Celebrate the women in your life!
Women’s day is not confined to March 8.
International Women’s Day is a celebration of women. It is a day when we acknowledge the achievements of women, look towards the future, and bombard everyone with statistics on how things can go differently. Honestly, it’s a bit like being appraised at work.
I, however, am of the opinion that women’s day is every day. Each day, women are doing big things and we shouldn’t wait until March 8 to recognise this. That being said, there are still little things that cause me big grief — I call them little big things.
The first of which is gendered toys. I walked into the costume section of a well known toy store recently, and this is what I found: the girl’s section had princesses, ballerinas, and kitchen aprons, while the boy’s section had lab coats with stethoscopes, police uniforms and astronauts costumes. Clearly, there are some issues with their gender biased costume marketing.
While I am incredibly conscious about gendered toys, I think that children should pick for themselves and should not have our gender stereotypes imposed on them.
Another little big thing that infuriates me is the “women’s interest” magazine section in various bookstores. These are usually made up of assorted magazines about marriage, home economics, pregnancy and beauty. Now, I think these are important things to read about, but do they have to be the only options available? I am an Emirati spoken word poet, I read Said and Derrida, I play Mario Kart and above all, I am a woman. I would like to have more varied options in that section. On March 8, I will not lay out an elaborate plan on how we can change the world — instead I will talk about what I know. I know women and the fact that every day women are exposed to the idea of an unattainable standard of beauty and an unachievable level of perfection. There is pressure to be the best and to outdo everyone else. It is both frustrating and overwhelming. It is like being forced to run on a treadmill set at the highest possible speed without rest. Take a moment every day to celebrate the women in your life. Celebrate your mother, grandmother, wives, sisters and friends!
— The reader is an Emirati event coordinator based in Dubai.
