Activism can be fun.

If you were in White Plaza yesterday, you saw a lot of amazing women and men congregated in celebration of Love Your Body Day, which is part of a national campaign to address issues of body image on campuses and in the world at large. The speeches and performances were very inspiring, particularly the performance by the freshman spoken word artist (a student in my dorm, Burbank House, I might add, but I won’t mention her name in case she’s shy.)

But what really struck me was that there was so much energy around something positive rather than in protest of some evil. Not that there is not a place for anger and dissent; we all know that there is. But too much negativity can lead to people falling into a vortex of apathy that starts with feeling overwhelmed and powerless. I think we don’t focus enough on supporting the ideas that ARE working in our society. Love Your Body Day was the kind of fun, celebratory activism I hope we see more of in the upcoming year.