While not typically my first choice when it comes to fashion, something many would argue I lack any sense of, throughout the day on Feb. 25 I will proudly be sporting a pink shirt.
And my hope is that, as I make my way around town, I encounter many others who are doing the same. In fact, ideally the streets and sidewalks of Prince Rupert would be a sea of pink as you read this.
Today, Feb. 25, is Pink Shirt Day, a campaign aimed at taking a stand against bullying in all of its forms. The day isn’t something that came from the minds of marketing geniuses or corporations looking for brownie points, it’s an idea that came from Canadian high school students in Nova Scotia as outlined at pinkshirtday.ca:
“David Shepherd, Travis Price and their teenage friends organized a high-school protest to wear pink in sympathy with a Grade 9 boy who was being bullied [for wearing a pink shirt]…[They] took a stand against bullying when they protested against the harassment of a new Grade 9 student by distributing pink T-shirts to all the boys in their school,” explains the site.
Bullying is nothing new, it has been around basically since people started coming together. But like many practices of the past that flew somewhat under the radar in years gone by, bullying needs to be stopped. It is something that is completely unacceptable and even more dangerous today than it may have been in the past.
With the advent of social media and enhanced technology such as cell phones and tablet apps, bullying is giving way to cyberbullying — something that leaves the victims of these heinous acts open to bullying any time and anywhere. It’s a practice that, unfortunately, has been linked to countless teen suicides in Canada.
Wearing a pink shirt isn’t going to put an end to bullying, but it sends a message that bullying will not be tolerated. It tells the cowards who bully others that we collectively will not stand for it.
And, perhaps even more importantly, it lets the victims of bullying know they are not alone.
I’ll be wearing pink today, will you?