In May, the Bulgarian company Corida, which is well known for its high-quality and elegant Spanish shoes, run the online campaign Corida next to me in support of the Bulgarian Fund for Women.
The goal of the campaign was to raise awareness about hate speech online. All the participants were invited to share their experience with hate speech by posting a picture of themselves online and telling their story. All stories were collected throughout May under the hashtag #CoridaDoMen.
The campaign triggered a lot of empathy and showed that most often hate speech is weakness for the people who use them, not for the people they target. The campaign involved many artists and public figures such as the director and choreographer Kosta Karakashiyan, the model Rosemary Tischer, the Bulgarian singer Veneta, and many others.
For each photo shared online with the hashtag #CoridaDoMen, Corida donated 1 Bulgarian Lev to the Bulgarian Fund for Women as we were recognized as a leading organization in the fight against gender inequality.
“We at Corida believe that every business is more than a business,” the company’s board commented.”Our products show who we are. That is why we would like to draw attention to a problem that we have unfortunately encountered in the first person, namely ugly words addressed to the things we like and the content of our page. The problem is not our damaged ego, but the aggression that we as human beings encounter daily and that we sometimes have to come to terms with. Unfortunately, this aggression is much more often directed at women – our beloved clients. As a business run by a woman, we say “Stop!” We think that hatred is like a bogart: it loses its terrible appearance if it is met with ridicule.”
We at the Bulgarian Women’s Fund support this idea and stand behind the company’s initiative. “We thank Corida for their kind donation and especially for raising the issue of online aggression and hate speech“, said Nadezhda Dermendzhieva – Executive Director of the Bulgarian Women’s Fund. “The campaign is extremely important because it presents a real form of violence that remains neglected and underestimated, but is very widespread and makes girls and young women particularly vulnerable, who are more often exposed to various forms of violence, multiple discrimination, including online harassment and verbal abuse. Only if each of us becomes intolerant of aggression, violence and hatred, and if we all stop tolerating it together, will we be able to feel more secure and reach our full potential as human beings. Violence breeds violence and stops the development of our entire society“, Dermendzhieva added.
The Corida brand was created back in 1992, due to the strong belief that the Bulgarian woman deserves to feel the luxury of the Spanish shoes. The company is now run by a woman who has the ambition not only to develop the brand and its products but also to strengthen the company’s identity and social commitment.
