Ban Bossy
Type | Educational charity |
---|---|
Focus | Youth and young adult awareness about bullying |
Area served | United States |
Product | Public service announcements and campaigns |
Method | Online, radio, television, and print campaigns, Field organizing, Entertainment community |
Slogan | Encourage girls to lead |
Mission | Awareness and elimination of derogatory vocabulary among youth toward women |
Website | BanBossy.com |
The Ban Bossy campaign is a television, radio, and magazine censorship advocacy campaign launched in 2014 with the mission of eliminating the use of the word "bossy" from the English language due to the campaign's claim of its perceived harmful effect on young women.[1]
Promotion
Sponsored primarily by Sheryl Sandberg, LeanIn.org and the Girl Scouts, the campaign features prominent women and various sponsors urging people to pledge not to use the word.
Featured advocates who appear in Ban Bossy promotional material in addition to Sandberg include Jennifer Garner, Jane Lynch, Diane von Fürstenberg, Condoleezza Rice, Jimmie Johnson, Sinéad O'Connor, Arne Duncan, Anna Maria Chávez,[2] Victoria Beckham, and Beyoncé, who stated "leadership is more important to boys than girls."[3][4][5][6]
The campaign website also features training material designed for schools, teachers, parents and children to further the project.
Criticism
While BanBossy has seen support from feminists, numerous sponsors such as Google and from political figures like Michelle Obama, it has also received its fair share of backlash since its debut. Joan Rivers found the online movement to be "so stupid" and added, "I find it outrageous and I find it petty ... and I find we're so damn uptight in this country that this whole country is being divided."[7]
Phil Mason has drawn parallels between the banning of words and authoritarianism, observing that telling people what words they can or cannot use is inherently bossy.[8]
NewsBusters blogger Katie Yoder described Beyoncé's support of the campaign as hypocritical, in light of how the word "bitch" is spoken nine times on the singer's self-titled album.[9]
See also
- Authoritarianism
- Bullying
- Censorship
- Day of Silence
- Feminism
- Hate speech
- Newspeak
- Social stigma
- Verbal abuse
References
- ↑ "Dad: I'm Going to Keep Calling My Daughter Bossy". Time Warner. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
- ↑ Sandberg, Sheryl; Chávez, Anna Maria (8 March 2014). "Sheryl Sandberg and Anna Maria Chávez on 'Bossy,' the Other B-word". The Wall Street Journal (The Wall Street Journal). Retrieved 13 June 2014.
- ↑ "Beyonce Backs Campaign to 'Ban Bossy': Watch". Billboard. 2014-03-13. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
- ↑ Jolie Lee (2014-05-10). "Beyonce, Jennifer Garner, Jane Lynch join 'Ban Bossy" campaign.". USAToday.com. Retrieved 2014-08-08.
- ↑ "Facebook COO Sandberg's ludicrous crusade against bossy". New York Post. 17 March 2014. Retrieved 20 March 2014.
- ↑ "Beyoncé, Jennifer Garner, Jane Lynch join prominent women in #BanBossy campaign". New York Daily News. 10 March 2014. Retrieved 8 August 2014.
- ↑ "'It's so stupid'– Joan Rivers isn't a fan of 'ban bossy'". SiriusXM. 25 March 2014. Retrieved 11 April 2014.
- ↑ Thunderf00t (2014-03-29). "Epic Feminist Fails of our time: 'Ban Bossy'". YouTube. Retrieved 2014-08-18.
- ↑ "Ban 'Bossy?' Beyoncé Says 'Bitch' 9 Times in New Album". NewsBusters.