International Women's Day & Why Support "A Day Without Women"

It is International Women's Day.

It's a day to celebrate many women across the world.

This year, the uniqueness of today's International Women's Day is that it's also the day the protest “a day without a woman” that has been appropriately slated to happen (and now been done).

What strikes me as very odd is that some of those that are not in support of the protest “a day without a woman” are women. But not women in general. Particular groups of women that I am noticing, in all honesty, on my Facebook feed are not happy or in support of this at all. And I am super glad for this. One, because they are being honest about it. Two, it makes me re-evaluate my choices. Not in a bad way but to make sure they are for the right reasons. So I looked at one of the chief complaints about today's protest. They are calling it elitist they are saying that women of privilege are the only ones are capable of being able to stand up and to join this protest. Of course, let's not be blind and stupid in the same hand and call it for what it is. A lot of people think of this elitist or women of privilege to be frankly be white women that are stay at home mothers with their babies while their husbands go make a lot of money that day. I am not say that is what everyone is picturing, but I can guarantee, that it is the majority.

What they say is both true and untrue. Yes it is indeed both true and untrue-- you read that correctly. Here's the how and the why.

A day without a woman is idealistically significant. In fact, the ideology is quite significant because it is half or a little more than half of the world's population. And it is a gender for which the world can not honestly exist without. So a day without a woman would truly not be a day that would be easy to get on with. Just the same as it would be for a day without Mexicans or a day without African-Americans or a day without men or a day without Indian-Americans or a day without Muslims or a day without Christians or a day without children.

If you are not understanding the meaning behind “a day without…” then you're missing the entire point of the protest itself.

How may you ask it are you missing the point?

"A day without ..." anything is a day that you really need to learn to appreciate who is in your life and appreciate that diversity in culture, religion, economics, gender, and being able to realize that there is far more growth that needs to be achieved for us to get "there" where we honestly don't need those days and those protests anymore.

Today is the perfect day to do a day without a woman. The "duh" and why is in the day itself. Today is international women's day.

Without women being alive, things could not co exist, happen, or function as well.

So let's look at women and not just be like "we're going to look at the negative aspect of everything" but let's look at the positive aspects of the day and of the women itself. Let's look at women and see what they have done. (This is in general and collective speak).

Women, for example, are the first step of life... in the bedroom, to conception, to pregnancy, to birth... AKA... children would not exist if it was not for women. We, the mothers, are the child bearers and the incubators of every human life. Even in the very most animalistic and humanistic level that is really a profound thing. We forget how amazing that is and how important it is. How the womb that we each have inside of us creates other lives and does so multiple times over (usually). Men cannot make babies on their own they need the women around them to co-create a new life. Wow! We just look at this and it's something that comes natural to us. Even we as women, often forget the amount of suffering that we go through even before we have given birth to a child.Where our entire lives and body is impacted just by the simple fact that they have the organs inside that give life in their bodies. Insert #whydoIneedmyperiodagain. Not to mention, actually carrying a pregnancy to term, having one of the most difficult birth processes for animals out there right now, but to also bring a child up in this world and raise them right.

But let's not look just the naturalistic aspect of being a woman.
Why? Because that undercuts some of why International Women's Day came to be.

Women like Amelia Earhart, Michelle Obama, Ruth Ginsburg, Mother Teresa, Aretha Franklin and so many more have changed the face of their generations of their fields of expertise.

A day without women is not something that is black or white or Asian or Indonesian or anything. It isn't even women versus men. (Hard to believe, I know). When people make it about race it no longer has the same power that it could have had if all women just stood together united.

If you are a single mother and you don't have a choice but to go to work today-- that is perfectly okay and you should not be shamed because of it. You are being a strong woman which is everything the protest is about!

So,you can't help join the protest in person but you can help join the protest in solidarity.

Many of my friends who have had to work how to join the protest by joining organizations by volunteering an hour to or giving money to organizations that they supported that support women. I had one friend that posted her hourly givings to different local organisations that supported women's rights and human rights right here in Washington D.C. Some have done something as simple as wearing a red t-shirt. You have probably seen pictures of the whole family dressed up with red tee shirts on your Facebook feed. Also, I have friends on Facebook that have posted memes regarding International Women's Day or even men or women who changed their profile picture to include the framed women's march logo. This is a day where you should not look at what the barriers are that prevents you from being able to participate but look at the aspects of what you can participate.

We need to stop looking at something in a negative light and try to look at the positive aspects of it to be able to unite ourselves  as a human race ourselves.

So looking at the protest in the negative light that I saw some people do, while it made sense, didn't seem to bring the solidarity that was needed. And I say this because some of the very people who are against it are sitting up talking political trash on the flip side of the coin. Not all, of course, but can't discount it.

When you look at people who have made incredible differences in other people's lives you can see that many women particularly are not fighting you or what you can see. They are fighting things that can be invisible (and divisible).

Happy International Women's Day! ♀🌍✨😘✊ We are all Wonder-Women in our own ways. I am a proud woman, mother, daughter, friend, girl and boy scout leader, aspiring business owner, aspiring non-profit, writing a book, blogger, marketer, teacher and so so much more. I am proud to be a woman today (and everyday). I am proud of all my sisters, mothers, and friends! Love is in who we are! Keep doing you! ✊😘✨🌍 #happyinternationalwomensday #women #mum #internationalwomensday #wearefamily #wonderwoman

A post shared by Via Bella (@viabella.thebeautifullife) on Mar 8, 2017 at 7:43am PST

What are (tiniest of) the things women do?

Women fight for human rights-- not just women’s rights.

Women help find medical cures for all the human race.

Women step up (more often then men) in volunteer roles in their community.

Women raise children.

Women are on call way more than men are.

Today we must celebrate women. Celebrate the women that are around you. Your mother, your sister, your friends, your co workers, your neighbor. They deserve it the same way you do. Anyone who is around you as a woman is deserving of celebration today. This is not a cookie fortune saying (or maybe it is and that is not the point of this) because it's something if we don't do we will not be fortunate at all.

Things cannot blossom into beautiful roses without the thorns and without the appreciation of those around them and this is including women. Think about yourself and think about how it impacts you to have someone tell you what you're doing right versus what you are doing wrong. When we can uplift each other whether it is joining the protest or just simply saying to someone “you look good today” or “you did a good job on that today” both have profound impacts on the people around you.

So, I courage you to say something beautiful and nice to the women around you today. See that the words that you say not only affected them but they do affect you as well. Even if you are in a feud with that person- say one nice thing about them to their face!

Moreover, people will ask for things that are beyond just the same,  beyond just for protesting, beyond just waking up to another sun and another day and then turn around and wonder what is the need for Woman's Day? Because unity is a disparity still for our country.

The fact that there is a need for a woman's day goes to show that we have a long way to go both in women's history and human history and in appreciation of the very being that brought us into this world.

We as human beings all have masculine energy and feminine energy within us. To deny International Women's Day as an important day is to deny the feminine energy is within all of us.

If we allow ourselves to be, we can be incredibly more evolved than what we already are. We can be evolved in human nature,  altruistic behavior, community mindedness, in our family units, socially, culturally, even economically, and so much more. This is started on the basic human level by honoring those around us especially the women that give us life, that help us grow, that give us love, give us trust and that will always be there for us.

Happy International Women's Day!!