Why Only Women, And Just One Day?

Sorry if I upset anyone with this - if you're someone who takes International Women's Day very seriously, - it's just my feeling. I hate these days for celebrating specific subjects.

There can’t be hardly a day left on the calendar that isn’t marked to celebrate something or another.  Maybe I’m boring, but I don’t get these ‘special days’ to celebrate a certain subject.

Last week ‘International Women’s Day’ was celebrated which has been observed since the early 1900's.  I can fully understand it being relevant in those early days, women were almost completely ignored pretty much all round the world.

I’m sure there are still women who are ignored today, but how does one celebratory day in the year make any difference to that problem?  It doesn’t.  It’s such an illusion.

I would rather celebrate people, all humanity.  Women and men are both relevant everyday of the year, every minute of the day and shouldn’t be celebrated separately as if they are a different species.

I feel celebrating them separately is encouraging the continuation of a divide between the two, not equality.  And why only one day?  What about every other day of the year?

Shouldn’t we be celebrating whatever we want and whenever, instead of being sheep who are told which day and what to celebrate?



I wrote this last week for my Tumblr blog, and after reading what I'd said, my brother came across an amusing article in the Daily Mail.  It certainly summed up the madness of the day, or perhaps I should say... the meaninglessness of the day?

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/femail/article-3483185/SARAH-VINE-Smugness-Women-s-Day-drives-insane.html

Image: Jairo Alzate (Unsplash)

Reviews

[emmajoy]

Much of what you write I agree wholeheartedly upon - is not a single day that cures an ill but a lifetime. However maybe these 'special' days nudge, remind, highlight the need for empathy not just when it suits but NOW, right NOW.. do it.. and, then, make a note for next year and ad infinitum

Your post is so very sincere, you've maybe thought and mulled then - -written because you NEED to and that's so very commendable.

[Suzy Hazelwood]

I think you're right to some extent, some people do find these days help to remind, but for the majority they have become an excuse to make pointless posts on blogs, not written from the heart, but merely to provide something to tweet about on the day. In other words (it's all about me) not the day, or the charity, or what it's supposed to be about. Also a lot companies use these days to selfishly draw attention to their products. All of that to me shows just how many people in the world (a vast number) aren't using their own brains, but floating along on a follow the latest trend stream. Kind of sad, and worrying. :o/

I'm wondering what will happen when we finally find everyday celebrates 'something' I'm pretty sure those days will get totally meaningless, and possibly quite boring.

I agree the 'right now' is very important, if only everyone thought like that! Thank you so much for taking the time to read and give such a thoughtful comment Emma, I really appreciate that very much! :o)

[Kelly Scheppers]

This reminds me of something I once asked my mother when I was a child. After observing a mother's day and father's day on the calendar, I simply asked her why there wasn't a children's day. She told me it's children's day everyday!

...and I never understood the selective-ness of having a Valentine's day. I thought it only brought attention to those who were not so lucky in love, right?

Great perspective, Suzy!

[A. Amos]

It's a man world but it's nothing without a woman...i agree humanity is above all... Bravo!

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Thank you! I'm not entirely convinced it is a man's world these days, maybe when it comes to big business and politics - yes, it always has been and still very much is the case, but in other ways not as it was. When it comes to personal issues (broken relationships) if a woman throws a man out of 'her' home he gets very little help unless he is joint owner or tenant. If he's not, he'll need to take the kids with him because that's the only thing that will keep him from becoming homeless if he's got no funding of his own - it happens a lot today, men on the streets because they've lost their home due to a wife or partner throwing them out. Also I feel men are very vulnerable to being used by some cunning (and in most cases pretty childish women) who deliberately become pregnant claiming the 'the pill' failed. This happened to a young cousin of mine, a girl he'd known for two months claiming she was on the pill, secretly stopped taking it - 9 months later he had an entire family and mortgage to pay for. When the relationship failed to work (which was no surprise) she decided she was having another one - without consulting him - again claiming the pill failed. So now, he has two children who he never planned on having. The more he earns, the more she claws back from him from the benefits system who force him to pay more and more. He could fight the level he's being asked to pay, but he'll have to get a lawyer to fight his case because there's no other help, and that means spending even more money with no guarantee he'd win his case. This seems the reverse of the way women used to be treated many years ago. I hope it becomes more balanced soon because any extreme either way is so wrong.

[Roland Petrov]

I pay no attention to any of it except for St Patrick's Day. I got me some green cheese this year.

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Haha...I think that's what my dad would have said!! (he was from Ireland and actually called Patrick!). I have to admit, that day totally passes me by. My brother seems to remember to sent our dad's last remaining brother a St Patrick's Day card, which is what our dad used to do. He told him recently it's the only card he gets for that day now.

So was that cheese sage? Or maybe a blue cheese - but green? Can't imagine!! I used to buy a green cheese that was sage flavoured, it was really lovely, but I guessed in the end it was too bright green not to be dyed with food dye - kind of put me off eating it on regular basis. :o/

[Roland Petrov]

Cheese with pesto; I think it was natural, color and all! I did not partake of green beer; never have, never will. I do like cabbage and corned beef; however, I know that this is an American tradition, not Irish.

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Haha....green beer, I think I have seen somewhere someone drinking green beer on St Patrick's Day. I hope it's just harmless food dye?!

Oh yes, the corned beef and cabbage is very much a long held Irish tradition. I know that because of my dad being Irish, it was a favourite meal of his family (when they had enough money to afford meat!) and even in our family we did have that meal sometimes. I still like today. It's definitely known in England as an Irish family meal favourite. So, I guess that's where the American tradition has come from. I bet your corned beef is a better quality than a lot of ours. I have a few (lean meat) favourite brands, and the rest can go to hell - it's really that bad. Don't even think a dog would eat it!! :oD

[Roland Petrov]

You don't corn your own beef? Oh my God!

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Noooo!!! The skill of corning your own beef....not quite sure when that died it was so long ago! It generally comes in cans, and is not far removed from the trashy Spam meat. The tradition in Ireland is the same...always a cheap canned beef. I hardly eat it at all, it's nice on a rare occasion, if you get a good brand that's reasonable quality meat and not too salty, or fatty. It's the nitrates for preserving in them that I'm not keen on eating too often. :o/ You can buy a much nicer kind of corned beef in a supermarket delicatessen, but even that has probably come out of a large can. Even though my dad liked it (in moderation) he called it cheap food for poor people - he was so right!

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Oh, and it looks like this -> http://www.hiwtc.com/photo/products/14/01/41/14161.jpg

[hcarson]

i totally agree with you. it is boardering on ridiculous all these days for this and days for that...so many it takes any specialness out of anything as far as i'm concerned. As you said, it was understandable when they first begain achieving equality and rights etc but i think people need to get a grip now..as women if we are 'all that' then we don't need to keep reminding ourselves or anyone else.i do believe, like many other people in this workd woment have and are being treated unfairly but rather than doing these days surely there is more productive ways to keep going for equality etc. well done for having 'the balls' ;) to stand and say something..not of course..that we will make any diffeerence either haha but well written and interesting topic. full marks :)

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Yes, it is getting ridiculous now! I heard a great list read out on a radio programme recently just for the one day there were six different subjects being remembered as the 'special day' so I think we really have reached an overload of memorable days now!!

I'm sure what I've said will make no difference at all...you're so right there!! :oD The world will carry on in it's madness. But they're welcome to it, and I'm glad I got the annoyance out of my mind. It's reassuring to see I'm not alone in feeling the pointlessness in most of these days. Thanks so much for your thoughtful comment, very much appreciated!

[Samuel Dickens]

You make a very good point, and one that reflects thoughts similar to my own. There are many of these "special days" that I feel no enthusiasm for. Some of them, I have to go along with or risk getting in trouble.

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Thank you Samuel, it's good to know I'm not alone the lack of enthusiasm! I know what you mean about feeling obliged to go along with the subject in celebration , that's why I really dislike these 'special days' so much because that's exactly what they create for most people, and then nobody is being real, or being themselves. :o/

[alifeacoustic]

I agree with the divisiveness that such days bring, no matter how well intentioned. Like Mothers and Fathers day, the love and care received is given all year round, so why is it limited to one day a year? Christmas, once meaningful, has now been relegated to the basement leagues of what will I get, rather than being about giving, and the shops have been full of easter eggs since Christmas, and has become a chocolate holiday that has lost it's original meaning entirely.
International women's day should be the day that women get the credit they deserve for what they do all year round and not the public relations event that it seems to be.

[Suzy Hazelwood]

I remember loving to make gifts for mothers and fathers day when I was little girl, it seemed such a lovely thing to do, but it has sadly become seriously commercial, and yes, I'm sure some parents don't get recognised for what they do from one mothers or fathers day to the next. A young woman from the Philippines told me it's become a fashion for younger people to just post happy mothers day cards (if you can call them cards!) on facebook instead of actually buying a card. So a day that's supposed to be caring is fast becoming shallow and facebooky trash!!

Haha..I totally agree about the chocolate holiday, that's what Easter is to most people, even those who go to church are managing to celebrate the shallowness of it in style - I believe you can even buy a chocolate Jesus. That's hilarious to Google by the way!!!

I'm not sure how anyone can turn that kind of thinking around though. It seems there's a terrific lot of brainless shallow minds out there. What can be done to make people more aware of how dangerous the follow the trend can be? Probably nothing. ^_^

Thanks so much for reading, I thought this post might have scared everyone away!

[alifeacoustic]

I'm definitely googling chocolate Jesus now. But I do agree, just look at who people follow these days that are only famous for being famous and nothing more. If we were lemmings, there would be very few of us left at the top of the cliffs :)

[Suzy Hazelwood]

Haha...yes, a very little bunch of lemmings!! :oD