Dear beloved readers,
I think the only fair way to start this one is by saying that I…got in a little trouble and I will – briefly, because that’s not what we will be focusing today – tell you all about it.
So as you know, last Friday me and my bestie went out for drinks and some fun and may I say that we did have the best time. Between drinks, laughs, faking identities, flirting, getting random stranger’s phone numbers and free shots, we really were living our best lives. And as we rode back home, and realized we did not call/text our exes, vomited and/or ended up in bed with some random not-that-cute stranger, we could only appreciate the fact that we indeed had the best time.
And now you must be wondering, why I won’t be focusing on this today? I am not going to lie, I’d love to really tell you all about it in the minimal details I know you all deep down crave for but, today is the day after International Women’s Day, and I guess I do have a lot to say about this one. So again, fasten your sit belts ‘cause we are about to raise that damn feminist flag.
At first, and after accidentally flirting with a Tr*mp supporter (don’t worry, as soon as we noticed, I threatened to throw my whole ass chair on them), I wanted to literally ramble for as many pages as possible about everything that is wrong with men, and the reality is I could easily do that, I’d start with mansplaining and end with the fact that Gary Oldman won an Oscar last Sunday. But, instead of going off about what is wrong with men (spoiler alert: a lot), for the third post or so, I decided to write something that can, somehow, help men.
You may be wondering why I didn’t wish you my beautiful beloved readers a happy women’s day, and the reason is, just like some people don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter, I don’t celebrate the women’s day. Here’s the deal, when I was a little girl with a lot of faith in this world and humanity, I loved women’s day. It was the day I got flowers from the men in my life and that I was celebrated for being a woman. It took me a while, but as a grew up and as I became a real woman – who was told to shut up, sit like a lady and look pretty, and who had to fight for her rights on a daily basis and was hardly ever taken seriously –, I realized that maybe it wasn’t quite like that.
You see, we need a special date on a calendar to be remembered, celebrated, heard, respected and even viewed as special. Men have that the other 364 days of the year. This was a way of them getting away with their inequality, this was their way of saying “Here, take this day and shut the fuck up”, this is actually alarmingly bad.
And all of this got me wondering: How do people actually see this as a good thing? Better yet, why this is still a thing?
So, to my male readers: Instead of wishing women a happy women’s day today, handing them a flower and saying that their sensibility makes the world a better place…What about you respect women everyday, don’t laugh at sexist jokes, allow them to walk down the streets without fearing every shadow, allow them to have a voice and to be heard, allow them to be treated the right way. Not because you have a mother, a sister, a daughter, but because they are people too. And this fight, for equality, for justice, for a better world, for women to have a decent future, this fight may not be yours directly, because lucky for yo, you were born in a world where you always could and you always would. But now I am telling you that you can, and we want you to join us in this, because this is not about us wanting to be better, this is about us wanting to be equal. So please, instead of wishing us a happy women’s day, sharing a pink post on facebook and pretending to care for 24 hours, join us on our fight, respect us, see us, hear us and above everything, recognize that we too deserve all 365 days, not just one. I promise you all of this is way easier than it sounds and it sure will be more appreciated than any happy women’s day wish.
Now, to my amazing female beloved readers: I love you. So much. You are powerful, you are strong, I look up to every single one of you every single day. Thank you for inspiring me, thank you for speaking up, thank you for fighting and thank you for never giving up. People take us for granted everyday, but the fact that we still stand, and day after day stronger than ever, makes me feel like that little girl full of faith in humanity again. We are fighting for something way bigger than us and our particular needs. We stand in this fight for every single women out there, black, white, asian, trans, all of them. We fight for the ones who died fighting for this ages ago because if we are allowed to stand strong here now, is because amazing strong powerful women died for this. We fight for our future generations, the little girls who are being born this second that luckily, if we keep this going, they will never have to say “me too”, ever. We fight because every 5 minutes a women is abused. We fight because we never thought we could or that we would, but now more than ever, because we SHOULD. Thank you one more time, and please never forget that we can and together, we will.
So, no, I don’t appreciate Women’s Day. Not because I don’t appreciate what it means, but because as a woman, I know we deserve better. I noticed I used the word ‘fight’ a lot, and the fact that this is a battle for us, when all men were already born with the privilege of being able to stand without fear, without eye rolls, and without having to raise their voices to be heard, only proves even more how equality is important. I don’t want to live in a world in which girls have to fit and boys can just be. I want to live in a world where we just stand for each other and we see one another as equals, as people. Not only because it’s right, but because it’s fair, as it should be. Feminism is all about men and women coming together fighting for equality, and that’s what we should fight for, celebrate and claim every single day.
There was no way to end this one in a better note than to quote one of the greatest minds of all times, ladies and gentlemen, Maya Angelou: “Each time a woman stands up for herself, without knowing it possibly, without claiming it, she stands for all women”. And because together we are stronger, wiser, louder and definitely meant to make something beyond anything ever seen, with our power and strength, please: Don’t accept a day when we too deserve them all.
Until next week, I hope you know women’s day is everyday and that you also know that being a woman in this generation is the closest thing to having a super power, and ladies, we fucking slay. I hope you enjoyed reading this one as much as I enjoyed writing it. Oh and boys, don’t be jerks and don’t buy drinks to girls if you support someone like Tr*mp. Stay strong and out of trouble, but if you don’t – oh my god, tell me all about it.
– Your Girl on the Go