Saturday, March 8th, was International Women's Day. According to the International Women's Day website, this day was first observed in 1908, and the tradition is still carried on today. It's a designated day to "celebrate women's achievements" and "inspire women." Girl power, woo!
But while everyone was busy tweeting how they were celebrating this historic nugget of female pride (shoutout to Lena Dunham and Chrissy Teigen), I felt conflicted.
Obviously, I would never undermine the significance of a day that honors my own gender -- plus any day that makes me feel more empowered is a major winner in my book. But I couldn't help but think how sad it is that we have to have a day like this at all.
After all, you don't see "international men's day" or "international Caucasian male" day being a thing. Adam Driver doesn't have "young misogynist" in his Twitter profile. There aren't student groups on campus rallying around men's rights.
Don't get me wrong, I'm all for girl power -- I was raised by a single mother, and although don't plaster "feminist" on my forehead would definitely fall into that category based on practice and in belief. I'm the type of person most people would think would insist on having a girls-only happy hour in honor of this momentous annual occasion.
But honestly, every day should be International Women's Day. Having a sole day to draw attention to the case for women's rights is barely a drop in the bucket of the bigger issue; one day is in no uncertain terms not good enough. It's important that we as women don't lose sight of our everyday obligation to be inspired, celebrate our achievements, and equal (if not surpass) our male counterparts. We've come a long day since the origins of International Women's Day, but we're not there yet -- and this is something we should be reminded of daily, not just once a year for an arbitrarily sanctified holiday.
So I refuse to treat International Women's Day any differently than I treat every other day of my life -- a day to live with poise, strength, and pride to be a female. I want to live as an embodiment of the feminist ideals -- not spewing superficial ideas about how we should be standing up for ourselves, but making that clear by standing up for myself.