Thread by @MFWitches

A. Thread. Every year at MFW we’re more filled with dread as #IWD rolls around.

Not because we oppose a day meant to be about raising awareness of justice & equity for women, but because every year it’s more and more performative bullshit which sends women’s rights backwards.

B. Yes, we know there are some events which benefit women for #IWD. This thread isn’t about those events and women: good on ‘em.

But as our Twitter poll last week showed, the vast majority of events and actions are performative, infantilising, virtue-signalling bullshit.

C. People need to understand these offensive pink-cupcake breakfasts are almost always for wealthy, white corporates to allow them to feel they’ve achieved something for women.

This actually PREVENTS those people from caring about taking action which might actually help women.

D. Why should they care about understanding issues and doing something constructive when they get to listen to the same corporate-friendly speakers say the same soothing words to the same well-dressed, clueless audiences year after year and none of it touches or affects them?

E. At the same time they’re sitting in plush rooms in high-rise city offices being waited on hand and foot by (mostly women) cooks, cleaners, secretaries and event organisers for #IWD, most women are frantically getting kids to over-priced, woefully scarce childcare; battling …

F. … traffic in cars they can’t afford to upgrade on inadequate roads to drop other kids to under-resourced public schools; enduring intense sexism and harassment at jobs they can’t afford to lose so they suck up the hate; rushing home to cook, clean, wash and prepare for …

G. … another gruelling day without support from government or other agencies if and when they can’t hold it together; STILL failing to get adequate help from male partners despite both holding down full-time jobs; and fighting bureaucracy and roadblocks at every …

H. … turn as they try desperately to get themselves and their kids to a better, fairer life.

Most of these women have NFI it’s even #IWD tomorrow, let alone get invited to a plush event or have the time, energy or resources to go to one even if they knew about it.

I. And every fucking year, the chasm between the haves and the have-nots grows wider and the very inequities #IWD is meant to be all about solving get bigger, more disgusting and more shameful.

Those who organise and participate in the shiny white-bread corporate events …

J. … should be fucking ashamed of themselves.

This year, the only thing MFW want for #IWD is a better world for ALL women, not just the privileged, mostly-white and mostly-powerful ones who dominate the media and the events.

Until we can get better governments and media …

K. … which might finally usher in a far, far better world for greater numbers of women via REAL HELP AND ACTION instead of performative shit by people listening to a speech while thinking about their next fucking tax break or corporate rort, it’s all a crock of shit.

L. Cancel #IWD unless you can do it right.

Find a woman you can cook or clean for for the day instead. Get her car fixed; wash her windows; read her kids a story so she can have a bath; pay her HECS debt so she can work towards a better life; sit on hold to Centrelink for 90 …

M. … fucking minutes for her so she can do something else while trying to sort out some onerous requirement or #robodebt snafu they’ve thrown her into. Volunteer at a women’s shelter or aged “care” home to make the lives of women a little better in small practical ways.

N. Of course, none of Australia’s so-called blue-bloods will do any of that. How can you eat pink cupcakes if your hands are dirty from washing a woman’s floors or sorting her washing? How can you hob-nob with your similarly lazy colleagues if your suit is crumpled?

O. All of this disgusts us more every year. It also makes us weep for a country which is going BACKWARDS on most indicators of women’s well-being yet continues to pat itself on the back on #IWD just for giving up an hour or two each year to pretend to care.

Ends.

PS: As we said, we do know there are some excellent #IWD events and actions and that some people are aware of how much IWD has been corporatised and ruined and are trying to fight back against it.

If you know of such events and people, please highlight them on this thread.