However, this one…..Dressember….is worth breaking my "rule" for. Dressember issues a challenge to women to wear a dress every day in December as a way to advocate for women all over the world whose basic freedoms are taken away because of their gender and may be victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression.
From their site…..
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Dressember is a collaborative movement leveraging fashion and creativity to restore dignity to all women.
Dressember uses fashion to advocate for women who've been exploited for their femininity. As women take on the creative challenge of wearing a dress for the 31 days of December, they are advocating for the inherent dignity of all women.
Dressember exists to inspire and empower a global community of like-minded women who are locking arms to face one of the greatest injustices of our time.
The heart of Dressember is freedom-- that every woman has the right to live a vibrant and autonomous life.
What began in 2009 as a quirky style challenge with a clever name spread like wildfire. Dressember is a month of wearing dresses, but it is so much more. At its core, Dressember is an embracing of the inherent freedom and femininity of all women.
In 2013, Dressember took on new meaning: opposing the worldwide trafficking and exploitation of women. In its first year as a fundraising campaign, Dressember aligned with International Justice Mission, a human rights organization that works to rescue victims of slavery, sexual exploitation, and other forms of violent oppression. Those who participate in Dressember are supporting the abolition of modern day slavery. In its first year of fundraising, Dressember had 1,233 registered participants in 32 countries across 6 continents who collectively raised over $165,000. 100% of the funds raised in 2013 went directly to International Justice Mission.
In 2014, the thousands of woman that participate in Dressember will again be advocates for the work of International Justice Mission.
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So here's the deal…….
Just simply wearing a dress everyday in December, while a nice gesture, doesn't get the job done. Raising money as a result that will be used to fund rescue missions, facilitate education and job skill training for survivors, training for local police forces all over the world, and everything else that the International Justice Mission does to provide justice for the poor around the world is what makes Dressember successful.
Do most of us (any of us?) have 31, 21, 15, 10? dresses that we can wear? I'm guessing the answer is no. The point is not to showcase all of our dresses. The point is that when you leave the house to go to work, volunteer at school, have dessert with a friend, go Christmas shopping, or buy groceries and you run into people you know or are just meeting and they make a comment about your dress (because you know people do--especially if you don't normally wear them, it seems odd that you're wearing so many--or the same five or six over and over, or there's a blizzard outside) it's that you can mention WHY you're wearing a dress, providing them with the opportunity to donate money to a cause or to just be aware of a cause that they might not have known about.
Here are the rules:
--Commit to wearing a dress every day for the entire month of December
- Tell your friends what you're doing and why, and invite them to sponsor you
Helpful loopholes:
- You can repeat dresses---clearly. (Get creative!)
- You can wear pants when you're working out, cleaning and staying in the house, sleeping, or if you have a job that requires you to wear pants.
- You can wear skirts, but only over dresses.
- You can wear pants, but only under dresses.
Mine is $500. And I think that doing it as a team would be a lot easier and bring together way more people. To join my team you can click here, then click on the teal button that says "Become an Advocate." Follow the steps to create an individual campaign page (it's super easy). Right below the field that allows a customizable URL there is a drop down menu to join an existing team……find my team and select it! My team is called 'We Dress Up. For all the girls.' And then you're in! Share it with friends on Facebook, IG, Twitter--if you want to--and let's see how much money we can raise together; pooling all of our resources!
Or, if joining a team and committing to dresses for December is not something you can do at this time but you'd still like to contribute to the cause you can head to my team page and make a one time tax deductible donation. And a thousand thanks to you if you do!
So what do you think? Are you in? My first thought……it's a little intimidating to put this post out there--to commit to something like wearing a dress every day for December--because now you all know. But you know what? I have the freedom to wear a dress, that I choose, from my own closet, in my safe house, in a free place, where I am shown more respect and dignity on a daily basis than many other women around the world will ever experience in their lifetime. Dressemeber is not for everyone--and that is okay.
But if it's for you---I'd love to do it with you. Let me know! You've got a good month to decide! You can leave a comment below that you've joined my team or shoot me an e-mail (link in the sidebar).
December always was my favorite month. At least this year it will be!
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