International Women’s Day. I’ve thought about this all day. I hate that we need a day to celebrate women. I hate that we have to claim accolades and chase recognition not because our achievements are insignificant but because we are women and, for some people, and in some environments, that means we are worth less than our male counterparts in innumerable ways. 
Think just about the physical space we take up. Think about the photoshopping of women to be physically smaller, slimmer or more sexualised, taking up less space in the World when men are augmented and added to and made bigger. To have more presence literally.
Recently I was in a meeting where myself and another similarly petite lady were in confrontation with a male ‘superior’. The chairs in his office for visitors are markedly lower than his. My colleague and I are markedly smaller anyway. Instinctively (and because I was wearing jeans which permitted it) I drew my ankles onto the wide seat. I then allowed my knees to spread to their full extent clasping the soles of my feet together. I made a large diamond shape with my legs. Unwittingly I made myself substantially bigger, wider and adopted a typically male spread of my legs.  My colleague observed this and noted the subsequent withdrawal of the man in question and the retreat of his argument. How much space we are allowed to inhabit matters. It matters a whole lot. Look at how legs are arranged on trains and buses. Whose legs are crossed and held together and whose are spread widely. Notice a gender split anyone?
Think then about the obesity issue and whilst it is far from being a female issue, it is often women who struggle significantly with their weight following childbirth and breastfeeding. It is women who routinely (but not exclusively) undergo huge body changes and trauma. The whole ‘snapping back’ idea where the excess skin and tissue following childbirth is meant to just vanish in a click of the finger. Why? A breastfeeding mum needs her little fat pads to sustain her baby. ‘Closer’ or ‘Heat’ or whichever nonsense celebrity magazine can wait – surely?
In a related point, breasts are for fun and not for feeding? If you encounter anyone with this opinion, feel free to bin them!
What about all the memes about the male gaze. Real men like curves etc? Why are women defined by what men like? Most men I know like women of all shapes and sizes but then, perhaps I have the good sense to have liberated and forward thinking friends.
I haven’t got the time to do justice to the sexualisation of images. People (and I include men in this) are NEVER objects. They are never commodities. They should never need to reveal their flesh, be stripped of their clothes or pose provocatively to sell anything. I often hear arguments that include the fact that some women ‘want’ to be portrayed in this way. If the structures did not exist where sexual objectification was a norm – no one would be likely to think to offer themselves in this way. The structure exists and people inhabit it to make money. Before you say it is harmless, another whiny feminist rant, consider the increase of acid attacks upon women who refuse advances or marriage offers from men. This is on the increase and linked to the idea that women are objects of consumption as insidious Western marketing pervades new cultures. Read more on these horrific outcomes here.
None of this is the fault of ‘men’ it’s a patriarchial societal and male dominated media issue mostly and both men and women have to take responsibility for calling out these issues where they can.
