International women's day

[starrynightnotsobright]

I know this has happened before, but I am really sick of it all. There are so many Pride events, why can't women have International Women's Day?
twitter.com/FaeJohnstone/status/1630960853192445952?t=9ScdXb0bK58nHCP49QgHDw&s=19

In Ireland
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twitter.com/cuntasoir/status/1628825626902667272?t=yYef0dshdchypddktYsmag&s=19

Brefugee · Today 08:32

IWD has been a thing since at least 1911 and i, for one, am very happy it exists.

My wife is from a former Soviet country and they all take it very seriously. I was aware of IWD, but it wasn't really anything big for me, so I was surprised when she got very angry and upset in our first year of marriage. She was really surprised that it wasn't a big thing here.

It's very, erm, old fashioned in her home country and on IWD, the men are supposed to clean and cook; they nickname it "National Starvation Day."

You'd think they would be happier about the fact that trans people are so very unlikely to be murdered, wouldn't you?

I move to make IWD International Women's Strike Day.

No work - paid or unpaid, no economic activity. For the work part - especially anything public like media appearances - accept invitations as normal but don’t turn up.

If they're going to make us invisible, we should show them what happens if we actually are.

International Women's Day
A varsity somewhere in Eire
Booked a speaker to come and to share a
Few thoughts for this day,
But cancelled, they say,
To book men for the day would be fairer

University of Manchester have decided to turn IWD into International Non-Cis-Men's Day or International Women and Gender Minority Day. Very catchy.

IWD could be of great value if it wasn't appropriated the way it is now. We could really have a global campaign to help women in Iran and in Afghanistan, we could talk about child marriage, sex trafficking, prostitution, women's unpaid work in caring, the obstacles women still face in so many countries to have equal opportunities in life.

Women are half of all humankind (the old-fashioned women), but so many now would prioritise the needs of a group less than 0.6% of male people, even though that group already has several annual days attention.

That this is happening is also a reason why IWD is needed.

We could really have a global campaign to help women in Iran and in Afghanistan, we could talk about child marriage, sex trafficking, prostitution, women's unpaid work in caring, the obstacles women still face in so many countries to have equal opportunities in life.

i tend to share info from organisations like RAWA in Afghanistan, or Hibo Wadere about FGM and so on. Also Iranian organisations and journalists.

I share as many links to resources about DV, CSA etc etc, abortion rights or organisations that can help (eg if you need to travel from somewhere like NI) and so on

it is possible, you have to do an awful lot of scrolling and ignoring to get through the chaff to the wheat though

This is great to hear! I am going to try to follow your example as much as I can, given my limited range.

in many eastern European countries it is a day when men acknowledge women's contributions to society, at home, in the workplace etc and it is very jolly and lovely.

Oh God do I wish it was here.

Any bit of jolly and lovely permitted to actual women would be bloody priceless. Never mind a day, I'll take five minutes.

This is a bit similar to when Eddie Izzard was invited to a school to celebrate 'what women did in the war', being neither a woman nor someone who was in the war.

Misread it as 'My contribution to the war on women', maybe?

the first time i really became aware of it was the year after the company i worked for set up a factory in Poland. Some of the chaps from there came to our office for a month for training.

then a few months later it was IWD and each of us women had a nice chocolate and a flower on our desk when we got to work. And the Polish chaps had asked the German chaps what they do for IWD to be met with baffled looks. So they told them how they did it in Poland. It was rather sweet.

🙌

IWD is the perfect day for affirmation though isn’t it?

I had high hopes for some stuff going on in our area, and a few sessions look really good, but there is a definite theme on non-binary, ALL women, safe spaces and sex work.

I saw this on Twitter earlier. It was the end of an argument about what and who IWD is for. The last tweet is from a prominent trans activist.

"I won't let cis people have one thing to themselves because there's no justification for it" is way more unreasonable than "we won't let trans people have absolutely everything to themselves because there's no justification for it", isn't it?

And yet somehow we are the baddies.

Yeah, I’m not saying that trans women shouldn’t be included in IWD.
But the idea that women can’t have anything to themselves is a bit extreme.

Well I don't think they should be included in IWD because they are not women, and they already have entire months of the year dedicated to celebrating them.

Also, "why would you need a day to celebrate women specifically if they aren't oppressed" is something that could only be said by someone who is completely ignorant about women and all the myriad ways in which they have been and continue to be oppressed in every part of the world and every time in human history.

RosaBonheur · Today 19:02

"I won't let cis people have one thing to themselves because there's no justification for it" is way more unreasonable than "we won't let trans people have absolutely everything to themselves because there's no justification for it", isn't it?

What a horrible, mean-spirited liar he is.

...they already have entire months of the year dedicated to celebrating them.

And that's nothing, according to the mean-spirited liar and his mean-spirited, lying bully chums.

It's just become international men's day like the other 364 days in the year.

Yes, there will be the usual infuriating pish, but there are also some nice events and things happening for IWD.

Don't let them have it! We want our stuff back!

Jj

International Women's Day is what we make it.

And because some on here haven't heard about events that regularly take place - ie Women's Strike is an active group that has events on IWD - doesn't mean the dont exist.

Its true that in the west it has been appropriated and although it is boring to have to repeat it, one of the problems in the west is that a women's business has tried to appropriate IWD as a marketing ploy. So whatever you do please dont use the web site called International Women's Day or their vaccuous "theme".

Also for many women in small communities they use it as an opportunity to get together. I posted a link earlier today about women in Lancashire organising an event - see www.mumsnet.com/talk/womens_rights/4755283-3-march-2023-1730-vigil-for-murdered-women-for-women-lancashire For all you know women in your area are organising something and could do with your support.

And although it has become a bit of a ritual Million Women Rise takes place each year with its focus on violence against women, led by Black Women's Groups. (There are some other marches taking place www.womensgrid.org.uk/?page_id=18028 )

Obviously if you get your info from MSM you get a slanted view.

And also dont understand the history eg how eastern European communist countries turned what was a tradition of women workers striking for better pay, into an appreciation of women day, with tokens of flowers.

And many left groups still organise events on the day, as to women from Iran, Iraq etc., to highlight their fight for equality.

In the 70s there was a big stand off between TUs and the WLM as to who "owned" the day.

We dont have to let the western consumer society stop us from being revolutionary, or allow local councils or who ever decide what is or is not permissable.

FWR is exactly about not letting others set women's agenda.

Perhaps the least we could do on this forum is on 8th March have maybe a series of threads on what each of us think should be discussed on the day.