COMING OUT OF THE CLOSET
So, I’ve been thinking about this quite a lot lately and in the grand scheme of things I wasn’t sure where I stood. I don’t struggle very often with my identity as a man and a human being but this has got me feeling some type of way. I like girls, my mom’s a girl, and my sisters are girls too. But as of late I’ve been feeling quite indifferent about the whole female-male gender situation. It’s quite a large conversation to have so imaginably I had hard time talking about it with my girlfriends and to the men in my life too.
After doing my research both inside my mind and heart and on google I came to the realization that I.AM… A FEMNIST!!!
I know, this may not be the news or declaration you had hoped or assumed you’d be hearing but get over it, life isn’t fair. Now we’ve seen all sides there are to this whole feminism thing. From anti-feminists who are female, to men (of all types) coming out as feminists and darn good/active ones at that. Akin to how we adapt to most trends, we here in Jamaica have yet to catch on to the fierce feminine campaign. Our females are still fairly ‘mum’ on the topic, most of whom leave the conversation open ended in the natural assumption that they are feminists as though it’s a thing we naturally are without effort or energy. Then most Jamaican men couldn’t care less, those who do and do it publicly are almost always driven to do so by professional and or civic agendas. Which leaves us with the most vocal among us on the topic of equal rights for women and all that jazz. This would perhaps be the same saving graces who advocate for general equal rights and not any specific group. The next best thing to female empowerment we see here (especially in capital city) are the ‘mommy and me’ groups - where quite frankly if you have not gone through the whole 7-9 month initiation a.ka. pregnancy then you’re just another single black female. (lol, not really, but you catch the gist) .
Today is International Women’s day and this is why I thought it was the perfect time for me to ‘come out the closet’, the very large and pink closet. I’m a little too tired of the blatant objectifying of our females and the disregard they are trained to treat their ‘situations’ with. I believe we have managed to take away the female fight before there was a war to begin with. Now that there is, we have no clue what to do or if we should or can do anything. Like most places in the world females still earn significantly less doing the same jobs as men, they are harassed and abused in the workplace and in public and let’s not get started on the strange bands place on girls from participating in certain activities.
Anyway, today is a day to celebrate our women so let’s leave me out of it for now. Today big up your heroine in any way you can, whether publicly or privately. Also stay tuned to the brand new Style for Change social campaign adapted from that of feminine care brand “Always”; #LikeAGirl “WoMANing up and doing it like a girl” launching soon.
