The feminist and anti-racist movement SPARK searches for the participation of girls

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Activist theatre. Source: SPARK movement
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Girls just wanna have fundamental rights. Source: SPARK movement
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Campaign against the sizes of the mannequins. Source: SPARK movement

The goal of SPARK is to ignite an anti-racist gender justice movement. This initiative was launched in the USA, but aims to reach out to girls from around the world.

Writing articles for its blog, join campaigns to denounce corporations that fall on stereotypes and sexualize girls and women, engaging in activist performances…these are some of the ways of collaborating with the SPARK movement, which defines itself as “an activist organization working to ignite and foster an antiracist gender justice movement to end violence against women and girls and promote girls’ healthy sexuality, self-empowering and well-being”.

Up to 2016, every year this organization trained a group of 35 activists. With the support of two foundations, it is now trying to gain large-scale impact: “We want to train and empower activists, educators, community leaders and girls to foster coalitions and associations, and to support a global young feminist movement”.

Its website offers resources and proposals for action, that can be used by groups from around the world. Their actions can also inspire others. For instance, SPARK has denounced fashion brands for using manikins that are too slim and do not reflect the real bodies of girls and women. It has also called on the toy industry to produce dolls with more realistic measurements, or non-sexist toys without stereotyping the professions of women.

In 2016 they carried out an action to calling on Google for a greater presence of women and non-white people on its Doodles (the changes made to Google’s logo to commemorate festivities, anniversaries and the lives of artists, pioneers and renowned scientists).