Women's Day

There may not be much to be happy about, really. From Brazilian churches defending the "human right" of fetuses to kill or seriously harm a 9-year-old waif of a child, to an Eastern European head of state defending the killing of women for "honor", to Indian tradition-peddlers defending attacks on "loose" women like thrashed pub-goers and gangraped lovers, to Pakistani Taliban shutting down women's education, the situation looks pretty disheartening. Even where women have made strides in getting employment and supporting themselves, it leads them into the clutches of predators. And let's not even get started on what's happening in the Congo.

But for those who have been strong and/or lucky enough to go through life without getting totally screwed over by the traditionalist patriarchy, congratulations on making it this far, and best wishes for the future. That's not just for women, by the way, because this is a day for men too; any system of oppression is not just bad for the oppressed group, it also corrupts and damages the oppressor group. Not to mention that we men all have mothers, sisters, daughters, lovers and wives, after all. As long as feminism and masculism are seen as an us vs them thing, gender-identity extremism and reactionism will inevitably thrive in the collision zone. But when educated aware men join hands with educated aware women to ensure dignity and rights for each other, extremism will be tempered and reactionism will wither away.

So Happy Women's Day to all women AND men.