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HeForShe inspires photo campaign by Duke students

Duke students may remember Emma Watson’s speech to the United Nations announcing the HeForShe movement. Now, Duke’s campus has their own chapter of HeForShe, which hosted their first event last week.

From Mar. 2-4, the “Men Should Be/Women Should Be Photo Project” allowed Duke students to sign up and have their headshot taken. The photos will then be edited to include a Google search bar over the participants’ mouths, where statements like “women should” or “women can’t” will be followed by a phrase describing certain stereotypes that apply to certain genders. Students select their own phrase to put on their headshot, making the project more personal. The photos will be edited over Spring Break and released on Facebook the week class resumes.

The project is modeled off of a campaign by UN Women that uses a similar format of putting Google search bars over women’s mouths to bring attention to gender stereotypes. Junior Thamina Stoll, president of HeForShe@Duke, saw the campaign online and thought it would be a great way to both promote her organization and foster a conversation about existing gender stereotypes.

“We thought the photo project would be a very good way to convey our message and to give Duke students the opportunity to share their stories about how gender stereotypes have affected their lives,” Stoll said.

To the members of HeForShe@Duke, the photo project has been successful. All of the original photo slots were filled within the first day, and over 60 people participated in the campaign.

“It was just overwhelming because we did not expect this to be this successful,” Stoll said.

Stoll has been looking at gender issues since she came to Duke, and decided to create HeForShe@Duke after watching a TED Talk by Michael Kimmel that examined why gender equality helps everyone, not just women. She was inspired to found a new organization on campus that specifically invited men into the conversation on gender equality. While Stoll applauds the contributions made by other groups working to empower women, she felt that there were no existing organizations striving towards gender equality that included men.

The introduction of HeForShe@Duke to Duke’s campus has been well-received by many of its members, particularly in that it creates conversation about serious issues related to gender equality. The organization provides a space for its members to discuss how gender issues impact them and those around them.

“It’s an hour a week that I really have critical thoughts and critical conversations,” sophomore Sayantanee Das said.

Das also found that gender discussions were not taking place at Duke to the same degree that discussions about other social issues took place.

“We see differences in race, we have that conversation a lot on campus, but we don’t have the gender conversation,” Das said.

While HeForShe has faced criticism as an organization for being part of white mainstream feminist culture, Stoll stresses that HeForShe@Duke strives to include everyone, including those who do not fit into the gender binary.

“Everyone’s experiences and opinions are valid, and we really want to get as much input from as many people with many different background as possible,” Stoll said.

HeForShe@Duke has no particular plans for the rest of the semester, but they do plan on collaborating with a number of other organizations on campus in the future. In the Fall, they plan on collaborating the the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Initiative to show a documentary about female entrepreneurs and host a panel with some of the people featured in the documentary. They also plan to invite another speaker to campus in the Fall semester. In the meantime, they plan to expand their membership and promote their cause on campus.

“HeForShe@Duke is a platform for me to be able to voice my thoughts, to fight for my equality, and also to provide a platform for anybody else to fight for their equality,” said sophomore Ziwei Zhao, the group's treasurer. 

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