3-8-22 WE ARE WOMEN (hear us roar)

I’m realizing its International Women’s Day, not because I’m up on all this kind of stuff, but because I finally got to sit down and check in with my pals on social media. 

I start thinking about being a woman, and the historic plight of the female gender, and my personal history of prejudicial treatment…

Then I start thinking about equal rights…

Which leads me to thinking about the difference between equality and equity…

And I start pondering the basic tenets of republican versus democrat political parties in relation to equity versus equality…

and, as is usually the case, my brain gets tired of thinking and I get the urge to go to the fridge.

So I have another helping of chop suey from dinner, even though it’s eleven pm,

And I return to my computer to find what thought started this whole knotted chain.

 

Sometimes I pretend I’m a man. I don’t lose my feminine instincts in this exercise, but I do ponder who I might be if I had my same talents and thought processes and personality, but I was a man instead of a woman. It’s a really curious place to let oneself go. Interestingly, I’m still overweight and a little slouchy, cuz even as a man my body likes to eat too much sugar and doesn’t like to work out. But in other ways I feel different. First of all my daily routine is much more… routine. There’s a lot less super-diverse multi-tasking going on. I feel, in my pretend self, more empowered professionally. And more burdened by a need for success. I don’t love having to shave every. single. day., but I’m loving not having to duck into the Ladies room to see if I have bled through my pants every. single. month.

Because I have decades of actually living in a woman’s body, I’ve seen a lot of change regarding gender fairness. What I’ve seen, in general, is a quest for equality. I’ve seen good men work toward equality, and not so good men taking the low road. I’ve seen good women working for fair and equal treatment and opportunity, and I’ve seen ruthless women hurting the rest of us. I still see women allowing themselves to be perceived as objects, or probably more accurately, perceiving their bodies as objects to be desired. I continue to wonder at my fellow sisters-in-arms buying-in to the power of their bodies to alter the emotions of people around them. If we ask the men around us to resist their animal instincts, we ought to be expecting ourselves to resist the urge to lure them as well. (That there is me on my soap box.)

Anyway, I am lately trying to consider the difference between equality and equity. Equality is low level, first step action toward equity. Equity seems to be an appropriate goal. This is why our whole white-Anglo-Saxon-Mormon family marched through our community shouting Black Lives Matter two years ago. It’s kind of a no-brainer that “all lives matter”. Of course they do. But black lives have been so long unjustly treated, and unfairly regarded by society that we need to swing very far to make up for those among us who are in denial. Equity gives them more room, more grace, more sympathy and empathy from us. Eventually, when equity turns to judgement, and then to grace, there will be no need for shifting, because we will all be on common ground. But until then, I’m willing to give a little from my comfort to balance things out. It’s sort of like the gas prices today compared to one week ago. They have sky-rocketed, we are told, because we have made a decision as a nation to refuse to purchase Russian oil while they are invading Ukraine. Huzzah for America! Sometimes… often times… doing what is right pinches pretty hard. Hard won’t kill us. Loss of integrity will.

So, here’s to women tonight. Here’s to the strong ones, the tired ones, the ones who scratch their breasts every night when they remove their bras and the ones whose breasts have been removed in order to preserve their lives. Here’s to weak women, and overtaxed ones, and those who are black AND female AND unemployed. Here’s to the women who would rather be men, and men who feel like women, and to women who are brilliant leaders, and school crossing guards. Mothers and Aunties and Grands and not-so-grands. Our uniqueness gives us form, and our solidarity keeps our united heart beating. And here’s to the women who lined up in heaven before me, took the big leap and prepared the earth for my generation. To my sisters, who are my strength and my truest friends. And here’s to my daughters, who prove the world improves with each turn, and their daughters, who prove it over again.

I AM WOMAN 

I AM INVINCIBLE 

I AM TIRED