Tsunami, 36. We Are Ourselves.

Today is Women's Day. 

Throughout the ages, this patriarchal society we live in, in the West, has attempted to belittle women as the second sex, the inferior sex, the weaker sex. Wherever did they get that idea?

Women have given birth, cared for children, cared for homes, cared for the elderly, gotten meals on the table with what they had, taught children, helped their menfolk, yet they were called the inferior sex.

Women have worked in forestry, felling and planting trees, worked in sawmills, worked raking up shellfish, worked as stevedores, worked hoeing, planting, and harvesting field after field, they've gone on fishing boats, worked in factories for twelve or fourteen hour days, yet they were called the weaker sex.

Women have been nurses, teachers, professors, doctors, engineers, helped men get to the moon and back, been judges and leaders of renown, yet they were called less intelligent than men.

Women have fought in wars and battles, and sacrificed their lives for their principles, and for the right of everyone, both man and woman, to live free from tyranny, yet they were called inferior. 

Women have been philosophers, poets, authors, musicians, painters, and sculpters, brought beauty and thought into the world, yet their ideas were called vapid. 

Women have always been spoken of in reference to their menfolk. Always, a woman was the mother of, the wife of, the sister of, the daughter of. Never was she simply Maria, Andrea, Ilsa, Rosa, Ayesha, Tanya, Alejandra, Lisa, Jennifer, Salma, Zahara, Cara, Fahara, Arya, Kamala, or Raisa. But men are never spoken of in reference to their womenfolk.

Women are not more than men, they are equal to men. They are not less than men, they are equal to men. We are our own persons, with as much to offer the world as the men around us. Do not belittle us, do not patronize us. We do not want your charity, we want your acknowledgement of our persons just as we are.

Life continues.