8th of march.
As a newly confessed feminist I find this day hard to relate to. On one hand I grew up in a family full of women and have to some extent always celebrated it and I never really saw people as different because of gender..but on the other hand I've now come to realise how twisted and scared I've become from living in a world built for men and how much people divide them selves. There is of course other things in life that scars too and every one has their own personal struggles regardless of gender...but I doubt that I would have counted how many men looked me in the eye walking down the street today just to justify my own existence if I wasn't born a girl. Because make no mistake, we are not allowed to feel, think, want, be anyone without twisting to please a man. Still. So what are we really celebrating?
Well...I suppose I'd celebrate all the strong women of history and the suffragettes who fought for the rights and equalities that we do have. One day we will look just as silly as the people in the anti-suffragette posters 100 years ago, and that is also something to celebrate...that we're not giving up yet.
It's also kind of a good day to remember my top 3 role models that just so happens to be female! In no particular order I have Anne Boleyn, Cora Pearl and Nina my mother in law.
In the end I want to give a thought to my childhood sisters..both in blood and in bone..and remember how hard we fought and how far we've come..because sisters are forever.
Today I made one request: I want every man to walk a mile an women's shoes and that every flower be accompanied by a card that said 'I'm sorry'. By that I meant an actual mile in actual high heal sexy women's shoes. And while your legs cramp up and nails dig into your skin ponder this: Why is it cool for women to be men but ridiculous for men to be women?
The card is simply for acknowledging that we are not yet equal.
In the end I did celebrate Women's Day. Chocolate and flowers and the most adorable I'm sorry-card :) And this year I will continue to try to treat all the people around me as my equals, responsible for their own actions...no mater what the cost.
Lastly I want to share some reading. It's all in Swedish, mostly because,as I discovered when moving to Britain, we have come a lot further with our equality, but also because I couldn't find anything in English that made sense.
Good luck!
