On International Women's Day last year I listed some of the reasons I'm a feminist.
This post went on to become one of my most popular to date. But sadly within this past year more shitty sexists things have happened (or things I forgot to mention last year) and I'm back with yet more fucking personal anecdotes as to why feminism is still required.
And I'm only touching on stuff that has personally affected me, I'm not even touching upon the bullshit that goes on around the world.
Recruiters still consider a female's motherhood status
This isn't based on a gut feeling or something I read online. I know this is still an issue because a recruitment consultant I have known (in the past, thankfully) admitted to my (female) face that he would still consider a candidates family background, and yes a man has a bigger chance because 'statistically' it means he's less likely to job hop but a mother is more likely to have days off because wee Charlie came down with a cold.
This punches me somewhere where it hurts because my dad took early retirement for health reasons whilst I was young and my mum's salary became the only salary. Thankfully my mum works in a female dominated field (nursing) so she was able to move through the ranks and earn a high enough salary for all three of us, but my life could have been very different if she was in a male dominated industry.
Girls who don't need to lose weight, thinking they do
The only guys I've ever known to go on a diet have been guys that were overweight and needed to shift weight for health reasons. But I have known perfectly healthy girls of average weight who have managed to get it into their heads that calorie counting is a fun past time.
Guys trying to undermine my personal contraceptive choices
If you were to split my past 'partners' down the middle one half wrapped up with no issue - didn't even need to remind them, had their own one to hand etc. The other half however gave me anecdotes of it not feeling as pleasurable or pointed to the pill packet on my bedside table. I'm well aware I take the pill but 1) I don't know where the fuck you've been and 2) I've always doubled up my contraception because it makes me feel safer and since I'm the half of this tango that would be left with the aftermath of the pill failing I have the right to demand you either wrap up or get out (and I have walked out before).
Because my natural body shape elicits pregnancy questions
I collect weight on my stomach - this is my body shape and always has been (even as a child). But society seems to think that any woman with weight around her stomach must be pregnant and not, you know, just because that's where she naturally collects weight.
I've put on weight this past year and it was only as I was beginning to accept my curvier figure that BOOM I got asked if I was pregnant.
I don't fancy 'real men'
To give you an idea of the kind of guys I've dated:
1. One of my ex boyfriends weighed less than me, and it wouldn't surprise me if the rest did too
2. The only serious celebrity crush I've had was on the guy who played Craig Dean in Hollyoaks (a character who went on to become gay)
3. When out with a guy I was dating I looked down and realised we were dressed the same from below the waist
4. Despite finishing puberty, most of them couldn't grow a beard if they tried
5. If I'm in their bathroom and discover a beauty cabinet that rivals my own I do a fist pump
I mock my own taste in boyish men a lot - but plenty of masculine men (including the few manly men I have dated) can't quite hack the fact that I'm allowed to find a 'pansy' (direct quote) more attractive than them.
Girls think that Noah (or whatever his name was) from The Notebook is the ideal man
Girls, if a guy threatens to fall off a Ferris wheel unless you agree to a date this shouldn't be seen as romantic but as a sign he belongs in a psychiatric ward. I've mentioned before that I've been on the receiving end of this down right creepy behaviour, and it's definitely not romantic when it's real life and it's you who's feeling threatened and claustrophobic. But as long as Hollywood portrays this as gush-worthy then these creepy fuckers will continue to exist.
Single equals consent
I went to The Cathouse on Valentine's Day and lost count of the amount of creepy guys I was ready to punch. Because if you go out on Valentine's Day with a female friend you're marking yourself out as single and with the knowledge there's no boyfriend about to punch their lights out the creeps come out in the droves.
I know females who will lie about being spoken for in these situations. I don't lie, which usually causes more problems, but I maintain that I shouldn't have to lie and that guys should just learn not to be creepy assholes.
A lot of my closest friends are men (and that's weird)
If you're a guy with opposite sex friends you're gay or a player. If you're a girl with opposite sex friends you're a slut, desperate for attention or so bitchy even other girls want nothing to do with you. Can we cut this sexist bullshit and accept that 1) not all men want to fuck every girl within the room and 2) women don't need male attention to feel good about themselves?
The reason for me counting some of the male species within my BFFs? It's just the way my life panned out.
Cheerleading is undermined as some fetish or some sexy past time for the male gaze
Thanks to American TV cheerleading is stereotyped as some sexy girls cheering on the sidelines whilst some macho men throw a ball about. What cheerleading is is a very physically demanding sport, has it's own championships and competitions (meaning it fits the definition of a sport), mixed-sex and doesn't encourage eating disorders (you try putting your body through this if you live off salads) or expect girls to look a certain way.
Women's sport as a whole
When Andy Murry won Wimbledon the world forgot that some British women hadn't done too shabby in it. Scotland's women football team have been doing better than their male counterparts for years and if England want to win a world cup they could redirect the funding and support from that damn football team (who, let's be honest, won't win the World Cup any time soon) towards one of their teams who are always so so so close to winning but never quite make it. But who cares about netball anyway?
Guys think sex is over when they've came
I'll come off the market when I find a guy who doesn't just roll over and go to sleep when he's done.
And as a final note on International Women's Day, and all other days dedicated to discriminated groups in society, if you want them to go away then be part of the fight for equality. I don't want International Women's Day to exist just as much of some misogynist don't want it to (though for different reasons). As long as the things listed above remain a problem with my life, and society as a whole, I'll continue to post something like this every year.
Morag x