On Friday night I went to go and meet a friend for a quiet
drink. We’d agreed to meet in Pigalle which is around a 15 minute walk from my
flat so I decided because the weather has been truly glorious in Paris recently
that I would like to have a leisurely stroll down the boulevard. Now since
moving to Paris I have become very used to comments in the street from men
trying to get my attention. It hasn’t happened to me for a few months so I was
slightly taken aback when two boys of a similar age to myself tried to get my
attention by shouting things at me. In the wake of hundreds of demonstrations
on Sunday for International Women’s Day I pondered about this kind of scenario
which is so prevalent in some many major cities not just Paris. It truly seems
shocking to me that I can’t walk to meet a friend without some kind of
salacious remark being thrown at me.
I have grown up thinking that a woman can do anything she
wants because I have never been told the opposite. Strong female role models in
my life have proved to me that you can be successful in what you do as well as
a wife or a mother. Or you can choose to be any of them. A common misconception
of feminism is that it hates housewives, but this is contradictory to the concept
of equality that is a core principal of women’s rights. To quote Beyonce “Feminist: a person who believes in the
social, political and economic equality of the sexes.” In my brief time on
this planet I have encountered many people, incidentally including women, who
have no idea that this is the fundamental idea behind feminism.
As someone who is deeply excited by politics I find it
apocryphal that more women don’t exercise their right to vote. The women who
fought and died for our rights deserve us to exercise those rights and to
strive for a better world where I don’t get catcalled for walking down the
street or where we still have to have a day dedicated to women’s rights. Evoking
the French libertarian symbol of Marianne I urge everyone, not just fellow
females, to make every effort to improve life for women not just in our own
countries and societies but those across the world.
*jumps off her high
horse*
No comments:
Post a Comment