Today is “International Woman’s Day” and my friend and I decided we wanted to make a video honoring this momentous occasion. We had a brainstorm session to think about what defines our woman-ness, and talked about boys and our periods while eating chocolate and crying. Even though women are the majority in the world, we are still a marginalized group, and it is only disempowered people who need days celebrating themselves to remember to be proud. It is not like there are heterosexual white men taking to the streets having parades shouting “I am straight, I am white, get used to it.”
I guess part of being a woman is admitting that I am disenfranchised. And that is kind of my fault considering we are voting for the men who subjugate us. There are more of us then there are of them, and we are giving our power away willingly… kind of like ants or termites or locusts. If they really wanted to take over, all they would have to do is get together and organize… and then crawl all over us. I think if my body were covered with swarming beings I would give them whatever they want. Not a bad idea ladies!
Being a woman is cool because you have a warm pocket to store things when your hands are full, but it is also really hard. Every 3 minutes one of us dies from childbirth and 1 in 3 women will have been raped or beaten in her lifetime. That is a lot of pain and suffering to endure. And considering that every person enters this planet through their mom’s magic baby door, all that sorrow is being transferred to the children regardless of gender. If the women are in anguish, all of humanity will feel that grief.
My yoga teacher said the other day “I believe there will be peace on the planet when there are no more tears between women.” Although this may sound idealistic to think about “ultimate world peace,” I really appreciated the metaphor. Women turn to each other for comfort and consolation, and when we no longer need that support then we know major transformation has occurred. Although we will probably always cry about our periods because leaking blood really does make saltwater pour out of your face.
Check out our video here!!
