Some PROactive ideas for International Women’s Day

It is International Women’s Day and I’m cruising Facebook watching the Inner Patriarchs of so many women, so many women, say what amounts to, “Shut up and go make me a sandwich!” There’s so much dogwhistling going on that there are no dogs left.

It is a rude call to awareness to see intelligent, awakening women judging, insulting and insinuating that women who protest are women who do not work, are women whose value is less than those women who just shut it and went to work today.

My Inner Matriarch is on the prowl and be warned, she is fierce and gives very few fucks about who she activates, angers or enrages. She will question your motives, call out your projections, point out that your logic is deeply flawed and, possibly, that you are very strongly identified with something that does not serve you or your sex. Something so insidious within your psyche that you have not yet been able to identify it as ‘other’.

Today, rather than stalking female protesters, why not make a loan on Kiva? Donate to Tree Sisters or the Women of Standing Rock at End of the Line, if Kiva doesn’t appeal to your or if you want to keep your money in the USA.

You might even want to bring things in closer to home, in which case you could put together care packages for local homeless women. Grab a gallon sized, ziplock baggie and put travel sized soap, shampoo, toothbrush, toothpaste, a small box of tampons or sanitary napkins, a deodorant and wash cloth into it and take it to your local NEST program or Food Bank. (If you live in or near Norfolk, Virginia, here’s a link to our local NEST program and another to the Food Bank of South Hampton Roads.)

My basic message here is that you be PROactive rather than REactive, and believe me when I tell you that I am struggling with that myself. When I see women making negative comments about and posting nasty statuses based on assumptions and coming from a place of judgment, I go there, into reaction and judgment and sometimes holding my tongue (or fingers!) requires more self-control than I am able to muster.

Today is a choice-point, a day when women can make a decision to fully support other women in the US and all across the world in any way we choose and are able, or to to lean into the Patriarchy and yell ‘get a job,’ to women who very likely already have jobs and, possibly, employers who support equality and empowerment for all women, even those who have never made anyone a sandwich.