Just Pin One 2015

Just Pin One began last year when I noticed a disturbing pattern on Pinterest.  Images of women’s equality tended to valorize white women, while excluding images of activist women of color from the US. In particular, I was working with suffrage imagery, but this pattern seemed to exist across movements for women’s equality.  In addition, images often emphasized the consequences of sexism and disproportionately depicted women of color outside the US as victims. 

results of "women's equality" on Pinterest as of August 9

As part of the celebration of Women’s Equality Day 2014, I designed a campaign to pin diverse, images of women’s outrage, activism, and and action as an experiment in changing the top images in Pinterest for “women’s equality.”  Women’s Equality Day, August 26, commemorates the date the 19^th amendment to the US Constitution was ratified, at least theoretically giving all women the right to vote (although in the Jim Crow South black women continued to be disenfranchised).  Contemporary celebrations began in 1972.  Last year it took about a week, but we eventually did shift the top pins!  This year, I’m inviting people to participate in commemorating Women’s Equality Day again on Pinterest.   

My Pinterest Board

My efforts will focus on the 45^th anniversary of Women’s Strike for Equality, which occurred on the 50^th anniversary of the suffrage amendment. The strike, which might have been the high point of women’s movement coalitions, drew thousands of women across the US, although the event in New York City received the greatest media coverage. The pithy slogan, don’t iron while the strike is hot, belied the middle class bias of the organizers. The three goals, equal opportunity at work, abortion rights (this was Pre Roe remember?), and free childcare represented far broader concerns, although not ones shared by every single participant.

How to participate?

1. search "women's equality" on pinterest and like, comment on, or re-pin powerful diverse images of activism, action, and outrage.    The more images are re-pinned and liked, the higher pins rise in the search results, so look for images that have high interaction numbers.  

2. create pins.  This is a little harder.  Pinterest is savvy when it comes to gaming the search algorithms.

“generic, keyword-stuffed descriptions are off-putting to people and may be demoted in search. The same is true for hashtags — having too many of them in your descriptions may negatively impact your ranking.”

• In order to shift pins, you need keyword rich descriptions. I suggest using feminism, women, truths, quotes, and posters as appropriate.
• NO hashtag, but yes to Women’s Equality Day and Just Pin 1
• You want your pins to come up in high volume searches that have less content, which in this case would be feminism!
• You want longer descriptions, which few people write. The maximum character count is 500, aim for at least 300.

3. if you are interested in this as a pedagogical exercise, have students research images to pin! Last year I focused on this as a way to teach women's history.   Students may pin from their own personal accounts or use a generic account I have for their use.

sample assignment #1

1. research images online that relate to women's equality.  Strive for powerful images that are both aesthetically pleasing, but also stress action!
2. Pin to Pinterest (you need an account to do this)
3. write a description that includes "women's equality day" and explains the image. If you use a wesbite to obtain information for the description, make sure to paste it into the description.  Max description is 500 characters first 200 or so characters show on pins.
4. make sure the url for the pin leads to the correct location for the image.
5. if you have other social media accounts share!  You can tweet from Pinterest by ticking the box when you pin that says "post to twitter" of "post to Facebook" in the bottom left corner.

sample assignment #2

1. create an infographic for Pinterest that advocates for women's equality.
2. research salient facts to use
3. carefully craft an aesthetically appealing image
4. think carefully about how you use words in the infographic (which words and how many)
5. write a thoughtful and thorough description. Max description is 500 characters first 200 or so characters show on pins.
6.  if you have other social media accounts share!  You can tweet from Pinterest by ticking the box when you pin that says "post to twitter" of "post to Facebook" in the bottom left corner.