As you will most likely be aware, Saturday 8th March was International Women’s Day. Personally, it’s a
day I hold with high regard but a number of people don’t.
Interestingly, the majority of the opposition to the day came in the form of “why isn’t there an
International Men’s Day?”, and from what I saw, came predominantly from men, and naturally, a few
things sprang to my mind:
.Someone clearly hasn’t done their research, International Men’s Day is in fact on the 19th November.
1) “There are so many other movements in the world of wrongdoings against people and animals why is
this more important?” I studied a module at university called “Women and the Law”, this and my own
personal experiences as a woman are what sparks my particularly strong passion to bring about change in
this field. However, in life you have to choose your battles. One does not have the time or the energy to
fight them all and this is the one I chose. This is the one I have most knowledge about, however it should
be able to go without saying that I support these other causes too.
Maybe you don’t see feminism as important. But I do. I think it’s important that something is done about
the fact that women who experience sex crimes are heavily questioned and that out of the 10,000 sex
crimes reported last year, 1000 lead to convictions. I am against the protection of rapists by the English
legal system despite the fact only 4% of sex crimes accusations by women are false. I will not tolerate
catcalling and lad culture. These are things that I see and affect me. Daily.
And the realms of feminism reach far wider than that. To the issue of honour killings, which are
particularly apparent in India. To the use of rape as a weapon of war against the women of Syria.
2) From all the negative comments I saw, 100% of them came from WHITE MEN…The gender and racial
group LEAST likely to have experienced prejudice.
3) Very few of these same people have researched or read into the feminist movement so have particularly
limited knowledge on it, yet still voice their negativity.
3) None of these people voice any opposition to Black History month. So it isn’t the issue of a day of
recognition that doesn’t apply to them. It’s abhorrence to a day about WOMEN. Why? What’s so
intimidating or about women celebrating the work of the Suffragettes and for taking part in activism to
draw attention to the areas that need more work? Instead of taking such offence and putting down the
women who choose to celebrate the advances made and drawing attention to something they want to
change and you clearly know nothing about. I invite you to identify the issues against your own gender,
race, age, social class and work towards improving them.
I’ll end this by pointing out that the male objection to the female gender having ONE day dedicated to
them illustrates perfectly exactly why we need it.
DISCLAIMER
I recognise that the spectrum my social networking covers are limited and there will be women out there
who oppose the day.
I am not suggesting that ALL men are against or ignorant to the day or feminism, just some.
I’m not suggesting that white men will not receive prejudice in their lifetime.
I’m not suggesting that sexism against men does not exist.
I am not suggesting anything more than a desire for equality for women and men.
I am in no way announcing sexism to be important than the prejudice faced by racial minorities, LGBT
community or any other group/ cause/ charity.