Today is International Women's Day, and this site is encouraging others to make it an official Blog Against Sexism Day. Honestly, as a man it can sometimes be easy to overlook sexism against women, or to imagine that it's not really a big deal. But that, I think, is only because we don't know what it's like to be on the receiving end of it. (We often see the same problem among whites who don't think that racism is still a problem, because they've never had to actually experience it first hand.) That's why I think it is so important that we listen to the stories of real women. Hear from them what it is like to be devalued for your gender, to be excluded and restricted, to have your self-identity limited and defined for you by others. Hear their struggle, their anger, their dreams - and not diminish their experience by trying to tell them that their feelings aren't valid. Just listen, don't debate. Just value the story and value the person behind it - not just as a woman, but as a fellow human being sharing her pain.

That, I think, is what this Blog Day is all about.

Labels: sexism, social justice