Every year Change.org creates a top 10 list of things members helped accomplish over the past year.
This year we were pretty excited to see sexual violence topics take up 2 places on this list.
Coming in @ #9, they listed:
9. Chicago Tribune Columnist Apologizes for Blaming Rape Victim
Just last month a nationally syndicated female advice columnist responded to a young woman who was raped at a fraternity party and asking advice by writing: “Were you a victim? Yes…you were a victim of your own awful judgment.†This sort of outrageous victim blaming is one of the reasons why the majority of rapes go unreported, and in response Change.org members and bloggers across the web sent 5000 letters in protest to columnist Amy Dickenson and the Chicago Tribune, forcing Ms. Dickenson to respond publicly, apologize for the statement, and make it clear that she did not mean to blame the victim. Although we’d like Amy and the Chicago Tribune to go much further in addressing the issue, the Change.org community sent a clear message that victim blaming by the media will no longer go unaddressed.
I was particularly excited to see this issue make the list, as victim blaming does often go unnoticed or unaddressed. Sexual violence is so pervasive, that we sometimes forget that simply pointing out the dangerous biases of others is an important way to combat this problem. Good job change.org for mobilizing supporters, and for highlighting this important issue!
Change.org also included this @ #10:
10. Choice Hotels Commits to Enhance Preventative Human Trafficking Measures
One of the tragic stories we reported on this fall was that of five-year-old Shaniya Davis, who was sold for sex in a Comfort Inn in North Carolina shortly before her body was found on the side of the road. Comfort Inn is owned by the hotel conglomerate Choice Hotels, which has avoided signing a widely embraced code of conduct administered by the international organization ECPAT and funded by UNICEF to prevent child prostitution in the travel industry. After we wrote about the story we got in touch with ECPAT and launched a campaign demanding that Choice Hotels embrace the code of conduct, leading thousands of Change.org activists to send messages to Choice Hotels’ CEO within days of the article. Although initially resistant, Choice Hotels eventually agreed to have a conversation with ECPAT and is now committed to taking further steps to ensure its hotels aren’t again used for child prostitution.
I had not actually heard about this campaign before reading their list, but I’m really happy to hear that domestic trafficking work is gaining some momentum. Perhaps I’ll find out a little more information about this particular incident and blog about it in the new year.
When dealing with sexual violence it can sometimes be hard to be positive–so I think it’s great to see a national organization touting their good work in this area!
Maybe the Alliance can come up with their own top 10 list in 2010!
