Speak Up!. Laura Coryton

COUNTRIES

       THAT ARE MEMBERS OF

       THE UNITED NATIONS

       ONLY 16 HAVE A FEMALE

       HEAD OF GOVERNMENT.

       THAT’S JUST 9 PER CENT!

      Online, the world is different. The world we have created via the internet can be truly democratic. Virtual institutions like the Open University have offered educational opportunities to men and women equally since it was founded in 1969. The internet’s political institutions have also smashed gender barriers since they began. Perhaps the most striking example is online petitions.

      For years I had signed and shared many petitions and campaigns, and I could see they were super effective! From Lucy-Anne Holmes’s NO MORE PAGE 3 campaign to Laura Bates’s EVERYDAY SEXISM PROJECT, there was no doubt that women were using the internet to change the world.

      One of the world’s leading online petition organizations is CHANGE.ORG. They are amazing. Their UK director, Kajal Odedra tells me that in her experience, women sign, share and support online petitions far more than men do. Women drive change that’s instigated and legitimized by online campaigns. As a result, women truly are winning online. Via the internet, women are changing the world. While the majority of online petitions are started by men, more winning petitions are started by and run by women. In many ways we hold the equivalent of political offices and the power to persuade political decision makers through the internet.

      That is pretty astounding. It is new. It is exciting. We do not know where it will lead us yet. That is up to us.

      Back on that depressingly rainy afternoon, my phone vibrated. I STILL had not started revising . . . so, I looked at my phone and saw my friend Verity had sent me a link to an article.

       THIS ARTICLE PRETTY MUCH

       CHANGED MY LIFE.

      It discussed the 5 per cent tax we were paying on period products. At first I presumed this tax must make some sense. If the government backed a tax on period products, then there must be some logic behind it, right? But I wanted to check the logic, so I began to research the UK’s taxation system (yes, I really was THAT desperate to avoid revising). This was when things started to get annoying . . . and then shocking. I discovered the extent of the absurdities that riddle our taxation system.

      Since 1973, our government deemed products such as tampons and period pads to be luxury items. Yet they aren’t plated with gold, nor do they come with a side serving of diamonds. They aren’t even an item most of us would want to purchase if we had the choice. Period products are needed by half of the population to engage fully in public life all through the month. It’s as simple as that.

      While women have paid tax on period products, other more frivolous items have escaped tax altogether. Why? Well, because astonishingly the government appears to have deemed many items more essential than women being able to participate in daily life.

      Things such as maintaining private helicopters, eating exotic meats and playing bingo.

      Of course, period products are essential to people who menstruate. Yet the government deemed them a ‘luxury’. But what makes this story even more astonishing is that the UK was NOT alone in the absurdity of this tax. Oh no. Get this. In Texas, the state government also taxes period products for being ‘luxury’ products, while they have a zero tax rate for what they deem to be more ‘essential’ items. Here’s the shocking part. Such ‘essential’ items include

       COWBOY BOOTS!

       PEOPLE WHO MENSTRUATE

       WERE BEING TAXED FOR

       HAVING PERIODS. I WAS

       SHOCKED. THEN I GOT ANGRY.

      Women have been campaigning to end tampon tax for generations. But they haven’t always been able to utilize the internet or the new online political world. I was gunning to sign a petition to end the tax, but I couldn’t find one.

      When I discovered this tax had existed for so long I decided to do something I had never done before.

       I STARTED A PETITION.

      I didn’t think it would be very popular – it was a campaign cocktail of menstruation and taxation after all, not exactly the most thrilling combination of topics!

      But I had our generation’s superpower to rely on – the internet – and if I didn’t try to launch this petition now, who would, and when?

      I was shocked again: people did get behind my END TAMPON TAX petition. To be more specific, over 320,000 men and women! With this kick-ass cohort of supporters, we got the prime minister to say ‘tampon’ in parliament and eventually ended this tax in the UK and then in Europe. Not only that, but my initial online petition also spurred women from across the world to start their own End Tampon Tax sister petitions, which are now axing the tax in countries scattered across almost every continent, from India to Australia. Even Michelle and Barack Obama offered their support for the campaign!

      That was the beginning of the End Tampon Tax campaign. Since then it has been tackling the period taboo and encouraging women to feel more confident and comfortable in their bodies. Period!

      The internet offers a new platform upon which to organize, demonstrate our work and speak up. It’s powerful. It makes us distinctly powerful too.

      There is power in your voice. There is possibility in the internet. In combining the two, you can change your world.

      So what do you think? I’m guessing if you picked up this book in the first place, you were already interested in some kind of activism. If you picked it up because of the awesome cover (thanks, Elaine!), then I hope this introduction has given you some things to think about.

      This book will arm you with the weapons you need to take down the problems you want to tackle. You can read it from beginning to end, using the SPEAK UP TOOLKIT as a step-by-step guide to creating your own successful campaign, or you can dip in and out, depending on the kind of advice you’re looking for.

      Remember, you don’t have to launch a global campaign right this second. (You can if you want to, though!) Everyday, small actions can have a big impact. I want you to be confident in your voice, in your views and to give you the tools to make change.

      What shocks you in the world? What annoys you? Where do you see injustice that you want to challenge? And who are you to be leading this fight? You are you.

       YOU ARE AWESOME.

      You are unique. You are powerful and your voice matters. It’s