March 8th had the women of Twitter (and the
world, probably) united – to celebrate their own international day.
International Women’s Day had women all over the globe praising other women,
whether it be women like the Suffragettes or their mothers and sisters, and it
was glorious. The only downside to it all? The few men and white women saying “but
when’s international men’s day?” and “Isn’t it sexist to have an international
women’s day?” and “why do we need an international women’s day?” Maybe Lily Allen’s interview where she disses feminism (a couple of months after she released a song very much pro feminism) was a downside too.
But we won’t focus on the negativity; instead we’ll focus on women. Brilliant,
intelligent women who are always overshadowed by men in the same profession.
We’ll start with the obvious; Florence Nightingale. Nightingale
was an English nurse in the Victorian era. Unlike other women, she didn’t plan
to sit at home and cook for her husband or clean the house or look after the
children – instead, she used her intellect and her passion to become more than
your average housewife. She wanted to work and that’s exactly what she did.
After Nightingale’s medical training, the Crimean war began and she gathered a
group of thirty eight nurses to clean up a disgustingly dirty military hospital,
and they then treated the soldiers. The death rate fell by two thirds. After Nightingale’s
mother’s death, Florence Nightingale focussed on her work more intensely, and
therefore managed to reform hospitals and even open a school for training
nurses.
Florence Nightingale is one inspiring woman; three more are
Caitlin Moran, Virginia Woolf and Sylvia Plath. Woolf and Plath being classic
novelists, and Moran being a nineties music fan and outspoken feminist
journalist. Plath isn’t really
remembered for her feminist views exactly; unfortunately people focus more on
her gruesome death, but Plath preached in her semi-autobiography The Bell Jar
how she believed women and men deserve the same opportunities and are obviously
equal. Woolf was similar; in her famous
essay A Room Of One’s Own she describes the difficulties women faced and
continue to face in a world that is ran by men. Virginia Woolf is an incredible
feminist icon, because she was fearless with these essays.
Caitlin Moran is something different all together; she’s a modern author most
known for her novel How To Be a Woman. This is one of my favourite books, and she
tackles the problems of being fat, bras and liking boys who don’t like you.
Moran is my favourite feminist of the modern era, because she’s hilarious, she’s
smart and she doesn’t hate men. I think it’s important for women not to hate
men (apart from sexists. We can hate those). I recommend you all read How To Be
a Woman as it’s the book I turn to in a crisis and it’s really bloody funny.
Likewise you should all follow Caitlin on Twitter – she has interesting
opinions and, like I’ve already said, is really bloody funny.
And then that brings us to politics – Maggie Thatcher isn’t
who I’m going to be talking about though. My main interest when it comes to
females and politics is Pussy Riot –
they are the best thing to ever happen to women and I’m not even exaggerating. I
appreciate their existence so much. A Russian band consisting of about 11 women
in the age range of 20 – 35. They first danced their way into the media with
their controversial performance of “Punk
Prayer” back in 2012. The song is about
Vladimir Putin, and to be honest I can understand why he was offended. Pussy
Riot are the modern, musical equivalent to the brilliant Suffragettes. Similar to Emily Davison being trampled on by
a horse, Pussy Riot were famously beaten outside the Winter Olympics – only for
protesting. Eventually, of course, the
Suffragettes managed to get women’s votes here in the UK. We can only hope
Pussy Riot will gain what they want for the women of Russia.
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