Thursday, March 08, 2007

International Women's Day - 8 March

THE INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY COLOURS


Purple, green and white are the official international women's colours. The colours originated from the Women's Social and Political Union (WSPU), in the UK in 1908. The colours were said to represent:

- white for purity in public as well as private life
- purple for justice, dignity, self-reverence and self-respect (and representing the women's vote)
- green for hope and new life.


The colours unified the women's movement and emphasised the femininity of the suffragettes. The tricolour of the WSPU soon became a visual cue for the women's movement in other countries. Purple, green and white were worn on International Women's Day and were used for other women's movement banners and posters.

More recently, two changes have occured:
- the use of the colour white has more recently been rejected as 'purity' is a controversial issue and attitudes towards the role of 'purity' from women differ greatly
- the introduction of the colour gold representing 'a new dawn' has been commonly used to represent the second wave of feminism.

Check out www.internationalwomensday.com for more information on why feminism is not dead, it is merely taking a breath....


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There is still work to be done:

- whenever Britney shaves her head and enters rehab
- whenever Amy Winehouse thinks it's OK to exit a toilet with coke on her nose
- whenever excuse of consent is used in rape cases
- whenever eductation is lacking for women
- whenever female babies are abandoned simply for their sex
- whenever only male witnesses are accepted in gang rape cases
- whenever women are paid less for doing the same job as a man
- whenever pop singers dress in sexually explicit outfits to titilate a male-dominated field
- whenever anyone who expresses an opinion differentiating them from a doormat is vilified
- whenever men think it's OK to grab or grope at strange women in bars
- whenever 'emotionalism' is used as an excuse to ignore a firebrand woman
- whenever opionions count you as someone to avoid
- whenever men don't accept that women are different, but equal....

....THAT'S when feminism counts.

Support International Women's Day for the sake of every woman who still hasn't found her voice....and for those who had the courage to use their voice to take us as far as we have gotten today.

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