A new multimedia campaign by the Canadian Women’s Foundation takes aim at the cost that sexist messages on clothing and in the media has on girls. The “As We Are” campaign is led by a 30-second PSA that shows girls wearing t-shirts with slogans like “Future Trophy Wife” or “Allergic to Algebra.” Instead of putting a dollar figure on the t-shirts, the spot puts their cost as “her self-worth” or “her ambition.” “Some clothes cost more than you think,” notes the voiceover. “The messages girls wear affect how they value themselves. Help us empower them to think differently.” The campaign was launched on International Women’s Day on March 8 – making it the foundation’s first campaign timed to coincide with the day – and runs for four weeks. It’s the result of a series of workshops last fall in Toronto in which 95 girls aged 9 to 13 discussed media messages and how they affect the way they see themselves. The girls also designed t-shirts with messages they would be proud to wear, instead of the ones similar to those depicted in the PSA that are often sold in stores.

Four of the t-shirts are now available for sale on the campaign’s microsite AsWeAre.ca with messages like “Girls’ options are endless” and “I am not perfect, I am nobody’s stereotype, I am me.” Net proceeds go to support girls’ programs at the foundation. “Girls are bombarded with media and advertising messages that we know are disempowering and really limit their potential,” says Natasha Wilson, director of marketing and communications at the Canadian Women’s Foundation. While t-shirts aimed at boys say “I’m a Hero,” those aimed at girls say “I Need a Hero,” Wilson says. “The messages are rooted in sexism and gender stereotypes and they all reinforce the idea that a girl’s value comes from her appearance rather than from their intelligence or critical thinking or creativity.” Havas Worldwide Canada created the pro bono campaign that includes print, digital, radio, broadcast, out-of-home and social media.  Wilson says the daughter of Havas Worldwide Canada CEO Helen Pak was a workshop participant and “Helen felt compelled to help us tell the story and encourage more Canadians to get involved.”

The PSA is being broadcast nationally for four weeks on City, Omni and specialty networks. There’s also a YouTube, Facebook and Twitter presence, print ads, a radio spot and digital billboard campaign in large malls across the country.Air Screen Seed Cleaner The out-of-home spots show girls with t-shirts with messages like “Too Pretty to Do Homework: or “Princess in Training” and conclude “Don’t let the wrong messages affect how girls value themselves.”Shower Head Repair Diagram A three-minute documentary-style video online provides more information on the issue and notes only 14% of girls in Grade 10 feel confident about themselves and that girls want to start looking sexy at age 6.Blue And White Bedding Ralph Lauren

The campaign aims to help girls recognize their own strengths and self- worth and become more resilient when bombarded with negative messages, Wilson says. It also encourages Canadians to think critically about gender stereotypes and “to say no to these disempowering and limiting messages.” Wilson says girls who participated in the workshops said they felt more confident and better able to counter negative messages. Edelman handles PR for the Canadian Women’s Foundation.Home / Music / Music Feature / Racine and Kenosha’s Best Bands are Led by Women Racine and Kenosha’s Best Bands are Led by Women For decades Kenosha and Racine’s live-music scene was dominated by all-male groups. These days, however, the most exciting music from these former factory towns, set a few miles apart on the shore of Lake Michigan, comes from acts fronted by guitar-slinging women. Matching catchy tunes with captivating performance styles, four bands in particular have amassed a loyal following in these southeastern Wisconsin cities, without Milwaukee venues.

Donoma, Folkswagon, Ash Can School and the Jill Plaisted Band are breaking new artistic ground. Kenosha and Racine may be minor moons in the outer cultural orbit of Chicago, but these bands are helping them shine brightly. Here’s why they’re worth the short drive south to catch them at a hometown bar, where there’s rarely a cover charge.Donoma: Art-rock with sex appealEnsconced in a spacious subterranean rehearsal room and recording studio in uptown Kenosha, Donoma’s Stephanie Vogt totters gorgeously on red-ribboned high heels while shooting a video. She’s stretching a skintight mini-dress and screaming “Santa Baby” as though it were a kiss-off number. Suddenly she stops, halting the uptempo hard rock, and laughs loudly.The other members of Donoma—Shelle Mounce (bass), Tim King (guitar), Israel Alpizar (drums) and Nick Campolo (violin)—are having a wonderful Christmas time, too. A mural of David Bowie, Freddie Mercury and Bon Scott provides added inspiration. The band has an attacking sound, the raw energy of artists in rebellion.

They also excel at introspective ballads, like “Phantom Limb” from their 2010 album A Sight of the Sun. Vogt’s brash whisky alto is as dependable as her rhythm guitar- and keyboard-playing. Donoma merges influences ranging from punk to Pearl Jam into a Frankenstew of menace and compassion. It’s sometimes pretentious, but frequently provocative.A longtime chronicler of the club scene in both cities, Kenosha News music columnist Paddy Fineran complains that most rock ’n’ roll has lost its essential dangerousness. So he finds Donoma’s edgy sound and charged performance style refreshing. “Donoma is ready to break out of the local scene,” Fineran says, noting that their second album is being produced by Mike Hoffmann (EIEIO, Semi-Twang), a Milwaukeean with major-label connections. Kicking back in jeans and T-shirt with a can of PBR, Vogt embraces her fate. She seems unfazed by the routine of rehearsing, collaborating with her bandmates and entertaining fickle audiences. Donoma, after all, has played about 350 gigs so far.

The nuisance and necessity of a day job doesn’t bother her either.“I want to earn a living doing music full-time,” she says confidently.Folkswagon: An Americana siren sings of heartbreak and joyIn her 40s now, Racine-based singer/songwriter Rachelle Van Offeren has been punched in the face a few times by life. But she absorbed the blows and turned her bruises into art. Folkswagon (est. 2008) is the perfect vehicle for her personal, plaintive songs of love and loss. Van Offeren is a gifted guitarist and a seductive vocalist, especially when singing close harmonies with her sister and tambourine-wielding bandmate Susan Ma.Folkswagon’s charm comes from the spell that Van Offeren casts with her gritty, full-throated soprano. It suggests a lonely siren luring you towards a welcome doom. Her songs “Don’t Know How” and “Every Once in a While” (from Folkswagon’s 2010 album Fresh Fruit) are minor-key masterpieces of yearning and regret. The players come from both Racine and Kenosha.

With its rootsy folk-pop Americana sound, Folkswagon would feel at home in Nashville, Tenn., or Austin, Texas. Jill Plaisted Band: Soulful singer practices aikido with acoustic guitarJill Plaisted’s profession is social work, but her vocation is making music. Meanwhile, this busy 30-something singer/guitarist is working toward a master’s degree in counseling at Concordia College. She also practices the martial art of aikido, whose Japanese name means “the way of mutual spirit,” a fitting description for her Kenosha-based band. Featuring virtuoso electric guitarist Tom Barr, drummer Cy Costabile and Bill Robbins on bass/vocals, the Jill Plaisted Band plays mostly covers, including that groovy Wilco/Woody Guthrie collaboration “California Stars.” For a recent show at Henry & Wanda’s in Racine they tossed a few Plaisted originals into every set, including the dreamy “Lost for You.” Plaisted’s voice is soul-deep and pure, a refined instrument capable of going from jazzy moan to gospel cry in a heartbeat.

Ash Can School: Funky pop-rock transfused by new membersDespite the fact that they’ve been on the scene for 30 years, the married musical partners Dave Jude and Janet Lee Aiello of Ash Can School gig harder than most local bands. And they have a vast catalog of original songs to draw on. At a November basement rehearsal in Kenosha, Dave joked that he selects them at random for set lists.Rejuvenated by the addition of drummer Tom Selear and guitarist Guy Crucianelli, the Aiellos’ band mixes tongue-in-cheek working-class consciousness (“Lifestyles of the Poor & Unknown”) with a quirky pop-song sensibility (“The Only Lonely One”). Echoing The Pretenders’ Chrissie Hynde, Janet delivers The Kinks’ “Stop Your Sobbing” with conviction. Demure offstage, Janet stalks the floor, fierce and amusing as she mocks, growls and croons. Ash Can School has released four albums on iTunes, including 2014’s The Ever Blooming Knockout Rose. Like their peers in Donoma, Folkswagon and the Jill Plaisted Band, they’re another example of passionate musicians playing true-to-life songs for thinking adults.