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

830 women and girls die every day in childbirth or pregnancy worldwide

Yes we need this day

Too many 'days' it's all just nonsense. If we have days for celebrating all the things that people want celebrating the year would need to be two or three times as long.

Yes. I'm not a feminist. And couldn't care less about 'women's issues'

Its a day - not a month like other people have (libraries, schools, police stations, council offices, universities, bank of england... flags a flapping, lights a blazing)

We just want one day when we can say the word woman, and discuss 'womanly' issues and not have to say 'women' (NB not all women etc...) and allowed to be front and centre in representation (I'm looking at you Boots, for starters) on one day - just one flipping day.

@Toddlerteaplease

Yes. I'm not a feminist. And couldn't care less about 'women's issues'

Kewl story bro 👍

It's to raise awareness to challenges, promote achievements and to fund raise for female focused charities.

If your social media is filled with YASS Queen crap then that's on you - but to say you're bored of IWD and that we have "overcome suppression" (WTF?) is disgusting quite frankly.

@Toddlerteaplease get off mumsnet and back in the kitchen then

'If your social media is filled with YASS Queen crap then that's on you' have you SEEN LinkedIn today...? and I work in a pretty male dominated industry too.

I don’t need Facebook posts telling me that ‘girls can do anything!’ usually posted by women with successful careers. It suggests that female oppression is actually the fault of women who just didn’t try hard enough or believe in themselves enough.

People have been arguing for 30 years that the battle for sex equality has already been won. It hasn’t but so many people refuse to see it.

@Toddlerteaplease

Yes. I'm not a feminist. And couldn't care less about 'women's issues'

Care to expand on this at all?

I think the OP has spectacularly missed the point. It isn't about saying "Happy Women's Day" to people. It's a time to reflect on the inequalities women suffer in all societies due to the fact that they are women- violence, pay inequality, FGM, access to contraception and abortion to give just a few examples.

@Liquorishtoffee yup mine is filled with people talking about the need for more men to take parental leave, the difficulties in picking up your career after having kids, promoting female role models etc. No yass queen on my feed.

@LastRoloIsMine

Why do we need a ‘special day’?

50,000 women killed globally in 2018 by male intimate partner or family member.
Women are still under paid.
DV is on the rise.
Sexual assault and rape is also increasing.

The day is to ensure the atrocities females suffer at the hands of males are not forgotten.
The day is to highlight just how amazing women are and can be when we are not being murdered, raped and oppressed.

Everything you say is true BUT having a women's day every year does nothing to address that.

Anyway, it's been taken over by the new, improved kind of women.

[quote Juno231]@Liquorishtoffee yup mine is filled with people talking about the need for more men to take parental leave, the difficulties in picking up your career after having kids, promoting female role models etc. No yass queen on my feed.[/quote]
I've got the odd one 'punching' 'fighting for' 'standing up for' etc diversity and inclusion (don't mention 'sex' though but you can't have it all...).

OP, i can understand you and others who perhaps haven't been following current affairs thinking that. I can. But the fact of the matter is that Women's Rights, now, more than ever , with men wanting to infiltrate women's spaces, and abortion rights, are under threat. I didn't buy into the International Women's Day stuff when I was in high school but paradoxically I don't think we were under threat as much back then ('90s') as now. I genuinely think we are at a crisis point, a tipping point right now. Where women's safety, women's human civil rights, and women's reproductive rights are seriously in danger. We are in 2021, but, bizarrely and paradoxically, we and our safety and basic Human Rights are under more threat now, than they ever, EVER have been. We need IWD now, more than ever.

If it’s just the Facebook posts that are annoying you, you’re speaking form a place of immense privilege.

We do need this day, because even though it’s still a novelty, it’s one day women, for once, get pushed to the fore.

@Toddlerteaplease

Yes. I'm not a feminist. And couldn't care less about 'women's issues'

Yeah well, you should.

It seems kind of hollow to me, since women can't even define ourselves as women anymore without including men.

Because women are disproportionately affected by violence, pay gaps, exploitation, stagnant careers. Seriously the list is endless.

Internalised misogyny runs through our society - the fact that you are even writing a post to mock the women celebrating international women’s day is the purest example of that.

Why do we need international women’s day in 2021? Well why is it that still in 2021 men are seen to be ‘helping’ round the house when they do the bare minimum, why are women targeted for the majority of beauty and image improving products? Why in 2021 is the female nipple STILL banned from being shown on social media?

Seriously if you cannot see the sexism and patriarchy ingrained in our society, created to shame women for almost everything they stand for then your eyes are not open to reality.

Your friends who share mindless marketing messages are missing the point.

IWD is very much needed to promote initiatives about equality, discuss violence against women and much more.

It's sad so many women think it's about stupid memes and flowers

@Toddlerteaplease so you don’t think you should have the same rights as men? Sure

We might need it (and we do)

but an actual day is completely meaningless!

Well TFL has installed some 'green women' crossing lights (well they already have a load of 'pride' ones in central London that have been up for ages). I wonder how long they will keep these up?

"Transport for London (TfL) said the revamp was intended to challenge norms by depicting a diverse range of women and challenging the conventional image of a woman in a dress to depict gender.

Londoners can see the specially-designed pedestrian signals on high streets in Dalston, Tooting, Clapham, Brixton, Tottenham and Lewisham, as well as by King’s Cross St. Pancras Tube station.

They have also been installed in Camden Town, Hyde Park, the Southbank and along Exhibition Road in South Kensington."

There's a video on social media explaining the project (funnily enough explaining how the lights are installed by the engineers 'he' does this and 'he' does that)

In my area, there is usually a range of events on local women's history, displays of women's artwork, discussions on women's issues, and so on. This year they're online obviously. They are a useful touchstone to connect women in different areas together and, in more typical years, show the work done together to a wider audience that isn't entirely interested in it from a 'women's issue' perspective, but might from a local history or similar.

I agree that the 'who runs the world' and just random social media posts are unlikely to do much and can get dull or annoying, but having time set aside for this, to discuss our past, what is going on and issues girls and women face now, and consider the future, can be nice though I get it's not everyone's thing.

It's been turned into something I really can't identify with. In the country I grew up, it was a special day. All through my childhood and teenage years, all the girls and women would get flowers. If it was a school day, boys would turn up with flowers for each and every girl in the class, as well as teachers. And you'd recognise the women within your immediate family too, sometimes workplaces as well. It was just a genuinely nice thing to do with absolutely nothing more to it. No questions of equality, no feminism, no gender politics. No "what about International Men's Day??!!" Just recognising women on the 8th of March. I really loved it. Completely lost it's significance to me in the UK over the past 10 years...My Dad and bother still message though, which is nice