So, you may have grasped that it’s International Women’s Day today. And some people – hell, they just aren’t down with it. They’ve got some questions that need answering, ASAP, before their brains implode with the possibility of 24 hours dedicated to celebrating the achievements of The Vagina Crew (I came up with a new name for us, girls. Adoption is not compulsory.)
To help this mass of confused and lonely people in their plight, I’ve put together a little Q&A that you might want to – oh, I don’t know – print out and distribute amongst all the irritating people in your office/home/suspended meditation tent.
Or you could just share it online like everybody else. Whatever.
-Why isn’t there an International Men’s Day?
Now, you could go all crazy-ass on this one and mention the fact that the numbers of female MPs, cabinet members, board directors, and journalists always seem to level out at 22%. You could be all, ‘Yea, and why isn’t there White Entertainment Television and the music of white origin awards?’ You could be like, EVERY DAY IS MEN’S DAY YO, and talk about the widespread international practice of Female Genital Mutilation, or the fact that women can’t drive in Saudi, or indeed travel abroad without male accompaniment or written permission from their husbands, or countries where the law restricts what types of clothes women can wear, or TV panels that always have a ‘token woman’ who is immediately vilified for ‘proving’ that all other women aren’t clever/funny/good at debating, or that 5% of the people controlling the media are female, or how 12 out of 193 countries recognised by the UN have a female head of government. Or even that time a man went past you on the street in a taxi and shouted: ‘Wanna come home with me, baby?’ as he sped past. That dude wasn’t expecting you to say yes, and then chase after his car as he disappeared in a cloud of London smog into the distance. He’d spotted you as a lone woman in a public space, and he was putting you in your place (even though, as we all know, ‘cat-caller’ is one linguistic step away from ‘pussy’.)
Or you could just save your breath and tell them that there is actually an International Men’s Day, and it’s celebrated on November 19th. Guaranteed to take winds out of sails, pronto.
-Is this the equivalent of Steak and Blowjob Day?
No. The female equivalent of Steak and Blowjob Day is Cake and Cunnilingus Day. Never heard of it? That’s because it doesn’t exist – OMG, INEQUALITY IN ACTION.
-But aren’t women equal now anyway?
See the rest of the Vagenda. Immediately.
-I guess it must be International ‘Bite My Tongue’ Day, then!
What the hell does your tongue do on every other day of the year, accompany you atop a soapbox as you remonstrate against all womenkind? You could be putting your tongue to much better use on IWT, darlin’ – see above, Cake and Cunnilingus Day.
-What’s the point when we should be including men in discussions about social change, rather than excluding them?
You know how Pancake Day does not equal Eschew All Other Foods In Favour Of Pancakes And Also, Whenever There’s A Discussion About Food, Never Include Anything But Pancakes Until Pancakes Are The Only Thing We Ever Eat Day?
Do you see where I’m going here?
-I’ll wish you a happy International Women’s Day when you’ve made me a sandwich/ Is tomorrow ‘Get Back In The Kitchen’ Day/ What’s next, International Hoovers’ Day?
Oh, ho ho ho! Your humour appears to have been imported from the 1800s. Beware the repercussions on International Men’s Day. In fact, you should probably be even more careful about sudden repercussions on Steak and Blowjob Day – think about it.
-Since women never do anything, they can compress all of their achievements into a single day – then we can carry on celebrating what men do for the rest of the year, right?
There are no words. The same person who asked this included the example that ‘women think baking a pie is wonderful, while men think that the Large Hadron Collider is wonderful’. He is gonna be so bummed when he finds out about Katherine McAlpine, the CERN scientist working on the LHC who even wrote and performed a viral rap song about it. Yea, you heard me right.
-Do women want female supremacy now or something?
Yes. Yes, we want female supremacy. Look out your window and witness the hordes of black-clad females, swarming the streets with advanced weaponry, beating men into quivering submission as they pass! Because if Female Genital Mutilation stops, and half of the population is statistically represented in the House of Commons, then THERE. WILL. BE. ANARCHY.
-Er, but it’s Mothers’ Day on Sunday?
Cool, it’s not like we’ve spent decades battling against the idea of women-as-baby-incubators or anything. And, like, why count childless women as people anyway when they’re basically just sobbing amorphous blobs living bitterly alone in feline-infested apartments, cursing the barrenness of their empty, empty wombs? The questioner who asked you this is almost certainly the manager who recommended that one woman in the company is quite enough, thankyou very much. And then asked you to get him a biscuit. Fuck him (but not literally, unless your vagina has pointy fangs. And if it does, can you send me a picture?)
-IWD, eh? Let me make you feel like a real woman…
So what, you’re gonna dock my pay by 16%, call me a slut and then talk about how my womb is public property? I do this ‘real woman’ business every day, and I know what it entails. Unfortunately, you patently do not know what it entails, and that is why you just asked if you can make me feel like a real woman. The fact that the guy who asked this then chucked a dirty T-shirt at his conversational partner and said, ‘Wash that’ before keeling over in hysterics probably illustrates my point even more. I just hope to GOD that he didn’t choke on his tongue and die a hideously painful death. Because my soft, feminine heart just couldn’t cope with a tragic freak incident like that.
Does this Q&A need expanding after some shit you just heard in the office? Tweet us @VagendaMagazine and we’ll totes back you up, laydee.
First of all the reaction I got today was a guy who said ‘isn’t women’s day everyday?’ No, smart arse. And second of all, traditionally mother’s day is not about your mother. It is about the church as your mother, therefore not being about women at all
Love the reaction to the why isn’t there Men’s international day. Could have done with it earlier today. Thank you
I’m a twenty-something female and I’ve spent the day in a room in my office with one other twenty-something female. To complete the staff on our floor today, we had one sixty-something female. That was the full staff for our floor. The entire conversation about IWD today amounted to: “should we tweet about International Women’s Day?”. Publishing = the female haven.
The diversity group at work (at an engineering firm, so we’re talking very male-heavy here) thoughtfully put on a special lunchtime event to celebrate International Women’s Day. Rather than call it a ‘lunch’ – because, you know that conjours up ideas of big male meals – this thing was sold to us ladies as ‘high tea’. At 12.30pm. Because everyone knows all you need to entice women to something and to make them feel engaged is ‘lots of lovely fingers sandwiches and cake’. Eurgh.
Valentines days is for the ladies, Steak and Blowjob day for the men.
It’s already equal, without hilariously making up a ‘cunnilingus and cake day’ to juxtapose something that already has a twinned event.
Plus I enjoy performing cunnilingus, and I like cake. So would happily provide an extra day. But wouldn’t that be positive discrimination? Answers on a postcard.
Like, I TOTALLY FORGOT Valentines’ Day was about women and not couples. And also that all women hate giving blowjobs and can’t eat steak. Oh wait…
Can I get you a response with your sarcasm?
I think men should be allowed to cook steaks and give blow-jobs every day, if that’s what they’re into.
I applaud you Sam Samson
This argument puts all men into the same category and not only ignores the many men out there who might be romantic i.e. who enjoy Valentine’s Day but actually asserts a form of masculinity that puts down romantic men. I know steak and blowjob day is essentially a joke but it kind of implies that that’s all men care about- that you’re a bunch of sex-crazed, meat loving animals. Which is obvs not true.
Cake and Cunnilingus sounds better than Eddie Izzard’s Cake or Death… Thanks for that
While it’s still IWD, for the women who never got to be little girls:
http://arcaneimages.tumblr.com/post/44877942795/xxthesmittenkittenxx-fuckyeah-nerdery
“performing cunnilingus”…eheheh….It got me thinking about a stage, a swivel chair and a spotlight… “and now ladies and gentleman, performing “Cunnilingus and Cake in C minor (allegro ma non troppo)”….eheh…sorry
What’s wrong with being a baby incubator? Many women regard it as the most important and significant they’ve done. If you’re barren you have my sympathy, but there’s no need to denigrate women with functioning wombs.
Agreed, there are women for whom motherhood is a very important part of life. But that proprtion is not as large as many people think: there are those who never ever want kids, those who might do, and those who really aren’t sure. What really sucks is when it’s assumed that because women can do the baby thing that it’s all they want/can achieve in life. It’s fine for a woman to crave motherhood, but it also has to be fine for her to avoid it like the plague, or just cross that bridge when she comes to it.
‘Baby incubator’ refers to when a woman is objectified and seen only as a machine which can produce an end-product (a baby) – whether or not she wants a baby is not even seen as a question. On the other hand, if a woman’s agency is fully recognized, she is not seen as an incubator – she is seen as a person who may happen to be able to become pregnant if she so chooses.
But you seem to assume that women who don’t have babies are ‘barren’ and don’t have ‘functioning wombs’ – believe it or not, many women do not want to get pregnant.
As well as all the great comments about a womans choice, Gorilla, you’ve just denigrated women ‘who are barren’ in your words. How do you think that makes someone feel if they can’t have a baby and they want to? Useless and worthless. So thanks for that *sarcasm* Because society is still ingrained in us that we are only good for having babies whether we actually want to or not and if we do, we are dismissed as now being complete and that we need nothing more in our lives. We’re damned if we do and damned if we don’t
Pretty much every debate to do with female representation, female CEOs, equality in the workplace, etc., equal ‘women’ to ‘mothers’. ‘Women find it hard to reach the top positions because they find it hard to combine it with the role of motherhood’, etc. This implies that women are either mothers, or future mothers. Is this ever done in relation to men? Do we automatically equate the word ‘man’ with (future) father? Think not. I, personally, am a WOMAN first, and possibly, if it so happens, a mother down the line. I want my role in society to be discussed, and appreciated, as something more than a child bearer. Having a child is neither a responsibility, nor a law of nature. it’s my choice, and I’ll do as I please, thankyouverymuch.
Nope, there’s nothing wrong with being a baby incubator and there’s nothing wrong with being a sandwich maker either…
See where I’m going with this? Or do you need a broader picture on why some people might take offence?
Are you nothing BUT a baby incubator? And you’re a procreating…they have my sympathy.
This article made me smile. These are all of the questions people have but don’t want to get bashed for asking! http://www.venusblogs.com
I made the mistake of reading the comments on a Daily Fail article about the wage gap yesterday. Many men were saying they’d rather hire a man over a ‘female’ (why are a lot of men so afraid of the word ‘woman’?)18-40 yrs as maternity leave costs too much. I can’t procreate, not that it’s anyone’s business, but it’s sad to think that if I could work I might get the job over a woman who is more qualified than myself but who can and wants children someday. I mean, how dare she inconvenience everyone else by giving birth to another human? If that’s not discrimination I don’t know that is.
Oops, if that’s not discrimination I don’t know what is.*
I was reading about 1 in 7 women ar demoted or made redudant when they are prgnant or just had a baby, in the guardian and the general comments were ‘good, get rid of the women, they are a burden on everyone by having kids.’ That says it all
I’d like to know how these people think babies are made!!! Don’t men have a *little bit* of responsibility in that? Mmmm? I’m sure these guy’s children would be very happy to know they are inconveniences.
Hey, there is some good news, however: there are now more women CEOs leading Fortune 500 companies than ever before. We now have 21. So just 479 to go…
Don’t you actually think the world would be a better place if it was a better mix of men and woman leading fortune 500 companies? Rather than what your suggesting?