There is every chance this is going to turn into a humongous rant, but I'm hoping to keep in succinct and understandable. I'm a privileged white female, but even I have experienced the odd bit of 'Oh she's a girl, she won't want to/can't do this or that', and it annoyed me no end. I cannot begin to imagine how women who are stopped from doing what they truly desire by ridiculously oppressive rules must feel, it stirs an unbelievable amount of angst within me. To ease into my true (rather aggressive, I'll be honest) feelings about equality and the poor treatment of women, here's a fantastic quote from the great Robin Scherbatsky.
Every single day women all over the world are told they can't do something. Whether they want it or not is not even considered, it's been decided that they can't have it and that's that. Women are deprived of equal pay, education, the vote, abortions, the ability to drive, independence, safety, jobs, support in the workplace after having children, support when they decide they don't want to have children, the list goes on. There is also a list for men too, I know that, I understand that. And before you ask...
I would say I was a feminist, and feminism is about equality, so I accept completely that males face problems too, but history has helped them out a lot more than it has women and that's a fact. They've been able to vote much longer than women have, across the world their average pay is much higher, they've been able to be leaders much longer than women have meaning that they've been in control of these oppressive rules that backwards thinking folks call 'tradition'.
Ultimately though, it's exactly like Robin's quote implies; it doesn't matter what it is that a person wants to, as long as it doesn't harm others than absolutely nobody has the right or the logic to stop them. If a woman wants to be Prime Minister and send her children to nursery, then don't you dare suggest that she can't. Women leaders haven't hurt the world nearly as much as male ones have, and nursery is good for children. If a woman wants to be a CEO and work 5 days a week, never marry, never have children. Then fine, her decision, if she's happy and runs her company well then her company and its workers will prosper. If a woman wants to have 5 children, and be a housewife while her husband has a high-powered office job then fine. This all, of course, works in exactly the same way for men because, at the end of the day, absolutely nothing is anybody else's business, or an invitation for comment unless it is truly worrying and harmful. As long as a woman is who she wants to be, and isn't told no because of her sex, then it's ok.
Seriously, we all need to stop listening to negativity that is preventing us from achieving what we deserve. If the Suffragettes had listened to the common feeling of the day, who's to say that British women would have ever been given the vote? If Dr. Elizabeth Blackwell had listened to the all of the rejections she received from medical schools, would she have still become a world famous obstetrician? No way.
I'm going to round off with this brilliant comment I read at the end of
a half decent Buzzfeed article about International Women's Day:
"Hey, the only way for anyone, man or
woman, to influence anything in history is to give no fucks whatsoever.
Like, see that dot in the distance? That's the fuck you almost gave.
Goodbye fuck.
Now everyone go out and make some fucking history."
