So I travel a lot (enough to have been in the air, watching on in-flight TV's, the last two plane crashes, which is a really bizarre feeling) and am usually pretty good at occupying myself on planes. But because I'm not allowed to break out my laptop until after take-off, I always end up perusing the airline produced magazine provided in the seat pocket in front of you.
This last time, I kept seeing the above ad, featuring Rihanna, for the Grammy's - which were several weeks ago by the time I boarded the plane. As we all know, Rihanna did not perform at the Grammy's because she is a survivor of domestic violence perpetrated by her partner, rapper Chris Brown, and was recovering from her injuries.
I remember once reading about tactics employed by the Riot Grrls that included inking feminist things on bathroom walls. I had a friend at the University of Texas who made stickers that said "This is offensive to women" and stuck them on posters, ads, and even textbooks as a pro-woman statement.
So in this spirit, I wrote on all the ads in all the Delta magazines that I could get my hands on (about 12): "Domestic violence can happen to anyone - boycott Chris Brown."
The airlines replace the magazines regularly and you're encouraged to take them, so it's not like I was doing anything terrible or incredibly impactful. But it did make me think: If I inked my feminist commentary on my row of magazines everytime I get on a plane, how many people might I reach? Maybe just one woman who realizes that just because she is wealthy and married does not mean she signed on to be a punching bag? Maybe one guy who realizes that he might not want his sister trying to look like those bikini models in the travel section?
I haven't started toting a Sharpie around to mark up bathrooms across NYC but I might just start. I'm starting to realize that not all actions have to be BIG and BROADCAST all over the internet- sometimes feminist activism is just killing time on a plane, with a purpose.