On International Women's Day, 2023.

Delia Kane, age 14.  The Exchange Luncheon, Boston.  January 31, 1917.

Today is International Women's Day.  Some prior entries:

International Women's Day, 2020

Thursday, March 8, 2018

International Women's Day, 2018

Today is International Women's Day, as March 8 always is.

I've put this poster up before, it apparently means something like "let's rebuild together", perhaps an appropriate slogan for International Women's Day 2018.

I'm not sure what I make of this day, as I find myself in the category, quite often, of marveling at modern contemporary society struggling to cure its ills created by becoming too modern by reaching vaguely out towards the standards of the past.  And frankly International Women's Day has a rather Communist, if you will, sound to it.

German "Women's Day" poster from 1914.  This poster was rather obviously sponsored by the German Socialist left.  It was also banned by the Imperial German government.

None of which would mean that the day, which has been endorsed for some time by the United Nations, isn't legitimate.  Nor would my comments suggest that women don't deserve an International Day.  Indeed, they do.

And on that, the theme for 2018 perhaps very ably demonstrates that.  The theme this year is "Time is Now: Rural and urban activists transforming women’s lives."  The UN says of this year's theme:

This year’s theme captures the vibrant life of the women activists whose passion and commitment have won women’s rights over the generations, and successfully brought change. We celebrate an unprecedented global movement for women’s rights, equality, safety and justice, recognizing the tireless work of activists who have been central to this global push for gender equality.

All that's probably true, and indeed brave women all over the world do struggle, as noted.  Cudos to the UN for noting it, even if the UN rather oddly regards nations co-equally that abuse women's rights, as well as act anti democratically in all sorts of other ways.

In the US I suspect that there won't be much attention to the plight of rural women around the globe. There should be, but we're in the second half of the "Me Too" era which demonstrates a different set of problems. . . maybe. . . for women. An age-old one that social progressive keep trying to solve by suggesting that that they've discovered a new standard that's actually a very, very old one.  That's had its own interesting dynamics, as those same forces struggle not to admit the historical truth that equality for women is a movement that's not only western, but Christian.  There's a reason that western societies are in the forefront of this movement, and always have been, and that's where that reason is to be found.

Friday, March 10, 2017

Some times you can't win for losing. . .

Pity poor Sophie Gergoir Trudeau.

Yes, pity her.

And this from somebody who doesn't care much for her husband, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.

Sophie Gregoire Trudeau, who is married to Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, is taking heat over an International Women's Day post.

She asked people to "celebrate the boys and men in our lives who encourage us to be who we truly are, who treat girls & women with respect" on 8 March. 
Ms Gregoire Trudeau urged followers to post images with their "male ally".

But some Facebook commenters said Ms Gregoire Trudeau's post was "tone deaf" and even "shameful".

The post included a photo of her and her husband holding hands.

• Sophie Gregoire Trudeau: Canadian PM wife sparks 'help' debate
• International Women's Day 2017: History, strikes and celebrations

"Why do we have to celebrate men on international women's day?" Facebook user Bibi Ebel said in one popular comment. "I am puzzled.

"There are so many things that can be done to celebrate women, and yet the call goes out to celebrating men. Allies and unity are crucial, but so is womanhood.

From the BBC.

She received support as well.

Still, what this does, I think, is illustrate the extent to which in the Western World some focus on things because their real goals have been signficantly achieved.  Yes, women have not achieved full equality anywhere. But enormous strides have been made in the Western World and countries influenced by the Western World.  Indeed, to such an extent that a heavy element of the unreal attaches to events like this and they lose their legitimate focus.

So, well I think that PM Trudeau comes across poorly in my book, politically, give Sophie Gregoire a break for goodness sake.

Well, all the prior entries, apparently.

I'm really only going to note a couple of ironies associated with this deserving day, and it is a deserving one.

The great accomplishment in the West, that Westerners honor, is basically extracting women from family life, just as men had successfully been extracted, in the 18th and 19th Centuries, in order to make them greater servants of the economy.  Yes, huge strides in equality have been made, but an understanding of organic domestic and familial Christian equality was largely lost, with a later overall loss of equality in that women's roles are now, in a greater sense, once again chosen for them.  I.e, they've gone, in the West, from having few options available to them and those in a limited number of "traditional" roles, to now having no easy option to adopt the traditional ones while being saddled with an expectation of non-domestic employment.  The direction remains, forcing that conclusion, although it likely won't be.  Indeed, my prediction is that in the upcoming and scary world of AI we're entering just now, the impact on women may prove to be considerably different from that upon men.  The fact that I'm unlikely to be around to really witness it doesn't hurt my feelings, however, as the new AI world stands to be so troubling.

Another irony is that in our present age, when women have in fact made so many strides, women find their hard won status in the world threatened by the rising tide of faux women, men who have chosen to pretend to be women and to demand female status.  This is something that is only safe to do now, in part, as women fought for the right to be treated equally in society, even if they haven't fully achieved it.  It's no accident that not too many men chose to assume female roles when being a woman meant second class status and relegation to a domestic role.  Men affecting a female appearance, in other words, aren't going to find a world in which they're confronted with no female sports, and no women in the boardrooms and courtrooms, etc.  They won't be confronted by the hard lives that were the female routine up until mid 20th Century, which is not to say that male roles, which were different, weren't pretty hard as a rule as well.

Man works till set of sun,

Woman's work is never done.

Indeed, in some ways, women in achieving greater equality have not only had some "male roles" opened up to them, but have been a bit forced into them. This lets men who think they wish to appear as women, for whatever reason, retain male roles, with no real risk of living women's real lives.