If one had to pick a word that could sum up discrimination against women, that word would be “no.”
In it is the essence of sexism, of lack of opportunities, of the obstacles women face, in different forms and magnitudes, in all societies. Being told, openly or subtly, that you shouldn’t, you can’t, you won’t do what you want.
The ONE campaign‘s latest video, titled Poverty is Sexist, gets exactly to that, showing a montage of women being told “no” in situations that go from the seemingly inconsequential (a girl being told she can’t wear a black t-shirt, and given a pink one instead) to the outright tragic (a child bride being consoled as she is given to an old man).
While their gravity differ, these moments depict the injustice that runs through female experience everywhere, showing rather than telling the message of the campaign: “None of us is equal, until all of us are equal.”