Don't Dumb Down My Equality with Women's Day

Mya Destinee

International Women’s Day is upon us, marking the day we celebrate women, and fight for their equality. One whole day dedicated to the fight to change the lives of women around the world. 24 hours dedicated to changing the face of the globe, and its economic and social and cultural values. A feminist's wet dream, if you will be so kind. 

I’m a woman, a strong one, and I think this is contrived. I’m just going to put that out into the universe. I know I’m not supposed to say that... but whatever, I do what I want. That’s the point. Do what you want. No one can tell me I’m unequal because I create my own equality. 

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In my world, every single day is women's day. I don’t need to participate in international activities with dumbed-down names attached to them like “girls can fly” and simply, stupidly, “WOW!” I know girls can fly. I don’t want to attend a breakfast with part-time activists talking about their feelings, and how being unequal feels.

And, trust me, I get it. I get why a day like this is so important to some. It’s a day celebrating women, and that’s never a  bad thing. I get why some people, women, need to pour their hearts into raising awareness of how poorly, how grotesquely, and how unkindly women are treated.Change is needed, obviously.

Rather than going to a website, clicking pledge on a computer screen to feel like you’ve made change, get out and do something about it. We can talk all we want about equality. We can talk until we are all blue in the face. Live every day like you are fighting for your peace, your equality.

I wish a day like this wasn’t necessary. I wish women stood up for themselves every day. Negotiated better salaries without fear. Held their heads high while they walked down the street. I wish women realized their own power, every day.

Why don’t we create our own equality by simply not standing for it? Women’s day means only women should be celebrated on this day. Pish Posh, be your own hero. Be the person you are going to be.

It’s 2016- a time where gender is fluid and non-binary, people are discovering and celebrating the things that make them unique. Things are not always as cut and dry as they may seem, and millennials are creating labels for everything, connecting in ways like never before. It takes respect on a mutual level between women and men, between one person to the next, on a global scale. A little bit of grace goes a long way. Instead of one day to raise awareness and #pledgeforparity, as the International Women’s Day campaign slogan instructs, we need to live every day with empathy and understanding towards every person we interact with to make the changes necessary to thrive as human beings on this earth.

As of now, I can turn on any major news station and witness in my own home the horrors and atrocities being committed to people by people every single waking hour, every single second. Towards women, children, men, and other people who don’t conform. Each day, I scroll through the news and, it blends together with the news from the last day, nothing new, besides the names and the families affected by the loss of a loved one or the hurt caused by hate. It’s the same story, over and over again.

I #pledgeforpeople. We are what created this poor excuse for a society, where the rules that are not written bear so heavy on us. We also have the power to change that. ​

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