Ah! International Woman’s Day! Painting the town purple or with varying shades and hues of the same, as we honour and pay respect to women everywhere, the contributions they’ve made, as well as the strides that have emerged to allow women to be offered some dignity.
This year the main thrust or theme is #choosetochallenge and rightly so. It brings to the fore, the need to re-evaluate those numerous stereotypical norms, beliefs and attitudes accrued to women overtime that really do warrant more than just a cursory glance. The multiplicity of those negatives have placed women in very tightly wound knotted balls of limitation, exposure to diabolical plots, disenfranchisements, indeed the loss or minimisation of common human dignity.
For one, the notion that certain careers are not suited for women has been used against them . And even in some instances where women would have cracked that glass ceiling, their efficacy and efficiency has been loudly and under-handedly challenged. in those instances, the tightly knotted ball had become the rule of thumb to determine their ability. Additionally, women have been used as economic bait, as a means to an end for money-grabbing fiends. So they find themselves being paraded as Drug Mules, kidnapped /taken as goods in Human-trafficking rings, extoling the diabolic nature of other humans. Moreso, many women are casually or calculatedly utilised as Sex-Objects, deliberately overlooked for jobs that they are capable of performing, shut down when they air opinions and continually abused in various forms at the hands of their partners, and spouses.
It is with these in mind that the call is echoed. It is a Woman’s Right to Choose to Challenge. We are allowed, obligated, indeed, designated even, to challenge an act that seeks to keep a woman in a backward, subservient, hidden position dictated to her by another human who hold arrogant views about what she is entitled to. In that vein a woman can challenge the view that her method of leadership is too emotional if she might have been bypassed for promotion. She can also challenge archaic laws that do not do enough to protect women from sexual and physical abuse or the slow grinding bureaucratic wheels that are barely activated when a matter is urgent. Indeed a woman can challenge her own long-standing view of what she ought and ought not to tolerate and accept as acceptable for her. She can challenge her own perspectives that were imposed on woman-folk for hundreds of years.
A woman must become in tune with and discerning of ideas, attitudes, behaviours floating around, loosely attached and systematically entrenched in order to make that choice of challenge for her own good, upward ,mobility and positive development. It is her Right! There are no two ways about it. As we don our pastel, lilac, mauve, pink, blush and purple garb today in recognition of International Women’s Day let us #choosetochallenge. This is the vibes from the Garden Today!
Garden Conversations with Roze 