Over the last few months, on the heels of the Weinstein scandal and the #MeToo campaign, conversations regarding sexual harassment, assault, and consent appear to have finally broken through to the mainstream. Most women have long insisted there is a societal and cultural problem of sexual violence in America, but modern advice regarding harassment and assault is either largely compliance-based or composed of tips and tricks women should utilize to not become victims. MidGray Collective believes more must be done. We recognize that for this to stop men have to be better. We believe that the first step in this process is to encourage men to reflect on their individual roles in creating a culture that is hostile to women.
We are currently creating a campaign to foster constructive conversations about positive masculinity and sexual consent. Through a multi-tiered approach, we will address these issues with a combination of art, design, and technology.
We analyze the social media data of our target audience to identify and engage in conversations with men who have demonstrated problematic sexual attitudes and offer them the perspectives of the people they have the potential to hurt. In the process we collect statements from these men describing their views on sexual consent to place seemingly disparate views on a difficult cultural subject into a spectrum to show continuity between them. This helps us generate content for the following projects:
- A targeted Facebook ad campaign combined with site-specific projections and printed posters to show that sexual assault is not solely perpetrated by misogynists.
- A browser extension that brings problematic statements buried in dating profiles to the front page.
- An educational card game about positive dating culture developed with support from TESA Collective (Toolbox For Education and Social Action).
- A traveling exhibition to showcase these conversations.
MidGray Collective is looking for funding to support our work developing these projects, including production costs, application and travel expenses for conferences, and web-hosting fees. We welcome mentorship in the areas of creative non-profit organization development and educational outreach. Please contact Simon Boas if you are interested in working with us.
