“have you heard of Julyna?”
Tracy is smart and driven, and is currently pursuing her Master’s degree with a specific interest in gender and gaming. Her department currently has a Movember campaign, which is advertised throughout the building. As we chat about Movember, I ask her how she thinks women can participate in Movember, but the conversation quickly moves on to Julyna.
Many of you probably have not heard of Julyna before. The website states, “For the month of July, we’re encouraging women to style their pubic hair in order to fundraise and spread awareness” for cervical cancer (Read more). Both campaigns ask one gender to grow hair and money for a gender-specific cancer. Julyna has been dubbed “the female answer to Movember.” In fact, there is even a moustache design! On the one hand, there is more of a logical connection given the placement of the hair; on the other hand, Julyna is not very effective at raising public awareness given that the signifier is (ahem…) hidden.
Of course, as soon as anything becomes popular enough there will be spinoffs, mash-ups, parodies, and so forth. Even though Julyna has not seen tremendous success like Movember, I imagine it may have been created by a group of women who were frustrated by not being able to fully participate in Movember or merely used Movember as inspiration.
The evolution of a charitable campaign is not possible to imagine. Julyna is not the female answer to Movember. It may be an answer to a whole other situation, which is great. I’ve met some amazing Mo Sistas who are developing creative spaces for inclusion within Movember!
Jenna Jacobson 