Yes it's that time again where my genitals have awarded me one whole
day to be recognized for having those specific genitals! Strike up the
band!
You should all know how I feel about
International Women's Day and if you don't, I hope you got the context
clues from my opening sentences that I think it's pretty lame. This day
is supposedly to mark the advancement of women everywhere, but I have
trouble seeing much international progress. Women globally still have no
access to education, there are still many countries practicing FGM,
with once shocking case
taking place in a UK hospital recently and with a rape every 6 seconds
(RAINN) in the incredibly well developed and well educated USA, I think
we can do better.
I am a privileged white woman. I live
in a western society, was raised in a middle-class home and I shop at
Waitrose. Many women like me can't see that globally there is massive
disparity between the rights of women and the rights of men. Because
many women don't experience what they believe to be oppression in their
daily lives, it's easy to forget that on average we earn 22% less than
our male colleagues or that on average one in three women
we know will be beaten or raped through the course of their life. This
is not OK and it is oppression, we've just gotten used to it.
This
kind of ignorance is dangerous. In order to make change we have to be
able to see past our own noses and fight for women everywhere. Check
your privilege, ladies. Look around you and wake the hell up. Here's a
handy map to help
you see how women are treated in the rest of the world. How does your
country look? Not as great as you thought it would, right? Globally
women's problems need attention and if we don't fight together who the
hell will fight for us?
This week Mukesh Singh, one of
the gang rapists sentenced to death for the brutal rape and murder of
Jyoti Singh in India in 2012 stated
that 'girls are much more responsible for rape than boys.' Though shocking, this attitude is not unique. Recently the University of
Virginia banned its
female students from attending 'bid night' fraternity parties citing it
was 'for their own safety.' This implication that men can't control
themselves around women and that if we get raped it's somehow in
response to something we did is an archaic idea and its renaissance is
unsettling.
Just this week in Ohio, a bill
was proposed to limit a woman's access to birth control and to
completely eradicate abortions being covered by healthcare, even if the
mother's life is in danger. Is this real life? Are you fucking serious? I
was sure the days of back alley coat hanger abortions were behind us,
but it appears there are still those in power who dispute the ownership
of our own bodies. Are you scared yet? Good.
We need to
wake up and start fighting back. It's great that we got the vote and
all, but that should not be where feminism stops. This March 8th what
are you going to do? How are you going to celebrate this day that is
supposedly in our honour? I'll be at the WOW (women on the world) Festival if you'd like to join me. Or how about raising some money for a charity that supports the safety of women like Plan UK? Or signing this petition
to stop those asshats from taking away our sisters' contraceptive
rights? Whatever you do, do something that both celebrates your
womanhood, but helps someone else celebrate theirs.
We deserve more than a day, but that's what we get. So on this crappy excuse for a tribute to our vaginas, let's make it count.
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