Vampires Meet Intactivism

Twilight.....love it or hate it, but it's wildly popular and offers up a great opportunity to Intactivists to get the conversation started and get people thinking.  I've created a printable sheet of bookmarks to stick in copies of the Twilight books to take advantage of the hype.

Actor Robert Pattinson is intact....and the character is most likely to be as well given his age.  :)

Each page consists of 7 repeats of this image which you can cut apart to make a great bookmark.  I printed mine on red cardstock so they stand out, but you could even just use plain white paper....the message is still there!

Note, I am aware that a lot of people won't understand what on Earth this means!  However, I think that's a good way to get them to actually go to the website and find out.  If I was a rabid fangirl who ran across a rather nice looking bookmark that said this about a character I was into....I'd sure as hell look into it!


You can get the printable version HERE.

(I want to so something similar with Bill and Eric from The Southern Vampire Mysteries aka True Blood....which are more my speed.  lol )

DIY Intactivism Kit

 

The above photo is of my Guerrilla Intactavism kit that lives in my purse at all times.

Post-It notes in a bright color

pens and/or markers to write with

info cards from The WHOLE Network

and, my personal favorite, WASHABLE dry-erase markers!

Just toss these items in a plastic bag or makeup bag (I found a zipper pouch CHEAP at Target) and there you go!  I leave messages via dry-erase marker or Post-it in every bathroom I visit, on every gas pump I use, and just about anywhere else I can think of to leave them!  I will be posting about more location ideas in the near future.  :)

Sidewalk Intactivism

To the right is a photo of the sidewalk across the street from my house.  It's heavily trafficed with people walking to and from the bus stop on the corner as well as cyclist, dog-walkers, and joggers going to and from the park.

Let's face it, people are curious...even nosy.  We see something written in brightly colored chalk at our feet?  We'll read it.  In the days following I would watch as people would slow down, perhaps pause, and even back up just to read what was written.  And you know something talking about babies dying would get their attention!

So, grab your kid's sidewalk chalk and pick a nice public walkway to spread the message!

A few tips -

• Wet chalk or chalk on a wet surface is not only easier to work with, but also lasts longer and shows up better.  Just dip chalk in a cup of warm water for a few seconds before you start writing and dip again as needed.
• Another option is sidewalk chalk paint.  It's cheap and easy to make (out of cornstarch, of all things!) and lets you write on rough patches of sidewalk more easily than with sticks of chalk.

I find that shorter messages work best for this (let's face it, getting down on your hands and knees to write out a long message is hard work...and I've got small children so my time is limited)  Here are some ideas:


"More than 117 babies DIE each year in the US from circumcision"
"HIS body.  HIS choice!"
"Whose body?  Whose rights?"
"Female circumcision = MUTILATION 
Male circumcision = okay?"
"His penis?  HIS decision!"
"Bring your WHOLE baby home!"

And of course I like to leave a link to more information....my link of choice being WHOLEnetwork.org.  :)

Guerilla Intactivism

This blog was born of a screw up on my part.  I was in line at a store with a young pregnant woman who, through a bit of light conversation, was having a boy.  To my horror, I didn't have anything to give her about leaving her son intact...I had no idea what to do or say because I'd never gotten around to ordering some info cards from The WHOLE Network...nor did I have so much as a pen and piece of paper to scrawl the web address onto.

I failed that baby and at that moment I vowed to never be without information to hand out again.

That night, at 4am, I ordered info cards on my phone from bed....and I started thinking up other cheap or, better yet, FREE ways I could make a difference in the fight for genital integrity - enter Guerrilla Intactivism

From Wikipedia:

"Guerrilla warfare is a form of irregular warfare and refers to conflicts in which a small group of combatants including, but not limited to, armed civilians (or "irregulars") use military tactics, such as ambushes, sabotage, raids, the element of surprise, and extraordinary mobility to harass a larger and less-mobile traditional army, or strike a vulnerable target, and withdraw almost immediately."

Obviously this is not a physical war, but a war of information.  Intactivism as a whole is a small grassroots effort that has made great strides in recent history, particularly online.  However, not everyone uses the internet in such a way that they will ever run across this information on their own.  What the movement needs is more local, tangible efforts to spread our message...and in a way that is both doable and affordable.  I don't know about you, but my funding is limited.  I try to save my nice info cards to hand directly to parents.  So how else can I get the message out there?

Honestly, there are about a million different ways!  You just have to think of them...which is why I'm here to think of ways to do this and pass it on to you, as well as use my abilities with computers and such to provide my fellow Intactivists with free printables and images for us online.

Join me in this fight...it's time to misbehave. :)