Monday, March 7, 2011

International Women's Day

Tomorrow is International Women's Day...I can't believe I almost forgot! Especially seeing that this is the Centenary (that means the first time it was honored was way back in 1911). And even back then over one million men and women attended the rallies campaigning for women's rights. So yeah, it's kind of a big deal.


This year the film star Daniel Craig (helped by his 007 co-star Dame Judy Dench) did a promotional spot for the event that I think you should all take a look at. It's really informative and makes me love those two actors even more:


As part of International Women's Day there is a Global IWD Arts Initiative. Since it's the Centenary the goal is to collect '100 Women, 100 Artworks' and '100 Women, 100 Stories.' Such a beautiful idea I thought. And since this is a literary blog I thought I'd point you in the direction to go check out some of the works compiled thus far: here are the different stories you can read. As you can see there is still a long way to go but their website has ways of promoting the project and contacting them and whatnot, if this is something you're interested in.

I also wanted to point everyone's attention to an article that was recently in the New York Times op-ed section. Books, Personally pointed it out to me and I thought I needed to pass it along to you all (at least I'm pretty sure this is the article she was talking about, if not let me know Books! but this is the one I found that caught my attention anyway). It's about the part of this whole Charlie Sheen saga that hasn't been talked about. Yes yes, he's gone off his rocker. Yes, he needs to go to rehab. Yes, he's very quotable right now. But no one is discussing his violence towards women Or if they are, they turn it into a humorous joke. Hahaha, he tried to kill his ex-wife. BUT she's kind of a whore so, who cares right? WRONG. So please, read this enlightening article by Anna Holmes (she writes for the feminist website Jezebel) called The Disposable Woman.

And enjoy International Women's Day!

10 comments:

Kath said...

Brilliant video. I've swiped that and put it on my Facebook page, thank you. It says everything I want to say and do say on a regular basis to many men who wonder what on earth I'm banging on about. Its quite right - we need to keep on asking until the answer is yes. It's not enough to be doing 'better' when there is still such an epic gender division. The struggle is not yet over.

anarmchairbythesea said...

That video was awesome. People are always telling me that 'feminism is dead', and that we're all equal and I should give up my ranting about inequality. I will be using this next time anyone says anything like that to me!

Deborah Lawrenson said...

Good call, llevinso.

Red said...

Love the video!

Dawn said...

Love the video! I also borrowed it and posted it to my FB. Thanks for the links to the 100 arts/stories... I will be busy today! =)

You know... I fall into the female population who is ignorant of female issues and doesn't want to be labeled a "man-hater," a common misconception of the feminism movement. But I think it's time for me to be labeled because women rights aren't equal in so many aspects of living. I always find it astonishing that women in the U.S. have only been allowed to vote since 1920? (I hope that date is right!) That's not even a 100 years! Thank you Ilevinso for enlightening me.

llevinso said...

I'm so glad people like the video! And FB, great idea. That will help circulate it even more.

@Bex, I know what you mean about people saying feminism is dead. I get that a lot.

@Dawn, unfortunately the "man-hater" stereotype is still alive and well, but I've always seen feminism as simply the idea that all humans were created equal and we are simply wanting to make that into an actual reality.

Also everyone (since I still have the New Orleans spirit in me), Happy Mardi Gras!

Karen Wojcik Berner said...

Excellent post, especially the video. I am going to post it on my FB page as well.

Thanks.

bookspersonally said...

Great post today, just shared it on twitter. <3 Daniel and Judy.

Wall-to-wall books said...

Yes, that was a very good video! I almost didn't take the time to watch it, glad I did.

Desire' said...

Loved this post!! Thanks for the video...i'm borrowing it as well! Happy Mardi Gras and Girl Power :)