By: Dewi Raudlatul Jannah
International Women’s Day (IWD), which is commemorated annually on March 8, is a continuation of the women’s movement that began in March 1911.
The theme of IWD in 2024 is inspiring inclusion. Quoted from the IWD page, “When we inspire others to understand and appreciate women’s inclusion, we create a better world. And when women are inspired to be included, a sense of belonging, relevance, and empowerment emerges. Collectively, let’s create a more inclusive world for women.”
The commemoration of International Women’s Day (IWD) does not only belong to one particular country, group, or organization. This commemoration is a commitment to realizing gender equality. Opening opportunities for wider involvement of women by accepting diversity of skin color, age, faith and body shape is an effort to encourage equality in all fields.
Sexual violence against women still plagues women’s bodies in the modern scientific period, even on social media. The historian Maurice Daumas often reminds us that misogynist ideology is so strong because it has transformative power. The female body is constructed as a body that invites desires and fantasies, demands to be beautiful, attractive, shy, and various other bodily myths.
In digital developments, women are increasingly being sexualized in the world of capitalism. From skirt to bra, from head to toe. Feminist figure Cathrine De Medicis wears high heels so she can see her arriving guests. Capitalists actually design to beautify women’s bodies.
Italian model and actress Monica Bellucci had to have skin as firm as a twenty-year-old in order to get cast in the role at forty. And she became the oldest, prettiest, and sexiest Bond girl at the age of 51. How the capitalist system forms and perpetuates new stereotypes.
Ester Lianawati wrote about the trinity of roles of being a “virgin-mother-prostitute” in “Dari Rahim Ini Aku Bicara” (From This Womb I Talk), which was published in 2024. She states that women’s ownership of their bodies has been stolen. The trinity of roles causes women’s advancement and movement to be staggered and violent. The hope of getting the widest possible access to public spaces with security and freedom, living life without contradictory demands, being required to be a mother but demanded to have a body like a girl. Required to marry and become a wife but must play the role of a prostitute who is endlessly sexualized.
After almost losing hope, the road to gender equality seems to have reached a dead end. The path to gender equality appears to have come to a standstill, almost completely. Captured and forced by an enormous system. Furthermore, the state frequently contributes to keeping this misery going. The liberation struggles of feminists are invariably fought for sovereignty over women’s bodies within a patriarchal society. Nonetheless, it’s critical to keep in mind that women’s aspirations to be autonomous subjects will never come true.
If we return to the historical narrative, we find the Matriarchal era. A time when female strategists and creators predominated, before it was believed that their discoveries, ideas, and thoughts would ultimately defeat men. The first person to make beer was a Sumerian woman. The irony is that beer came to be associated with men because this Sumerian woman’s innovation was disregarded and thought to have been the product of a man’s invention. In addition to beer, it is believed that Charles Babbage, a man, designed the first computer, which was created by a woman named Ada Lovelace.
Women’s bodies, according to Ester, hold tales and history. This body is able to talk, and it ought to be permitted to do so. In the stories created by the patriarchal system, the roles and contributions of women in history are removed and replaced with narratives of men’s supremacy. The truth is that women invented civilization. She is the embodiment of the One who created life. As the philosopher Jacques Lacan believed, women are the source of the creation of language. That is why the term mother tongue is known.
In the end, we are all actually brought together by the same narrative, namely reclaiming women’s ownership of their bodies. Happy International Women’s Day![]
This article was translated by Napol Riel.