Females United for Action Campaigns

Here is info on some of our work…

La Ley campaign

When FUFA saw an ad by local radio station La Ley 107.9 that promoted violence against women, we decided to take action. This ad showed a row of Latinas photographed from behind in short shorts with “25 pegaditas” (which is slang for 25 hits or slaps) across their backs. It was all over Chicago, on billboards, CTA trains and buses, and in Spanish language newspapers.
Through press work, an action, an email blitz, and testifying at a 350-person public meeting held by the Brighton Park Neighborhood Council, we won a meeting with the General Manager at La Ley, and a representative of Spanish Broadcasting System (which is the Miami company that owns La Ley). In the end, they agreed to take down the billboards and to take our concerns into account in all their future ads!

Organizing around media ownership policy

FUFA has worked with members of the Stop Big Media coalition to make sure that companies aren’t allowed to buy up more and more media outlets. In September 2007, we testified at hearings held in Chicago by the Federal Communications Commission. We have run workshops on media justice citywide for youth groups wanting to take action on media justice. Some of the topics we cover are: Media Justice 101; Media & Race; Media & Gender; Media & Violence; Deconstructing Media; and Creating your own media. To find out more about our upcoming workshops and how you can take action, please email us at femalesunited@gmail.com.

Public education & mobilization

We are committed to educating the public about media justice. We have spoken at lots of conferences and events, and we hold our own public events and spoken word events.

Together with a group of young men, we also created a photo exhibit called Alternative Windows. We handed out cameras and asked everyone to take photos of positive images of men and women that we don’t see in mainstream media. Hundreds of youth in Chicago have already seen the photo exhibit, which comes with a reading packet that we put together. You can see samples of the exhibit here.