Today is International Womens' Day

No I did not forget. Yes I realize that it's 10 minutes before midnight. I've been trying to formulate the words for what to say about this subject, and truthfully I've been having a difficult time with it, which is unusual for me. I've done 5000+ words in the past two days on the Charter of Rights and the notwithstanding clause, you'd think I'd have something in there to recognize and demonstrate my affirmation of the notion that women deserve equality with men, and that they should be accorded a far greater measure of respect and dignity than they presently receive from society.
That means educating people about subjects which degrade, humiliate, and oppress women.
That means overcoming our socialized perceptions about pornography, sexuality, and other inappropriately-framed debates that nominally "empower" women but in actuality maintain the status quo.
That means listening, talking, and discussing amongst our respective genders and across that border to gain a fuller understanding of what women truly want.
That means many things that I don't even understand. I humbly accept that I do not have a full appreciation for what women endure on a daily basis, the discomfort that they feel whenever a man gives them a cursory body-scan to determine their attractiveness, the internal confidence questions that arise whenever they see their boyfriends glancing, subtly or brazenly, at some dolled-up/airbrushed/artificially-enhanced woman, or the plethora of other things, large and small, that men don't even consider.
A North American woman has to live in a world in which virtually every aspect of consumerism is targeted towards pleasing a man, whether it's the endless parade of weight-loss commercials, magazines highlighting how much more "attractive" celebrities et al. are than the average woman, pornography, and on and on. As bad as it can be here, women in other parts of the world have it far, far worse. In many places in the Middle East, a woman doesn't have the right to an education, to even make the choice of buying the latest "hot" fashion from The Gap, or to leave the house without a male companion. In parts of Africa, women are subjected to forced genital mutilation. They also have something in common with women in the Far East, many of whom are not even teenagers, who are sold into sex slavery and forced prostitution before they are the equivalent of being in the fifth grade.
Some very educated and intelligent women believe that it is impossible for a man to be a feminist. Because men aren't women, they can't legitimately lay claim to being in support of the principles of feminism. I disagree with that concept, and I know that I am not the only one. There is an excellent series of essays and speeches at the one angry girl website that are written by men, who make a passionate invocation for the rights of women and for recognition of them as true equals. We are different, there is no doubt about that. But we are all people, and it is our shared humanity that makes the cause of equality one that deserves affirmation. We can end sexism, but it can only be done together.