Weekly Lists #26: International Women’s Day

So yesterday was International Women’s Day, and of course – you know, being a woman and everything – I couldn’t just let that pass by.
International Women’s Day is about many things, but the one I’m going with here, is the celebrating of women – cuz we’re awesome, duh.

So in good, Weekly List-fashion: here’s a list of 5 women I truly admire – that have shown the world it’s awesome to be just you, woman and all!

1. Jennifer Lawrence

So, yes, there’s this gif – and I so, completely understand this feeling.
What’s more, Jennifer Lawrence is talented, gorgeous, not afraid to remain herself, even in a world as focused on appearance as Hollywood, and, of course, she’s too relatable!

2. Jane Austen

So I already told you guys all about how she’s basically one of my favourite all-time writers, but what’s more: she was a woman writing in a time when that wasn’t at all as self-evident as it today, and she was successful, even in her time!

3. Audrey Hepburn

So here’s a thing some of you may not yet have know about me: I love oldschool movies – and I love a lot of the actors that made the original Hollywood to what it became. Why, then, did I choose Audrey Hepburn? Because she’s an amazing women, who chose her family over her career (as was her right!) and then went on to become even more (or just remain, if you so choose) amazing by getting invested in a lot of charity and just generally was one of the best examples of women‘s right to choose and remained (and looked) absolutely fabulous while doing so!

4. J.K. Rowling

Yes, another author – but, again: one of my favourite all time authors! And, also again, someone who managed to make a great career for herself in spite of conditions that were far from ideal.
That she’s available to her fans, continues to create more and more details for the Harry Potter-verse ànd involved in charity, just makes me love her more!

5. My surroundings

Here’s the thing about International Women’s Day: it celebrates all women. And that means it doesn’t stop at just women who have done extraordinary things. It means giving kuddo’s to the women in your family, who have raised you to the person you now are. To the women who managed to, or tried so hard to, balance a career and a family – or made the personal choice to try and focus on just one of them. To your friends who are (in my case) just now making choices as to what their career will be, and what they want out of life next to, or even apart from that. To the girls in primary school who are choosing languages, or sciences, or both, as their favourite, and who will, or will not choose to go on with that. To the stay-at-home-mom that was one of my grandma’s, and the working-as-soon-as-she-could-mom that was the other.

Because here’s the thing about International Women’s Day: it celebrates all women. And that doesn’t limit itself to those who have chosen to focus on work, on family, on travelling, on getting better, or whatever “feminism” tells you women should do. That doesn’t limit itself to “let’s just patch up those women who are suffering due to their womanhood in any way possible.” That doesn’t limit itself to “feminism”.

Because “feminism” isn’t the same as feminism. “Feminism” tells you all women have to work, because now they can. “Feminism” tells you all women have to be able to combine work and family, even though society is still making it notoriously difficult to actually do so without feeling like you’re not doing a good enough job on both of them. “Feminism” tells us women have the right to everything men have, and more, but too often forgets about the effect on men of today’s prejudices and set ideas concerning all that is “woman” and “feminine”.
(Yes, I went there)

International Women’s Day celebrates all women. It celebrates our right to make our own choices, and our right to fight for that right, even when some may tell us we already have it. It is linked, but not limited to, feminism, and as such even to men.

Today (or, well, yesterday, I guess, if you want to be all technical about it), though, let’s focus on celebrating, and close this off with: Happy International Women’s Day!

-Saar