be an up and coming form of communication

between one or more persons and anyone who reads or comes across
the blog. In todays society, the Internet plays a very large role in our
everyday lives and sometimes with the click of a button, a video or
blog can be shared with multiple people and then eventually the world,
with that kind of communication, there are so many topics and issues
that I can see myself sharing with the world in order to raise
awareness. I think a very important issue I feel should be more
acknowledged is skinny and fat shaming. We live in a society that is
constantly focused on image and beauty that none of us really have a
clear idea what the true definition of beauty is. Because of this, so
many girls and even boys go through great lengths to be this skinny or
thin but when they become too thin, they are made fun of and called
anorexic. Then they are those who are thicker, whether it be naturally
or because of binge eating, those kids or teenagers all grow up around
magazines and commercials that constantly advertise these thin and
beautiful models they start to loose their self-esteem and begin to

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think that the way they look isnt beautiful and get teased for the way
they look and that being thick isnt what beauty looks like. Living in a
society where the Internet is the epitome of the generation, I think this
is a topic that could be acknowledged quickly and successfully.