Women's Day: Why bother?

1.  ‘Why is there an International Women’s Day anyway?' (followed by remark relating to driving and/or sandwiches)

So, dear newbie, as an introduction to the mystery of this Day For Women, come see the important work The Everyday Sexism Project is doing, and then laugh along at Destroy the Joint’s excellent lambasting of NotSexistBut tweets. You might see a few driving references in there - sorry yours didn’t turn out to be original. Eventually, we hope you will be raging alongside us against the twisted treatment of abused girls in the Maldives, and for girls across the world who are more likely to be raped than educated. Yes, we do focus on some serious shit here - I’d pack a couple of cheese and pickle if I were you.

 2. ‘Hopefully when women achieve equality we won’t need International Women’s Day.’

Ah, my well meaning friend. I see what you’re getting at, but hold your horses. Why, when things have been accomplished, should we not remember those who fought to make us this lucky? Today is the day to realise there is still so much work to be done across the world, and as relatively progressive as we are in the West, there is always room to go backwards (see above).

3. ‘It is sexist to celebrate women and their achievements purely based on the fact they happen to be female.’

Hey, buzzkill, this isn’t a reason not to join the party! It’s not patronising to recognise triumph. We can only accomplish so much with article after article about where feminism went/is going wrong, written in places where the people who really need feminism aren’t going to be reading. So many women and men from different backgrounds are taking part in global conversation today, and that’s what this is all about.

Because if we are to continue to tackle atrocity around the world, and not allow rape culture and everyday shittiness to continue to seep into our own societies, we need to be conversing with the ones who don’t believe that feminism is relevant to them. Far from putting women on a pedestal for the sake of being a woman, IWD is the chance to speak to those who think sexism is a thing of the past, and hear from the ones who in their gut of guts know that Something Still Ain’t Right. IWD offers something positive and accessible, with room for everyone to contribute. It is feminism gone mainstream. It aims to reach those outside in a number of different ways, and that’s worth celebrating.