IWD 2011

Exactly one year ago I posted Happy International Women's Day with the comment that "our work is never done."  I like this phrase because it seems to speak to both the (often) intense expectations placed on individual women in their daily lives, as well as the larger social work of feminism, specifically ending sexism.

I love the rant below, and although I've been unable to determine it's original source, it can easily be found all over the internet.  Check out the links, I think they show some of the great work women are doing, and how much more we have to go.

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Because women's work is never done and is underpaid or unpaid or boring or repetitious and we're the first to get fired and what we look like is more important than what we do and if we get raped it's our fault and if we get beaten we must have provoked it and if we raise our voices we're nagging bitches and if we enjoy sex we're nymphos and if we don't we're frigid and if we love women it's because we can't get a "real" man and if we ask our doctor too many questions we're neurotic and/or pushy and if we expect childcare we're selfish and if we stand up for our rights we're aggressive and "unfeminine" and if we don't we're typical weak females and if we want to get married we're out to trap a man and if we don't we're unnatural and because we still can't get an adequate safe contraceptive but men can walk on the moon and if we can't cope or don't want a pregnancy we're made to feel guilty about abortion and...for lots of other reasons we are part of the women's liberation movement.

My Work is Following Me Home

At the grocery store last night.

-a rather “unkempt” and “disheveled” looking man cut me off with his grocery cart like he was in the last sprint of a 100m run

-an extremely slow moving young woman was packing up groceries at the end of the checkout line we were in. She was taking her time, removing items from the packaging before placing them in her bag. She was buying a tonne of baby products including diapers and about 10 sippy cups. She was taking care to fold and gently stack the cardboard boxes she removed from her items. Her purse appeared to be a child’s pink backpack.

We tried our best to pack our own groceries next to her. She started muttering and complaining about how the cashier was throwing other peoples things on her “stuff” and mixing it up. AM (love of my life and partner) suggested to her that perhaps if she moved somewhere else, it wouldn’t be a problem. The cashier then started complaining to ME how this woman had been there for 20 minutes, in the way of 3 previous customers. I tried gently suggesting to the cashier that she or someone who works at the store should help this young woman move along. It became clear this cashier was intimidated by the woman’s strange behaviour, and wanted nothing to do with it. I moved then and asked the woman if I could help her move her things, so they didn’t get “mixed up” but she refused. We tried to get out of the way as quickly as possible.

As we walked away, I began ranting (quietly) to AM about how the store should help her move to another area to pack her things instead of allowing everybody involved to become frustrated, as this woman was clearly confused and unwell and how I hoped what ever baby she was buying things for was well taken care of. I was quickly reminded by A that “not everyone can be a social worker” and that really nothing had come of the situation. He’s got a point.

-to top it all off, a woman (I swear) dressed as Cruella DeVille and smoking a long cigarette in a holder dashed in front of my car with her shopping cart right as the light turned green for me to leave the parking lot. I nearly had a heart attack, and then felt sorry for whatever fuzzy creature died to make the ridiculous and enormous hat she was wearing that must have been blocking her view of the “don’t walk” sign!