Friday, March 9, 2012

International Women's Day

   I didn't know there was such a thing until someone started posting about it.

   That's a lie. I came here to talk about why my FB friend posted: "Are women still seeking equality?" Is that a serious question? I can't even talk about it, because the issue needs to be re-framed. The better question is, "Are some humans still facing disadvantages due to their sex/gender?" It irks  me to see important discussions obscured by the old battle of sexes rhetoric, but at the same time, I am too old and lazy to engage in more internet arguments/discussions.

   As I reflect on this question, I concede that I certainly don't face the same challenges as the women of generations past, but it's also premature to say that equality has been reached. Are some humans still facing disadvantages because of their sex and gender? Globally, yes. Domestically, yes, to a lesser extent.

  For me, I wouldn't use this day to celebrate simply being female. We've come a long way from a culture that led Simone de Beauvoir to designate us as the second sex. Girl power made sense in a time when women were powerless, but now, these girls-run-the-world Beyonce-type iterations seem almost like a perversion of what was once a powerful thought. These slogans further affirms the men-women dichotomy, and ultimately, that's not what feminism is about. It's about correcting the institutions that deny humans rights because of their sex/gender. Nothing too controversial about that.