A Happy Women's Day

2017-03-08

A happy Women’s Day to everyone! I think this is the first year I’ve noticed this day in social media, but I understand it has a long history and has embraced many important themes over many years. I’m never sure to what extent men are on the outside looking in at women’s issues. Recently the world has seen a number of powerful progressive social movements emerge, mostly for demographics I’m definitively not a part of. I think most responsible world citizens want to connect with any global issue, though, and these causes have plenty of champions that are outsiders. Still, I think taking a page from feminism itself, I like inclusive, gender-neutral causes and attitudes, and I fret a little internally at themes that put people on the defensive, despite the undeniable, invaluable positive influence of confrontational feminism in the last century. I wondered what attitudes I’d experience or read about today. I’m very happy to say I’ve seen nothing but positivity today. An official plug for the day from Facebook, and a couple posts by women I truly respect, sharing some perhaps understated pride in their half of humankind. It was nice to see. Reading in days prior lead me only to the most empassioned opinions, and made me expect to feel a little despised, overtly or not, but it wasn’t the case at all. I’m thankful for the women in my life. I’m thankful for what feminism and women everywhere have accomplished. Truthfully, I’m a little nervous, as I seriously expect women to start outperforming men in more and more measures of quality of life in the coming decades, but it’s not a zero-sum game, and women bettering themselves means women bettering the world. Women, keep changing the world for the better, on your own terms!