Icon: enlarge
Poster at a demonstration for International Women's Day
Photo: Dwi Anoraganingrum / Future Image / imago images
In the past, when there were still events, there was sometimes this kind of event where you knew beforehand: It won't be so good again.
And then it happened exactly like that and the day after you thought: Well you pigs, that's it now, or what?
So it is with Women's Day for many feminists.
But ... what do you expect from Women's Day in capitalism?
And wait, well, in patriarchy.
Not only does it bother me how women’s day is mostly celebrated, but also most of the criticism of it.
The criticism usually goes like this: There are again hypocritical speeches by politicians who do nothing for women for the rest of the year, maybe they also distribute cheap roses in the pedestrian zone, if there are still pedestrian zones.
Terrible, of course.
But what else?
Is anyone expecting the upheaval on Women's Day?
Those who do not plan the overthrow should not cry when it fails.
Margarete Stokowski, arrow to the right
Photo:
Rosanna Graf
Born in 1986, was born in Poland and grew up in Berlin.
She studied philosophy and social sciences and has been working as a freelance writer since 2009.
Her feminist bestseller "Bottom Rum Free" appeared in 2016 by Rowohlt Verlag.
This was followed in 2018 by »The Last Days of Patriarchy«, a collection of columns from SPIEGEL and »taz«.
Of course, Women's Day is almost everywhere an embarrassing parade of misery, with its "Is there still sexism?" Discussions and social media slogans from parties and companies.
And then in some shops discounts on make-up and vacuum cleaners.
And someone always comments: I don't want make-up, I want equality!
Yes, nice try, it won't come from the mail order business.
Of course, online shops do discount campaigns with codes like »GIRLPOWER_2021«.
What else should shops do?
Reduce the salary of all employed men by a fifth for the day or add a fifth to the women?
Shops do what shops always do: sell.
Maybe raffle something.
Maybe donate something.
Nothing more will happen.
Discounts on Women's Day
I grant everyone who buys something at a discount on Women's Day the joy of shopping.
There don't have to be discounts on make-up, it also depends on which shop it is.
What is wrong with a cosmetics shop that gives a percentage on creams on Women's Day?
Nothing.
The hardware store is doing something wrong that doesn't give women a percentage on bolt cutters and sledgehammers that day.
Why not, good tools are expensive and have to be a little fun.
On a day when everything is mostly symbolic anyway, it is absurd to expect anything from those who support the system.
What you can expect are radical actions from activists, intelligent statements from experts, a few facts in the media, a good demo, but that's where it ends.
It's not that I want to sound particularly clear, I just wish us all better discussions and more visible progress.
Not out of bitterness, but because it is ridiculous and sad to have to take stock of March 8th every year that basically most things are like the year before: how much violence women are exposed to, how much women still earn less, how a lot of caring work they do.
Personally, I found it relaxing and relieving to admit to myself that, since I've been a feminist author, that is for a little over ten years, I've mostly found Women's Day disappointing, not to say: grotesque.
It is a day when you experience the focused version of what is constantly going wrong.
Just superficial feminism
For a while now there has been a demand to rename March 8th from “Women's Day” or “Women's Fighting Day” to “Feminist Fighting Day”, which is a sensible concern because it shows that it is also about queer struggles, about non-binary people , to people who are trans, to all feminist goals, or shall we say: to all left-wing feminist goals.
But it brings very little - not nothing, but very little - if, for society as a whole, it is only about a single day on which a bit of superficial feminism is performed.
"Is there still discrimination at work?", "More women in management positions!" My ears bleed.
And then some men tweet quotes from Simone de Beauvoir about men without naming Beauvoir as if they were their own.
Happy Women's Day!
What is wrong with a cosmetics shop that gives a percentage on creams on Women's Day?
Nothing.
The hardware store is doing something wrong that doesn't give women a percentage on bolt cutters and sledgehammers that day.
Alice Schwarzer once called for women's day to be abolished simply because March 8, as a “socialist invention”, was “for feminists, to say the least, a mockery” and was not celebrated in the FRG in the 1970s .
Abolish Women's Day, the last thing that happened in Germany in 1933, anti-fascists committed it anyway.
It is true that women's day was introduced by socialists, but of course that is a pro-argument for keeping it.
I would rather extend it to every 8th of the month and declare it a public holiday worldwide, then it would also attract more attention if politicians, the media and companies always do the same thing on that day.
March 8th is similar to November 25th, the international day against violence against women, on which you can read every year how “stunned” and “shocked” everyone is by the information that in Germany on average more than every second day a man tries to kill his partner or ex-partner, around every third day the woman actually dies.
However, the numbers for the past year were almost the same as the year before.
And in the one before.
A nationwide horror once a year when the new statistics are presented by the BKA doesn't help much.
Of course, feminist issues are discussed throughout the year.
At the moment, this is again increasingly the question of gender-equitable language.
Not an unimportant topic, of course.
But in relation to questions of physical violence and exploited labor it is only moderately relevant - and perhaps that is why it is so present: It is so much easier to discuss gender asterisks and changes in the dictionary than to get rid of violent or incompetent men, but at the same time people get that Feeling that »the gender issue« is omnipresent and that a lot is changing.
But it is not true if every day is not a feminist day of struggle.
Icon: The mirror