Red My Lips 2015

Now I do not usually wear lipstick these days. I am not against it, after years of wearing makeup to an office, I suppose I just enjoy the fact I don't have to "doll up" each day. Through the month of April though I will be endeavouring to wear bright RED lipstick each time I go out or have people over.



This is not about vanity. It is about visibility.

Why, you may be wondering. Well first I will explain what Red My Lips is ...

"Red My Lips is an international nonprofit organization based out of the U.S. We run an annual global awareness campaign where our fierce and fearless supporters rock red lipstick all throughout the month of April (Sexual Assault Awareness Month) to demonstrate solidarity and support for survivors and start important conversations with people in their lives. Red My Lips is designed to raise visibility and awareness about the realities and prevalence of sexual violence, while combatting rape myths and victim-blaming.  

 

We continue to convince ourselves that rape only happens to 'those girls' who 'weren't careful,' 'gave mixed signals,' or 'put themselves in a bad situation.'  This tendency to deny, shame, or blame survivors who come forward only serves to convince other survivors that they are wise to keep quiet, giving those who perpetrate these crimes free reign to continue doing so without consequence. Additionally, we frequently misunderstand rape and sexual assault as something provoked by uncontrollable sexual attraction or desire...instead of what it is: an act of domination, entitlement, and violence.

Wearing red lipstick in April allows supporters to speak out against these damaging myths and victim-blaming attitudes.  It allows us all to stand in solidarity with survivors and refuse to be invisible...refuse to be silent."

Above quote taken directly from the Red My Lips website.


Did you know ...

• that in the UN report of 2011 sweet little old NZ was ranked worst of all OECD countries in rates of sexual violence. That shocked me!
• Only 13% of recorded rapes by the police are actually convicted!  That makes me so freaken cross. Just 13%, how many people are out there having gotten away with it people ... how many!
• 90% of sexual assaults are by someone known to the victim.
• In New Zealand, up to one in three girls will be subject to an unwanted sexual experience by the age of 16 years. The majority of those incidences would be considered serious, with over 70% involving genital contact. As a mother of young girls this stat scares the shit out of me!
• In NZ up to one in five women will experience a sexual assault as an adult.
• There are varying rates for sexual violence offences against males but large scale international prevalence studies have tended to find a figure of one in seven boys.

 So when someone comments on my red lips, which I am sure they will, as frankly it's not a colour that suits me, I can explain why I am wearing it. 

Please check out this very worthwhile cause whether you're a male of female. If you males can't wear red lippy but would like to show support, how about wearing a red tie for the total month! Or you could even wear a pair of red lips on a brooch.

 

No more blaming and shaming, and silence ... lets show support!

Big red lips kisses from me!

Red My Lips website ... http://redmylips.org/
Red My Lips Facebook Page link ... https://www.facebook.com/redlipstick4acause?fref=nf

The A-Z Challenge 2015 Big Reveal

For the last couple of years I have been inspired to join the A-Z blog challenge and I start off with great gusto but always something ends up throwing me completely off (an illness or something) and I have not yet completed one challenge. Last years effort was completely abysmal and I wasn't going to bother this year but a fellow blogger suggested this could be the year that I actually complete it.

For those who don't know what the Ato Z Challenge entails, basically you post something every day in April except Sundays and as there are 26 days (minus the Sundays) that matches the letters in the alphabet. So on April 1, the blog will be about something that begins with the letter “A.” April 2 “B,” April 3 “C,” and so on. You can blog about anything at all as long as it matches the letter of the day.


Having a theme is optional but personally I think it's easier if you do have a theme (especially when I find it so hard to thing of blog ideas at the best of times), so this year I have chosen the theme of "Teen and Tween Books". There might be a slight twist though and I am very much cheating as I have enlisted my two little buddies here to help provide some of the posts. 


It's also recommended that you keep your posts short as what you are asked to do each day, is check out about 5 blogs that are also participating in the challenge (there's a HUGE list of participants). It's a bit of a way to meet some new bloggers and increase your audience I suppose you could say. Frankly, I am not too worried about increasing my audience (if I was worried about numbers I'd have stopped blogging way back ... lol), I just want to finish one darn challenge!  I also quite like reading and finding other blogs from the list. I still follow a few blogs a couple of years later, they weren't even homeschooling ones, which is usually my main focus too.


Anyway if you are mad enough to join me, please do, then let me know so we can support each other ... who's up for it?

Here's the link to sign up, c'mon you know you want to.