In the light of International Women’s Day, I have a confession to make. I’m kind of old-fashioned. Even in my Boulder, Colorado heyday of hippie-inspired activism, I could never really get behind the feminist movement.
Environmentalism? Great!
Parity in education? Totally reasonable!
Universal access to health care? What a lovely idea!
I could corner strangers and harass them about the importance of those topics with the best of them. (Seriously. I used to canvas for Greenpeace.) But when people would try to get me talking about feminism, I would muster up and lackluster smile and say, “Mmmhmmm!” as enthusiastically as possible before making up an excuse about needing to hit the 5-day-old produce give-away at the local food co-op and walking the other way.
Here’s the problem: Feminism focuses so much on the stuff we want.
In some countries, this makes tremendous sense. In the USA, I think we need to spend more time being thankful for what we have. For example, during my four years in Colorado, there was a serious push to re-instate the draft for the Iraq war. Feminists were not marching down Colorado Avenue begging for equality in that pool of eligibility. They wanted a raise and a female CEO and IVF covered by health insurance.
At the moment, I get to vote and be employed and walk around without a large scarf covering 99.9% of my body. I’m pretty pleased with the feminist movement accomplishments (again–in the US and the Western World). I think we are in a good spot. As a matter of fact, I think it’s time to take a quick reality check and figure out exactly what it is we want next.
I like my job and I don’t feel threatened by the men in my work environment. I’m happy with my current level of access to reproductive health care (though it is one of several topics in US news I am currently following very, very closely). I’m pleased with my level of ability for free speech. I vote. Also, I wear heels, slippers and flip-flops with equal levels of comfort. I love when my boyfriend cooks me dinner and fixes my computer and buys me coffee every single morning.
There’s nothing I feel like I am really hungering for in regard to my feminine identity.
So International Women’s Day threw me a little off-balance. It’s a nice time to reflect and be thankful, as well as to consider the plight of women in other parts of the world where parity is nonexistent. But do we really need a day?! Shouldn’t we be doing that anyway? Like, all the time?