International Women’s Day and I’m just Depressed

[Astr0terf]

Keep getting these celebratory emails dropping into my inbox and they’re merely filling me with doom, as I think: do you mean women who were born women, too? Are we even included any more? I feel like it’s one of the worst times to be a woman in my lifetime.

I'm about to turn 50 and I've never felt so depressed and angry about the position of women and our rights as I do now.

So that means it's time to fight!

Yep. On the plus side, feminism is becoming more invigorated than it has been for decades, and women are coming together from across the political spectrum.

Ruth Serwotka's latest article published on
morningstaronline
morningstaronline.co.uk/article/why-do-we-need-new-women%E2%80%99s-movement

Yeah I feel the same. Today I got a right royal Orwellian bollocking from a group of lib fem acquaintances for not joining in with the ceremonial bashing of a friend of theirs who’d left labour in protest

I’m honestly surprised I wasn’t ducked in a river and then burnt at the stake

on the plus side, feminism is becoming more invigorated than it has been for decades, and women are coming together from across the political spectrum.

Yes, there is that, Terfy. And I should find hope in that, I just feel a bit doomed, and there’s such a bombardment at the moment.

Me too. I wanted to go to the march to see if I could meet some real life gender critical activists but I chickened out. Don't want to lose my job or risk my daughter's safety. Hopefully next year we will be able to go out and proud!

I won't be celebrating because it won't be celebration of 'real' women anymore.

I'm despairing. Really. I feel nothing to celebrate at all in my own life. Unequal perceptions of women's roles have led to me having to bring up 2 kids on my own, which in turn has left me at 52 poor, without my own property, having worked like crazy for all those years while my DCs were young.
Now I am post menopausal and on the scrapheap in relationships terms - just look at the dating threads on here.
I don't see the point in struggling on any longer.

And to top it all off men are taking our identity for their own and making a mockery of it.

from a fellow fifty-something single mum, frabjous. Don't let the bastards grind you down. I take comfort from the fact that although I probably won't ever get laid again, at least I don't have to put up with one of the shitty bastards who grace the pages of the relationships section. The odds on finding a good 'un even back in one's twenties or thirties were only ever about evens.

We had a good session at work celebrating women doing awesome stuff (and they were XX-type women), so at least some places are still sane (my workplace would probably just go "but, but, but... SCIENCE!")

Me too.

I've found I am dreading knowing about anything for women. Because almost always there's some caveat about identification and inclusivity. And my piss gets boiled and my heart hurts.

I feel like this. Just read an article on the Pool which was quite good but but with emphasis on ‘intersectional’ feminism.

I’m just so fucking sick of it. Women expected to carry the weight of the fucking dispossessed at all times - as it has always been. It is just another dilution.

Yeah, I didn't feel like celebrating this year.

Same every year.

It's international women's day everyone!

'what about men's day?'

'including transwomen, don't forget, they are women too'

I've just left a group - Women in the Arts Scotland - because someone posted a 'Happy Vagina Day' pic and the majority of replies were just all so depressing. Cis this and cis fucking that, cis normative, not all women, and a few brave souls sticking their heads above the parapet only to get the usual handmaiden shit thrown at them. I'm choosing my battles - and a page where, every single day, a member posts awful 'poetry' about being a 'girl' (i.e. 50 something bloke in a wig) is starting to affect me. The fawning, the fact that no one SAYS anything is just the straw that's breaking me.

I was extra-pissed off today because my son's school was shut due to a women's day strike (with no notice) so I ended up having to do even more work/home/kids juggling than usual!

I hear you, witchetywoo.

And ‘cis’ can go fucking fuck itself.

I've just had to stop myself from commenting on a FB friend's status which asks when it's 'men's day'. He is genuinely pissed off. I'm taken aback tbh. Sometimes it's people you don't expect it from.

Did anyone see the "Google Doodle" today? There are 12 little comic strip like stories on it from 12 "female" artists around the world. Each comic strip sharing a personal story of a moment or event that has changed their lives as a woman. Yes, one is a TiM.

Just back from an event and it felt empowering. All women and definitely some terfy types.

I feel women's rights are in the worst place they have ever been. We seem to be losing ground every day and I have no idea how we get it back.

I meant to say 'worst place they have ever been in my lifetime'.

For anyone depressed about all those who ask 'when is it International Men's Day/' it's worth reading this thread - Richard Herring (comedian) has spent the day on Twitter answering that very question and raising loads of money and awareness for Refuge in the process... (current total over £114K)

Richard Herring fund raising page with info on

The first thing I saw on facebook was a meme saying you don't respect women if you don't respect transwomen

Wimmin, centre penis is all that ye do. The brocialists have spoken.

A friend has just shared 100 things you can do to make women’s lives easier on Facebook. Point number 3 is transwomen are women. So we get 2points before it’s all about the men again. I could cry.

I also had someone ask me earlier - a lawyer and priest no less - how we couldn’t accept that someone’s feeling as a woman wasn’t as acceptable as my lived experience and how a penis couldn’t be female.

I give up.