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I read that there are plans for a women's strike on March 8, and how could I do otherwise than to find that good? But much more interesting would be a women's strike over Christmas. Not in the sense of resigning from paid work, but as a refusal of family, relationship and emotional work, which in the end leads to the gifts lying under the tree, the food is on the table and the parents-in-law are called. See this Apocalypse once!
Women are still the steel bearers and frosting of this society. This is the worst thing about Christmas, when they keep for weeks that this concentrate of bourgeois notions of family and harmony turns out to be reasonably handsome, and then tells the children that some droll fantasy figures got the presents. Specifically: a child or an old man, but never a woman.
At the same time, operators of women's shelters or helpers regularly report that so-called domestic violence against women is on the increase around Christmas, which is no wonder at a festival that is mainly about enduring drunk relatives.
Eve, intrigue, total crash
The best chances of getting attention are still with women when they refuse to play the role of the Harmony Verifier among human beings. The whole Christian tradition is based on the story of a woman who allegedly missed it. Eva, the first naughty woman.
And then you go to any kiosk in 2018 and still find magazines whose complete business model is to document the alleged misdemeanors (eat, drink, decide for yourself) of women: "Jennifer Aniston: her embarrassing separation lie!", " Katie Holms: Total Crash Dramatic Shock Photos Now Katie Threatens Psychiatric Clinic "(" InTouch ").
The "In" tells about the "war" of the celebrity mothers, the "Bunte" lets Boris Becker talk about his reasons for separation ("She had the wrong friends, she had problems with my big kids ...") and the "Gala" is doing research in England the "intrigue at the court", because it can not be impossible that Kate and Meghan have everything under control. And they are all willing to hallucinate pondering about inner states for as long as they catch a prominent woman by not smiling, the violation of the first female civic duty.
"Just smile"
I would like to argue that it is exaggerated to say that women are still responsible for decorating the world with love, but women are still far too seldom in the most unlikely situations to "smile" or "why so seriously ? " reinpenetriert, if they are just waiting for the bus or buy a brown bread. If men were to hear the same comments many times, there would probably be three times as many killing sprees, just a small optimistic estimate.
"The only reason why the world is not yet on fire is the ability of women to keep their emotions under control," Alena Schröder recently wrote in "SZ Magazin". "Women have internalized the importance of public perception in kindly conveying their legitimate concerns." But not only for the public. At least, I also know little from private life stories about men who endure conflicts with the family as smiling as possible, then locked up in the toilet and cry with rage.
Now one could say that women should not play all this, and of course there are women who have long since refused to delude themselves. That's fine, but not the only solution, because the feminist solution to problems of inequality can never be to simply recommend women a tad more struggle.
There is an art project by Tatyana Fazlalizadeh called "stopping telling women to smile". The addressee: a world that believes that women are there to make life more beautiful for others. A world where women give and men take. A world that deserves to be lit. Merry Christmas!