[Wamvan] Fwd: Ready for a media miracle?

[Joanna Chiu]

> From: "Jaclyn Friedman, Women Action & the Media" <jaclyn at womenactionmedia.org>
> Date: December 20, 2012 11:05:38 AM PST
> To: chiu.joanna5 at gmail.com
> Subject: Ready for a media miracle?
> Reply-To: jaclyn at womenactionmedia.org
> 
> 
> December 20, 2012
> 
> Dear Joanna ,
> 
> 
> Two weeks ago Deadspin, a major sports blog, called Kasandra Perkins the “catalyst” for her own murder at the hands of her NFL-player boyfriend. Bestselling author Bret Easton Ellis proclaimed that Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow’s success can be reduced to the fact that she’s “a very hot woman.” And the Geena Davis Institute released a study demonstrating, among other things, that fewer than a third of all speaking parts on prime time comedies go to women. Just another week in our toxic, sexist media.
> 
> That’s exactly why WAM! is on the rise. Our local chapters are flourishing from Los Angeles to Ottawa. The chapters and our listserv together are helping us help each other push back against misogynist media, get published and produced ourselves, navigate sexism in media workplaces, and take action together to create the media we deserve. And of course, we’re getting ready to launch the WAM! Community Action Network (WAM!CAN) project, which will enable us to take collective, targeted, measurable monthly actions together – actions with real power to move the needle toward gender justice in media.
> 
> We almost didn’t make it here. In June of 2010, I thought WAM! was dying. We had just begun our life as an independent organization and the money we needed for our basic bills wasn't coming in fast enough. We let go of our office and our fantastic office assistant -- heartbreaking decisions you can't really prepare for. I cut way back on my own salary and set up camp on my dining room table. Even so, we had less than three months of funds in the bank. All we could do is work hard and pray for a miracle.
> 
> And then a miracle happened. Out of the blue, I got an email. A donor, anonymous to us then and now, had made a gift to us. A lifesaving gift. $25,000 a year for two years. I knew immediately that it would be enough to keep our shoestring operation going until we could find the resources to buy a whole shoe.
> 
> I can't describe to you the tears or the relief. I believe so fiercely in the power of all of us together, working and playing toward media that not only accurately reflects our lives, but makes them possible -- media that can genuinely change the world. I know that you believe in WAM!, too, or you wouldn't be reading this letter. But I also learned an important lesson in that moment: belief is not enough.
> 
> Two years later, we’re on the cusp of becoming a game-changing force that can change the media for good.  But to get there, we need another miracle. Only this time, I know exactly where it will come from: you.
> 
> You're one of 6500 people receiving this email. If even 1000 of you give $50 each, it will be another $50,000 miracle for WAM!. The kind of miracle that would again change the future of our organization.
> 
> We’ve accomplished a lot on that shoestring, but it’s time for WAM! to outgrow my dining room table. If you give now, we’ll have the resources to launch WAM!CAN in a big way this February, making us a force to be reckoned with from our very first action. We can start planning for the return of the WAM! Conference in 2014.  We can strengthen and expand our chapters. Whatever your dream for gender justice in media, we can make it real if you make a donation today. Give more than $50 if you can, and less if you can't. But please, give us the strength we need to stand up and turn all our dreams into actions.
> 
> 
> Gratefully yours,
>  
> Executive Director
> PS – I know you can be part of the WAM! miracle this year. Click here to make your donation of $50 (or whatever you can). Together we really can make the media we deserve.
> You are subscribed to Women, Action, & the Media's email list. You can unsubscribe here. 
> 
> 
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.resist.ca/pipermail/wamvan/attachments/20121220/a02db1c0/attachment-0001.html>