As privileged women around the country don Soviet red and abdicate their responsibilities for their Day Without Women, the women of Legal Insurrection are hard at work. In fact, every woman I know — my friends, my sister, my mom, my cousins, my aunts, and in-laws are all working today.
You see, we don’t feel it necessary to vanish in order to prove our worth or value. We’re confident in who we are.
Our work is never done. As a wife and Momma, there are no days off. But having the never-ending needs of a family to satisfy is far from burdensome, it’s a privilege.
We’re raising two wonderful little girls. It’s our goal and hope that we can impart to them strength and resolution of purpose, not a core meaning which thrives on the validation of others or whatever bourgeois movement du jour.
I want them to know that true equality is not in berating or objectifying men, but in appreciating and celebrating their strengths. That partnership works best when each can be strong for the other. And that while as women, we’re wonderful and amazing, men too are incredible creatures in their own right.
There are many problematic aspects of neo-feminism, but the most concerning is its attitude towards men. Collectively, it objectifies men by using them as a screen on which to project a bevy of insecurities and demanding that men pay eternal penance for being born dudes.
Neo-feminism won’t be satisfied until every man has been emasculated and has been made womanly, and all under the banner of “equality”.
Men are not the enemy. They’re not out to destroy womanhood or keep women down. Not in this country anyway. The men as perpetual foil mantra might be politically expedient, but it’s enormously damaging culturally and relationally.
So this International Women’s Day, we’re not absent. We’re showing up for our husbands, our children, our jobs, and our responsibilities. If I spend money today (those participating in Day Without Women have been encouraged not to spend money unless it’s at “small, women- and minority-owned businesses”) it will be to buy my husband beer.
I’ll be celebrating today the same way I celebrate every day — by holding my husband tight, trying to tackle the never-ending mountain of laundry, changing diapers, chasing a baby in a walker and a curious little dog, making my husband his favorite dinner, spending my time here, on the blog with you, and reflecting on how thankful I am to have been given the life I have.
Happy International Women’s Day!
Follow Kemberlee on Twitter @kemberleekaye
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