International Women's Day

[AdAstrα]

While I agree that women's rights should be fought for every day of the year and not just one...it is easy to take your freedom for granted when you've always had it. I know I do, even if I try not to. I think generally speaking, it takes a day like this one for a lot of people to stop and think about what they have and how privileged they are compared to others that are suffering abuse etc. It's really quite sad, but it's how things tend to work in this part of the world most of the time.

[TheLionPrince]

Here's a petition for anyone who likes Mars, Mondelez International, and Nestlé products that buys more than 30% of the cocoa grown worldwide, but give the women farmers who grow and pick the cocoa plants a raw deal: http://www.behindthebrands.org/en-us/scorecard.

[Regulus]

This is, more or less, what I was trying to say yesterday:

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Just replace Black History Month with Women's Day and the concept still applies.

[Azdgari]

[quote="Regulus"]
Really, the only point I wanted to make is that it's not just women. In the majority (but perhaps not all) of those countries, it's a handful of men violating the rights of the majority of men and women alike.[/quote]
Often, but not necessarily. Look at parts of Latin America: A study by SERNAM reported that almost 50% of Chilean women have suffered domestic violence. Do I agree with a lot of American feminism ideals? Absolutely not. Do I think that, globally, women as a group face significant challenges that demand attention from us all? Absolutely yes.

While I agree with what Morgan Regulus is saying, I also think that there's sense in what AdAstra said. The point is not to worry about women for one day and then forget until the next year rolls around. It's to raise awareness to the issues, and ideally that consciousness would continue to percolate throughout the rest of the year.


Ya' dig?

[Baya]

International woman's day is just another crappy hallmark holiday made for people in the west to feel "thankful" for what they have for one day, to eradicate the guilt of women in other countries not having their freedoms. It's the EXACT same thing as mother's day or father's day. As Woeler pointed out, you should be respecting your parents everyday and treating them nice everyday. If you believe in women's rights so strongly and actually care about the fact that women in other countries don't have rights, go and join the fight for it. What's next? LGBT day? Where we all sit down and feel sorry for homosexuals for a day, then it eradicates the problem all together?

What holiday's like this do, is eradicate the agency of the problem. It makes me people feel like they are doing something great when they are honoring all women around the world, when if they really wanted to help they would join an activist movement or even get involved on an international scale. This is just one of those "feel good about yourself" holidays.

I'm sorry if I offended anyone with this rant, but this holiday is just another travesty next to valentine's day and the Canadian made "family day".

No, I'm not anti-woman, I just don't believe in limiting a single day to the suffrage of women around the world...which I promise you only western women will even get to speak about.