To be bored of International Women’s Day?

[Athenaena]

I suspect the answer will be a resounding yes.

I totally appreciate women have overcome suppression etc and I’m absolutely proud and immensely grateful for the sacrifices my fellow women have made in the past to allow myself and others to be where we are today, but I just feel bored by all the constant ‘Who run the world, girls’ ‘Shoutout to all my fellow queens’ etc posts that I’ve been bombarded with on various social media platforms this morning.

Why do we need a ‘special day’? It just feels a bit patronising and unnecessary, added to that, some of the women sharing this stuff are some of the cattiest, misogynistic women I know. They’re okay to empower other women today when it’s popular.

All in all I just find it totally unnecessary. Yay, we’re women aren’t we great, woohoo

Well said @TranzMommy

I totally appreciate women have overcome suppression etc

How have we overcome suppression? Can you give 3 examples?

The murder rate for women has increased since lockdown started.
We no longer have a system of women's refuges that take women and children since they have been defunded and made mixed sex.
Women are disproportionally losing their jobs during the pandemic, and are expected to deal with the home schooling and the housework as well as their job.
Its pretty much impossible to get a conviction for rape even if he admits it, and its even worse for women in the armed services.

I'm not seeing any winners here.

Women are disproportionally losing their jobs during the pandemic

Does anyone know why this is? I didn't know this to be honest.

Part of the problem is that women are still the default parent, so if you can't get childcare one of you has to stay at home.
Another is that areas where employees are more likely to to be women (such as hospitality, hairdressing or nail salons) have been hardest hit.
www.lse.ac.uk/News/Latest-news-from-LSE/2020/e-May-20/Women-and-COVID-19

@LucieStar

Women are disproportionally losing their jobs during the pandemic

Does anyone know why this is? I didn't know this to be honest.

Combination of factors like the hardest hit sectors being areas where more women work, women having to leave jobs due to carrying responsibilities, etc.

Ahh ok, thanks. I'll have a read.

Question for those saying YANBU and to the OP -
Do you feel the same about Black History Month, gay prides etc? Or is it just women that you don't think deserve to call out their oppression?

@LucieStar

Women are disproportionally losing their jobs during the pandemic

Does anyone know why this is? I didn't know this to be honest.

Industry choice.

Having these so called special days,is not going to change anything, like world book day and all the rest. If they sell cards to send re all these things, then it will only benefit the card makers and shops. My cats are very upset, as there doesn't seem to be a World Cats day,!

Yanbu op. I’m happy to be a woman and I’m grateful for the hard work that has been done.
But I’m not going salute other women. It’s so cringey.

And I’m certainly not part of the sisterhood . “Sisterhood” is usually used as a way to shut women up who challenge other women about their behaviour.
“So much for the sisterhood.”. A typical response used when a woman thinks another woman is being a dick.
You can shove your sisterhood, thanks.

Industry choice.

I'm not sure I'd use the word choice. It's often the only choice, low paid work, that many women have when they are the default parent and expected to do all associated childcare. Sectors such as hospitality, retail and caring are the ones that offer flexibility needed to work and do school drop offs, childcare is too costly.

LastRoloIsMine
Not all women in the world have the choice to take mat leave/stay at home/return to work

Its INTERNATIONAL womens day
Just because things have improved in some countries does that mean we just stop campaigning for womens rights/safety/equality altogether?

Exactly.

The boring thing is viewing everything via a Western lens. & actually joining voices with the sexist misogyny that disparages
International Women's Day.

Without a patriarchal system in which women were not perpetually disadvantaged, discriminated against, abused, raped and killed by men because we are women (and yes, the statistics of male crime against females is wholly disproportionate to the reverse and the biggest cause of women being killed WORLDWIDE just happens to be men), then perhaps an International Women's Day would be less necessary.

And I do get it's only lipservice that does nothing to address the real problems. But at least it draws attention to those problems. And, unfortunately, this is still very much needed.

I agree that social media is so boring and irritating today. Nothing about any of the important issues raised on this thread and just lots of people posting about themselves and their friends and how great they are.

Well surely the problem isn't there being an international women's day, rather the fake Facebook shite as always?

I also have realised that achieving equality and fairness are becoming even less likely because there are many organisations that are determined to dismantle safeguarding and legal protections for women in the name of 'inclusion' for people who were not born women.

Absolutely this. What has enraged me about the media response to this IWW is that literally every newspaper feature I've seen in broadsheets from several different countries has featured at least one person who isn't female, and hence has absolutely no claim to lay to membership of a class which has suffered from sex-based oppression.

Anything that draws attention to the problems still faced by women is key, but unfortunately, the media is now complicit in eroding women's sex-based rights by dismantling women as a class.

We need international women’s day because EVERY OTHER DAY is INTERNATIONAL MENS DAY

Quite. And even then it’s been co opted by people born with XY chromosomes.

www.independent.co.uk/life-style/women/coronavirus-womens-rights-pandemic-b1813019.html

@funinthesun19

Yanbu op. I’m happy to be a woman and I’m grateful for the hard work that has been done. But I’m not going salute other women. It’s so cringey.

And I’m certainly not part of the sisterhood . “Sisterhood” is usually used as a way to shut women up who challenge other women about their behaviour.
“So much for the sisterhood.”. A typical response used when a woman thinks another woman is being a dick.
You can shove your sisterhood, thanks.

I do not agree; sisterhood should be women standing together and looking after one another.

I don’t agree with you about day itself - it is necessary and I’m not bored with it.

I do agree about the guff some people put on Facebook - all the “queens” and “girl power” and describing relatives who’ve lived very conventional lives as “fiercely independent”. It’s superficial and achieves sweet FA.

It's a protest, not a party.

Anyone wishing anyone else a 'happy IWD' has spectacularly missed the point.

Anyone using IWD to sell stuff to women is - to borrow a term I coined last year - fanny washing their products and their brands.

For me it's usually a day of reflection on my activism and a day of quiet recommitment to the cause. Which is smashing the patriarchy.

Is it possible that you are irritated with the commercialism of IWD rather than the underlying concept?

A woman.
Mother to 3 young women.
Fuck yes we need this!!!

OP, do you have sons by any chance?

@Sirzy

We have come a long way but we still have a long way to go.

Without learning about the history we can’t learn lessons for the future

This - and at the moment women's rights are under serious threat.

Like the NHS, most of us have grown up with them. We don't notice what we have because we are so used to it - but if we don't fight to retain them, then when they are gone we'll certainly know about it!

Most people just aren't aware of how fragile and precarious women's positions in society are.

@Thelnebriati

I totally appreciate women have overcome suppression etc

How have we overcome suppression? Can you give 3 examples?

The murder rate for women has increased since lockdown started.
We no longer have a system of women's refuges that take women and children since they have been defunded and made mixed sex.
Women are disproportionally losing their jobs during the pandemic, and are expected to deal with the home schooling and the housework as well as their job.
Its pretty much impossible to get a conviction for rape even if he admits it, and its even worse for women in the armed services.

I'm not seeing any winners here.

When push comes to shove, women and children aren't valued in our society.