When Women in Horror Month began, the most frequently asked questions about it were “What about MEN in Horror Month?” and “Is there enough to talk about to fill a whole month?” Fortunately, the question about men in horror faded away, and the amount of content created in support of women in horror has increased exponentially. Issues of representation have improved in some areas and those improvements have highlighted shortfalls in other areas.

Because of the nature of the organization, and our supportive role, there were times when publicly taking sides could have harmed innocent parties professionally. It may have looked like the organization was choosing silence, but important changes were made behind the scenes to mitigate potential damage to the people we worked to support.

One of those changes required a long-term analysis of the community, the amount of content created, web traffic, hashtag performance, social media interaction and more. Then, the pandemic happened and normal data went out the window. Some who had previously expressed concerns were made aware that changes to WiHM were imminent, but that we wanted to proceed in the right way, and armed with information that supported the changes we were considering.

That brings us to the announcement we were hoping to make at the end of the month when we could point to real numbers as justification. As of March 1, 2021, there will no longer be an official WiHM organization. Along with that, we’ve found that not only is there enough content, traffic, and engagement for one month, we believe there is enough to take celebrations year round.

We would like to encourage the community to choose their own month to celebrate. The month that best fits their projects. February, March, October...doesn’t matter. Leverage the reach you all have created by using the WiHM hashtag. Create your own groups and communities. Throw your own events (when it’s safe to do so).

Our only cautions are these:

1. Don’t let any singular group dictate how to do WiHM “right.” If you’re inclusive and positive, you’re doing it right.
2. Don’t trust anyone who tries to monetize WiHM and calls themselves an authority in the vacuum. You are already WiHM. No one can own it.
3. This creates a greater call for the community to police itself. Whatever you share using the WiHM platform/reach has an impact on everyone else using WiHM to get their work seen. This includes content AND your responses to content. You will all be in this together.

We believe these changes will not only increase engagement and exposure for everyone, but create more opportunities for crossover content that brings even more attention from communities who haven’t previously participated.

It has been incredible watching this community grow and change over the last 12 years. We truly hope that this expansion to 12 months of WiHM facilitates even more growth and opens more doors than ever before.