This blog was originally posted in 2015. I am updating it in 2024.
It relates to a possibly defunct UN campaign to get people to wear orange on the 25th of every month to protest violence against women and girls.
This blog originally started with a story about how my attempt to wear orange apparently failed, because people saw the dress, which I thought was orange, as red
Update 240825
I'm wearing an orange shirt today, but the link to the UN request to do this is now broken, so I guess I'm alone doing this.
So here's some more up to date information. More recently I started following Nina Aouilk on Instagram. She narrowly survived an attempted honor killing. Here is her TED talk. WARNING: her story is truly horrifying.
She is also running a group to stop honor killings.
Here is her instagram link
I can't find the post that I originally watched on Instagram, but hopefully the Ted Talk will give you an idea. I don't have the courage to watch it again.
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Story from the original Post
(With some edits)
Let us begin with the dress. I wore this dress, because I perceive it as orange. The color here is not quite the same as the dress, because my scanner was not quite right with the colors and also I think the computer display may also not be quite right. Gerry's picture has the right color. The original is more orange than this. In any case, I've found that others perceive the dress as red, even in person. I wanted to wear orange, because it was the 25th of the month.
I've been told to wear orange on the 25th of every month to protest violence against women and girls.
I first heard about this campaign from an attender of my Quaker Meeting. The link to my Quaker Meeting is: http://www.scarsdalefriendsmeeting.org/ .
So, red or orange, I wore this dress into New York City on May 25, 2015.
One thing I planned to do on that day was rehearse with Gerry. We were both in a class at the Wynn Handman Studio. Wynn cast us in some scenes from Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," as Kate & Joe Keller -- just for performance in class.
We planned to meet at Grand Central Terminal (GCT) and find a place to rehearse lines. Ultimately that place turned out to be an empty platform.
Aside: Just for those who don't know, the difference between a train station and a train terminal is that in a station the tracks go through and in a terminal the tracks end. The tracks mostly end at GCT. That's why it's considered a terminal.
We agreed to meet, as I think most people agree to meet, by the information booth in the main room of the terminal. When I first got there, I didn't see Gerry, so I pulled out my trusty cell phone and started accessing the Internet -- probably Facebook -- and also sending him a text, telling him I was there.
While I was using my cell phone, Gerry, who is a professional photographer, started photographing me, because of the striking color of my dress. He points out that behind me in the photo there is also someone photographing me. He thought there were others as well.
When he took this picture, he did not realize who he was photographing.
When he started taking pictures, I did not notice, but eventually I did see him taking my picture. I looked back down at my cell phone, because I wanted to finish something I was writing, and also figured he would want to finish his photograph.
Afterwards, I waved at him and he realized who I was. He was quite bemused.
So, we live in a city that tourists often visit, the largest city in the country, home of the United Nations, arguably the capital of the world -- and here we were in a historic landmark -- but a striking dress still draws a lot of attention, apparently.
I am hoping that that attention might go to the campaign to end violence against women and girls.
So, red or orange, I wore this dress into New York City on May 25, 2015.
One thing I planned to do on that day was rehearse with Gerry. We were both in a class at the Wynn Handman Studio. Wynn cast us in some scenes from Arthur Miller's "All My Sons," as Kate & Joe Keller -- just for performance in class.
We planned to meet at Grand Central Terminal (GCT) and find a place to rehearse lines. Ultimately that place turned out to be an empty platform.
Aside: Just for those who don't know, the difference between a train station and a train terminal is that in a station the tracks go through and in a terminal the tracks end. The tracks mostly end at GCT. That's why it's considered a terminal.
We agreed to meet, as I think most people agree to meet, by the information booth in the main room of the terminal. When I first got there, I didn't see Gerry, so I pulled out my trusty cell phone and started accessing the Internet -- probably Facebook -- and also sending him a text, telling him I was there.
While I was using my cell phone, Gerry, who is a professional photographer, started photographing me, because of the striking color of my dress. He points out that behind me in the photo there is also someone photographing me. He thought there were others as well.
When he took this picture, he did not realize who he was photographing.
When he started taking pictures, I did not notice, but eventually I did see him taking my picture. I looked back down at my cell phone, because I wanted to finish something I was writing, and also figured he would want to finish his photograph.
Afterwards, I waved at him and he realized who I was. He was quite bemused.
So, we live in a city that tourists often visit, the largest city in the country, home of the United Nations, arguably the capital of the world -- and here we were in a historic landmark -- but a striking dress still draws a lot of attention, apparently.
I am hoping that that attention might go to the campaign to end violence against women and girls.
*****
About the possibly now defunct UN Campaign
I have a link here that used to lead to information about this campaign. This link no longer seems to work. Perhaps they have given up on it. It's hard to get people to focus on this issue. It's so painful. Here's the former link to the UN website that explained this http://endviolence.un.org/orangeday.shtml.
This is the former image from the link
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