The Transparent Hypnotist

Today is International Women’s Day. Are you celebrating? Did you even know about it? I did not until I saw it posted on www.bloggersunite.com and as a supporter of that platform, I could not let today go by without a mention.

Perhaps you are like me and wonder what International Women’s Day is all about, so I will quote directly from the Blogger’s Unite site:

Started as a political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries (primarily Russia and the countries of former Soviet bloc). In some celebrations, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love to the women around them in a way somewhat similar to Mother’s Day and St Valentine’s Day mixed together. In others, however, the political and human rights theme as designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

So, are you wondering if my partner was ready with a Happy International Women’s Day card, flowers or even reminded me to locate my voter’s registration card? Nope. Instead he tends to celebrate me on everyday sort-of-days. This morning he brought me coffee in bed, along with my laptop so I could blog. Currently, he is napping next to me, wondering when I will be done with today’s post so the day can progress. But I am lingering on sites such as www.internationalwomensday.com trying to figure out the true meaning of IWD. Perhaps because I live in a free society, I do not have as much appreciation for such days, hence a reason to count my blessings and write this post. Yet, when I visit the links on the dedicated sites for this day, I see lots of articles comparing women to men. We (women) are not acknowledged as much, we make less money, and several things that make me believe we are not so far removed from the women depicted in the Mad Men Series.

What IWD has really made me realize is that in general I do not compare myself to others in the whole “women verses men” debate. Maybe at some juncture it will seem more relevant to me, but currently, I consider myself a blogger (a lady blogger in description, but a blogger in general). I am a hypnosis advocate (not a female hypnosis advocate, but hypnosis on the whole). I am a writer (not a female writer, but one with a perspective that is uniquely mine). I am glad to be part of the female sex (and am quite comfortable with what that means), but I also am grateful that there is the male gender. I am appalled at any sort of inhuman treatment whether it is a female or male being downtrodden or even an animal.

Granted I often talk about creating a non-profit for helping abused women regain some self-esteem and that is definitely a bit sexist on my part. But maybe, just maybe, that is wrong. Maybe I should amend it to abused people in general.

If we want a world full of equality, I do not think we can fight for one sex (or even race) over another - we need to have it all the way around. There is no “more equal” than something else, only greater or lesser than. Maybe we should spend our time bringing the systems all around us up and equalizing it as opposed to making it a competitive “greater than/less than” idea.

Just my thoughts. For this Sunday Question: what are your thoughts about International Women’s Day?