Women's History Month Column

Originally published in Seawanhaka March 5, 2009.

March is Women's History Month and, despite what may be said to the contrary, it's still really important.

Really, really important.

Feminism isn't dead. It isn't irrelevant or unnecessary. It just scares people.

It's alarming how many people out there - especially women - are afraid to identify as feminists even though they hold feminist views. There's a stereotype hanging around that is based in, well, nothing that even vaguely resembles the truth. It's that age-old myth that feminists are all a) hairy, b) ugly, c) lesbians or d) all of the above. While there's certainly nothing wrong with being any of those things, the truth is actually quite frequently e) none of the above.

We don't have plans to place the entirety of the male population in shackles and make them do our bidding, either.

What we call for is equality and - while there have been improvements in recent decades - we are definitely not there yet. Fortunately we have a pro-feminist President now, which bodes very well for the future of women's rights.

We need to live in a world where people doing the same job receive the same salary. Currently women earn roughly 70 cents for every dollar made by a male peer. For minority women, it's even less.

We need to live in a world where anyone can receive medical care of any kind without being belittled or judged. Or having to worry that an alleged clinic is actually a crisis pregnancy center, or, more accurately, a thinly-veiled lie-based brainwashing factory. I could write an entire column about these alone, but it would end up being very a wordy rant. Where we can decide whether or not to keep a pregnancy without social stigma or any legal hoops to jump through.

We need to live in a world where sexual assault victims can report their crimes and go through prosecution without ever being accused of "asking for it." In case anyone was wondering, ways to "ask for it" include drinking, wearing high heels, wearing a short skirt and/or low neckline, taking a walk with someone, getting a ride home, kissing, having a previous relationship with the attacker, being alone with the attacker or daring to be female and - horror of horrors! - not a virgin. For emphasis, it is always the attackers fault, not the victim's. I repeat, being raped is never the victim's fault.

Neither is being abused. We need to live in a world where someone in an abusive relationship can receive the support that they need to get out safely. We need to stop trying to decide what she did to "deserve" it. Rihanna's reputation for being hot-headed is not license for Chris Brown to put her in the emergency room. Muzzammil Hassan's history of abuse toward women doesn't make his decapitation of wife Aasiya any less disgusting. Aasiya's inability to leave sooner doesn't make her death any less of a tragedy.

We need a world free from gender stereotypes - actually, we need a world free from all stereotypes, but let's stay on topic. Stereotypes hurt everyone. Gender stereotypes hurt both women and men. Look at commercials. Advertising plays on gender stereotypes to sell products. Let's take, for example, a brand of yogurt that will remain unnamed. A woman is on the phone chatting about her weight-loss scheme of the moment. She is dressed in frumpy gray sweats; it's probably safe to assume this is because nothing else fits, hence the all-yogurt diet. Since diet is one of the main topics that women just love to gab on the phone about, she is relaying to her friend the many tasty flavors of fat-free yogurt she has had while still losing weight. And because, in this dairy-filled world, all men are complete morons, her husband thinks that she has all of these delicious treats in the fridge for real so he must go rifling through and look for them. So, to sum up: women love to gab on the phone about their low-calorie yogurt diets and men are idiots who want lots of cake. Clearly, this is a fantastic message to be sending everyone.

On the topic of gabbing about diets, we need a world without beauty-related inequality. Last year The New York Times published an article ("Fat Bias Worse for Women") about the differences in how men and women are treated when it comes to weight. Not surprisingly, fat women are treated worse than fat men, the general cutoff for "fat" is much lower for women than for men and it takes a much smaller weight gain for women to be treated differently than it does for men. A woman sees weight discrimination at less than 15 pounds heavier than her "ideal" weight whereas a man can gain close to 70 before he sees the same bias. So, while weight discrimination is obviously a major problem for both sexes, women are held to a stricter standard than men and see more mistreatment over something they can't change.

We need a world where women are seen as something other than objects. Where we can walk down the street in absolutely anything and not be catcalled. Where two women together is the same as two men together - a relationship, not a fantasy. Where there is no double standard that uses the words "stud" or "slut" to describe two people with similar sexual habits. Where we aren't force-fed drivel insisting that all women should want weddings full of "traditions" when those traditions are largely based in passing ownership of a young women from her father to her husband. Where, like men, women don't have to choose between career and family if they don't want to - and aren't accused of "trying to have it all" (like that's a bad thing) when they want both. Where the media treats female politicians with the same set of standards as male ones and stops commenting on cleavage over foreign policy. Where our anger at something is legitimate instead of brushed off and attributed to PMS. Where our bodies and our decisions are our own, not public property.

We need to live free from patriarchy, which would ultimately benefit men and women alike.

Happy Women's History Month.