Ultra Violet: “Equality at a Higher Frequency”

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The Ultra Violet truck at the Shell gas station right next to campus.

A billboard on a truck, parked in the Shell parking lot, peering out onto the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport states that women still earn $.84 to every dollar that men earn. A similar billboard is located south on University from the airport. Slightly out of place among other billboards featuring blue skies, white sand beaches and idyllic golf courses, they are part of a nation-wide feminist campaign created by the feminist activist group, Ultra Violet.

On its website, Ultra Violet states that it is, “a new and rapidly growing community of women and men across the U.S. mobilized to fight against sexism and expand women’s rights, from politics and government to media and pop culture.”

The billboards are part of a campaign entitled “Florida: Your #1 anti-woman destination.” The premise is that these ads will target the tourist industries on which states like Florida, South Carolina and Michigan depend. Ultra Violet hopes that the billboards will encourage female travelers to rethink their vacation destinations. If enough do, state governments will have to respond to concerns that they have been pushing against women’s reproductive health in order to reclaim much-needed tourism revenue.

Ultra Violet is currently engaged in 29 different campaigns which range from fighting for women’s right to access abortions, demanding justice for Renisha McBride and protesting against Whole Foods for firing Rhiannon Broschat, a mother who took time off work to care for her special needs son.

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