Why is International Women's Day so unfocused?
The theme this year was #PressforProgress but all that meant was basically keep pushing for gender parity, which is not an issue on it's own that you can just work on. There's lots of things and grey areas and very black and white areas involved in that and it's kind of meaningless.
International Men's Day focuses on a particular specific issue each year. One year it focused on the high rate of male suicide. This is a specific issue that we can work on and push for more mental support services and more awareness and encourage conversation about such an important issue. Gender equality is too broad meaning Women's Day doesn't achieve much at all and International Men's Day is doing a much much better job of planning their day and their themes. International Men's Day has another issue in that the day is not as well known as International Women's Day so the good it can do is lessened by its reach, though, but at least it is focused so it can try to improve the issues some men face. It's not just men celebrating being men.
I see people post things about International Women's Day but it doesn't do anything to help. It's mostly people just bragging about how great women are. It's mostly women patting each other on the back for having a vagina, which is very useless. I'm a woman and that seems very very odd to me. It seems to be treated as a feel good thing where you just celebrate being a woman or celebrate other women but it does shit all to help anything. It often involves people pointing out the women that they admire or look up to, but it would be better to just point out you look up to people anyway, without needing a specific day to point out the women you look up to. Women's day could be too important for that.
There are issues we could be considering.
We could focus on the women overseas who are still being treated like shit because they are women. This might trample on the views of a culture but while we definitely don't want moral absolutism (where the person who stole the loaf of bread to feed their family is seen as just as bad as the person who had heaps of money and stole a car), we must stop with moral relativity at some point and admit some things are just wrong and no amount of saying "it is part of their culture, so it is moral because it should go by their cultural standards" will make it really not wrong. There's not much individuals can do, but at least making noise about this has somewhat more potential to help someone than just patting ourselves and other women on the back simply for being women (which isn't an accomplishment - it is just what you are).
If we wanted to focus on something closer to home that we feel we could do more about, we could focus on uniform policies in schools. Some schools, both public and private, still force girls to wear dresses or skirts and don't give them the option of shorts, skorts or pants. I have worked in Outside School Hours Care and seen girls being told not to do various things on the playground because their underwear is showing. If they want to wear a skirt or dress, that's fine, but they may have to deal with being told not to do certain things on the playground, but they shouldn't be forced into clothes that affect how they play. One of the ways children learn about their capabilities is by trying new things and pushing their limits, and this is a situation where clothing is getting in the way of that. Outdoor play often also teaches subconscious maths skills which is part of the reason boys on average are better at maths. Kicking a ball subconsciously teaches stuff like angles, speed, velocity etc. There are multiple reasons girls may on average engage in less active play and sports than boys, and there are multiple reasons why one person could be better at maths than another, but this isn't helping. It's minor compared to other issues, but this issue has negative effects like limiting playground play, with no benefits. It may be minor but it is still much more useful than what a lot of people are doing now and just using this day to pat women on the back. Creating a situation where our children can engage in play freely without having to worry about being told not to due to their clothing, is a positive thing. Children having choices is also a positive thing. It is highly possible to still have a uniform and have kids get the benefits of uniforms but have some choice within the uniform so children can feel their best, feel their most comfortable and be able to get as much out of play as possible.
We could focus on sexism in the workplace. It does not seem to be a rampant issue but it does exist. I have seen sexism going both ways in my working life. IT's not something that happens all the time, but I have seen sexism towards women and sexism towards men in the workplace at various times. Why not focus on this one year? These are all issues that can fit into #PressforProgress as fixing all of the issues above - treatment of women overseas, uniforms affecting play, workplace sexism - would be progress, but by just focusing on the whole topic and not very meaningful slogans it turns into some pointless celebrating women day rather than a productive day dealing with real issues.
Using this day to simply celebrate women rather than talk about serious issues, is just a waste of time and it just doesn't feel right either. If a person is truly inspired by someone who happens to be a woman, and they would feel comfortable letting them know how much of an inspiration they were on International Women's Day, they should be comfortable enough to let them know on any day and keep International Women's Day for more important things, like focusing on specific issues and actually trying to fix these issues.
I don't like the way women's day is treated with it simply being a celebration of women. I have both male and female friends and I'm no more worthy of celebration than my male friends simply because I'm a woman. That's dumb. It's not an achievement to celebrate either. I didn't work hard to become female - I worked hard on other things, but being female is just part of who I am. I was born that way - I didn't work for it. I'd rather not be put up on a pedestal, but if I was I'd rather it be due to accomplishing something rather than simply because of my sex.
YouTube actually has been being guilty of this. Last month they tweeted "Roses are red, violets are blue, subscribe to black creators" and they focused on black creators for the month and this month they have been focusing on female creators and making posts promoting various female creators. I'm glad I wasn't big enough to be in their radar and get such a shoutout. A shoutout would be very useful for a small creator, but YT's agenda was about the fact the creators last month were black and this month were female. I want people to subscribe to my YouTube channel because they like my content. I would not want people subscribing just because I'm female. I'd really dislike not knowing if people subbed because they actually liked my creations or if it was just because I was a woman too. I don't know how black creators feel about people subscribing to them or watching just because they are black (if any black creators out there have an opinion on this let me know), but I would not like people to subscribe or watch me just because I'm female. That's the opposite of what I want. In the case of YouTube, I would have simply preferred that they made various posts promoting various small to medium channels with good content and didn't focus on other characteristics of the creators, like sex, age or race etc.
I'm not sure if International Men's Day actually gets much discussion going, but at least it is more likely to because it has a clear focus each year.
Let's do the same with International Women's Day. Let's actually focus on issues rather than simply celebrating women. Let's actually try to achieve something next year and every other year.
Don't pat yourself or other women or women in general on the back. Do something to improve the world. It may be small - even just simply talking about one concise clear specific issue to get a discussion going - but do something productive rather than just celebrating ourselves.
I think I'm going to start treating it this way, from next year onwards, because then I'll actually likely care about International Women's Day.
When it has been pretty much just people going "women are awesome" it held no value to me, but if it is a day to try to improve some of the true, clear, specific issues women face, I'll actually care more and do whatever little thing I can do to help or to start or be part of specific, productive conversation.
We don't need a day to celebrate us, let's use it to try to fix some specific problems (and real problems - not stuff like you don't like the word 'batsman' in sport - yes someone actually complained about that to the point it hit the news where I live).
And help the guys on International Men's Day to fix whatever it is focusing on each year.
And do whatever you can to help throughout the rest of the year too.
If your local chemist or store has one of those cardboard bins to put pads or tampons in for those who can't afford it, and you have spare money, chuck a packet in there, as it must be horrible to not be able to afford those things.
It doesn't have to be women. Maybe you get a child from a financially struggling family a present for Christmas who won't get much (stuff like the Kmart wishing tree etc). Maybe you put some animal food in a donation bin. Maybe you don't have the money to donate things, which I understand as someone who has struggled myself. Maybe you stand up if you see bullying or cyberbullying happening. Or anything else that is helpful.
Whatever you do, think of others, and don't have a day once a year just to celebrate having a vagina. We could use this day and all our other days for so much more. The personality, niceness etc of people make them more worthy of praise than what genitals they have. Go out there, be nice, help people if you can, work to achieve whatever you want to achieve, understand though that your self worth isn't tied to your success (or genitals) though and certainly celebrate what you do with your life and what you experience and achieve. I'm not saying not to celebrate - just celebrate the right stuff.
Women, men, children (I hope children aren't reading this with my use of the words vagina and genitals) and cats and dogs (okay maybe not - but at least now I've paid cat tax), I hope you enjoyed reading my thoughts on this.
My parting advice - don't get down on yourself, do celebrate who you are as a whole person - don't just celebrate one characteristic of yourself, don't tie your self worth to your success or to aspects like your sex or race, do think about issues in the specific rather than the broad sense, do help others if you can, do try to fix issues that need to be fixed if you can, and do be happy with who you are and do treat yourself right. You are more than your success and more than your genitals and try hard to never be down on yourself - you deserve better than that. Here's to a happier, more helpful future.
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