Briannaâs Bra Strap Snaps Back
Today is a historical day, where Principal Smith was schooled by his own school.
And it all started with Brianna Westallâs realisation that social media can be used to express âdissent, dissemination of information and collective actionâ (York & Youmans 2012) of our sexist dress code.
Westall was recently targeted by Mr Smith for wearing a (cute af) black tank top to school. Fortunately, Westall used Facebook to âelicit external attentionâ (Aday et al, cited in Gerbaudo 2012) to the issue. Iâll let Westall tell the rest of the story.
DISSEMINATION OF INFORMATION aka SPREAD IT
Keeping true to her promise, Westall was the opposite of Elsa.
She wasnât about to Let It Go.
The status was shared over 109 times on Facebook and retweeted over 70 times on Twitter. Many people at our school read the news on Twitter, as it disseminates in real time, and bypasses the newsgathering operations of the mainstream media (Gerbaudo 2012).
Westall created an online petition boycotting Mr Smithâs dress code. She modeled it off petitions of girls in similar situations such as Kelly with 1,252 signatures and Nadia with 2,423 signatures. However, some questioned whether petitions promoted slacktivism. Slacktivism is âfeel good activism that has zero social impact but creates an illusion of having a meaningful impact on the worldâ (Morozov, cited in Gerbaudo 2012). While Westall does the hard work of confrontation and activism, you just click a button encouraging her to do so.
Nevertheless, it worked. All those signatures amassed to 3,000, and Mr Smith was peeing his big boy pants.
COLLECTIVE ACTION aka GET IN LOSERS, WEâRE GOING PROTESTING.
Following the support Westall had recieved, she tested their loyalty. On April 12, Westall organised a protest at the school, where everyone, even boys, wore off the shoulder and spaghetti strap tank tops. Westall got the idea from a similar protest, as it highlights the double standard.
What Westall didnât predict is that her movement inspired an act of hacktivism. Hacktivism is âthe politically motivated use of technical expertiseâ(Milan 2017) otherwise known as âdigital disobedienceâ (Lohrmann, cited in Bergal 2017).
The IT club hacked into our schools website and produced this:
Despite all this, Westallâs uproar influenced a review of the dress code. Bra straps and bare shoulders were not seen as an educational hazard, and permitted. The school is currently reforming how they approach dress code violations, taking submissions from students, parents, teachers and social workers. Bonus: Mr Smith is to undertake a social behavior course as the IT club may of disclosed his darkest thoughts.
We may be small, but social media is powerful. Use it to be âreformers and revolutionariesâ (York & Youmans 2012) like Westall.
Also, Iâd steer clear of Mr Smith and his fantasies.