CT Girlcott Set to Make History, Opens Make-Up Free Photo Exhibit

March is Women’s History Month, and a number of local organizations in Greater Hartford have come together looking to make some history of their own.   They’ve organized CT Girlcott, a movement of women willing to go makeup free for the month (or part thereof) and to donate the money usually spent on cosmetics to organizations that benefit women and girls in Connecticut and around the world.  The effort also aims to raise awareness around body image and the relationship between women and the makeup they wear. Among the organizers are Charter Oak Cultural Center, YWCA Hartford Region, Harriet Beecher Stowe Center, University of Hartford Women for Change, Women’s Education and Leadership Fund, CT Humanities, and the Permanent Commission on the Status of Women.  A website, www.ctgirlcott.org has been launched highlighting the initiative.

The Charter Oak Cultural Center is hosting a photography exhibition as part of CT Girlcott which features the images of the women leaders who have “dared to bare it all for the camera.” Revealed: Images of Women Leaders Who Bared to Make Change opens with a reception on February 28, 6-8 PM, and runs through April 13.  Photographs of over thirty women leaders from the Greater Hartford community will be revealed without their make-up, including many familiar names (and faces).

Girlcott is "a movement of Connecticut women raising consciousness" on behalf of women around the world and the issues currently confronting women in 2013.  Girlcott asks women to “girlcott” (as opposed to boycott) make-up for the month of March and to donate the monies spent on cosmetics to organizations and programs that help and support women and girls in Hartford and internationally. Connecticut Humanities provided funding for the exhibition, which includes the work of photographers Nilofer Haider, Lena Stein, and Nicolette Theriault.

CT Girlcott hopes to encourage conversations among women about body image, definitions of beauty, and what cosmetics are really covering up, and support the flourishing of women and girls in Connecticut, as well as in developing and war-torn countries.  The initiative also seeks to raise awareness about the representation of women in the media, the pressures women live with to look a certain way, the objectification of women, and the impact all of this has on women’s lives and the life of the nation and world.