International Women’s Day has come and gone, and there are a few things I noticed about it this year. One was the amazing events, speeches, and women that came to light. The other was the fact that so many #internationalwomen’sday posts on Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter were simply a selfie and a body positivity quote, along with the infamous hashtag. While I don’t find anything wrong with loving your body, and being proud of what you look like, is this really the time to focus on it?
Last year Kim Kardashian posted a nude selfie on her twitter for International Women’s Day. She later explained it to as “It’s 2016. The body-shaming and slut-shaming — it’s like, enough is enough . . . You let me be me.”
While I completely agree that body-shaming is awful, it’s not what International Women’s Day should be solely surround.
We should look at the world as a whole, and focus on the things that truly matter. Women are so much more than beauty, and a day celebrating women should reflect that. Consider these topics affecting women today:
Health. In parts of Africa, only half of pregnant women are given the needed childbirth care. The United Nations (UN) also says, “In developing regions, complications linked to pregnancy and childbirth, as well as sexually transmitted infections, particularly HIV, continue to take a heavy toll on the lives of adolescent girls and young women.” They go on to link this to the underdeveloped women’s rights in these countries. Girls aren’t receiving adequate sexual heath education, are marrying early, and have a lack of decision-making power in their relationships. These also lead to the threat of non-medically safe abortions.
Violence. The UN states that the most common form of violence toward women is that committed by an intimate partner. Even worse than that is the fact that less than forty percent of those women ever searched and/or received help for their conditions. And female genital mutilation (a harmful practice with no known benefits, also called female circumcision) affects more than 125 million females worldwide. While it is in decline, in countries like Egypt, there are prevalence rates of over eighty percent.
Poverty. Widows, lone mothers, and older women all have a much higher chance of poverty, even when compared to a male in an equivalent household. In almost half of developing countries, inheritance rights are in favor of men. Women also face unjust laws focusing on restricting female’s access to plots of land. And when married women do have the chance to make a livable income, ten percent are in charge of their share of the money, nor consulted on purchases.
Education. Out of the 58 million school-age children that aren’t enrolled, over half are girls. And when it comes to literacy, there are twice as many girls and women who are illiterate than men who are illiterate. Even in developed countries, women make up less than thirty percent of science, technology, engineering, and mathematicas (STEM) careers.
These are what we truly should be focusing on as feminists. While I’m all for smashing beauty standards, let’s remember there are much more pressing matters in the world that I haven’t even named here. This includes the fact that girls aren’t given hygiene products in poorer parts of the world, forcing them to miss a fourth of their education due to menestrual cycles. This includes the fact that the American president boasts about sexually assaulting women. This includes that, even in 2017, women are still payed less than men worldwide, for the exact same job. I’m not saying that we shouldn’t #bodypositivity every once in a while, but on a day celebrating women, let’s focus on what truly matters about women. And, last time I checked, beauty is subjective, and not a pressing matter.
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