(art by J. Howard Miller, 1943)
Hi there, it's been a while since I actually write something worthy here. Somehow this blog become a "poetry" ass kind of blog (which I don't mind) but for now let's change that. People who know me (not they thought they know me, because I'm a fake bitch) knew most of time I have strong opinions about every problems in this world, and I understand those opinions aren't for everyone. I used to wrote all of my opinions on a twitter thread but I don't feel like it's enough to get all of what I'm trying to say through just tweets.And I don't really like the audience on twitter anymore.
Let's talk about feminism, which means "the advocacy of women's rights on the basis of the equality of the sexes". The classic "equality". What's is that mean? what is "equality" in this case. As what I remember in my whole life I have always been fighting for this equality. In Balinese culture, it's not a shock anymore of our parent's sexist behavior. Boys will always be treated better than girls, and I know in most of Indonesia province are also like this, but I'm not talking in their places. I have to say it sucks to be born in this world without our consent, then being treated like less than the other gender or even worse, an object.
My dad used to tell me and my sister to do all the house chores all the time but, never say anything to my big brother. Why do you ask? Because we are women. It's our job to clean the house, cook, and do other things that women "suppose" to do. Hey don't get me wrong.. I'm not against doing the house chores as a kid, but.., don't you think it's a bit unfair to treat you children differently when we can't decide our own gender? Let's say that if being a girl or being a boy is a job and we could choose which job tasks we would like to do, then it's fine, but that's not how it is. We could not choose being a girl or a boy before we were born. If I have to be frank, I'm just gonna say, if I work on the house chores, my big bro needs to work on the house chores too, and let our ability and choices be the one which decide what kind of house chores we suppose to do, but not because our fucking gender.
"It's how it is, women have to do these kind of stuff, because you guys are women", said my dad all the time (yeah, fuck you 2010's dad). One day I fed up with this bullshit and snapped, I told him that it was really unfair to oppresses women (specially his daughters) doing things what society thinks women suppose to do. Doing the house chores like cleaning, cooking etc is GENERAL BASIC SURVIVING SKILLS, it's not only women's job and it's not only men's job. It will be really wise for him to teach his son (who is my big bro) these basic surviving skills too. And I would love to learn how to fix broken stuff, carrying aqua bottle, loading the electric pulses and other stuff which society associated with "men's job". And he is really not in the place to talk about how women suppose to act, because we know my mom brings more money in the house.
How long we need to be exist in this world to realize that people's job have no boundaries. Women can do what men "suppose" do to, so do men, they could do what women "suppose" to do. The equality we fight right now is suppose to be the chances that given in both genders, not only women but also for men. It was that simple... "the chances". If women want to do the man's job or want to be in their job position, then we need to assess if the ability of the women is the same as men to do so. Because we can't deny the fact that women's body and men's body work differently. For example, women's bodies are design to be weaker than men's, that's just how it is. It's harder for women gain muscle than men. But! it's not impossible, if we could do more, practice more and work more, there are some chances we could be as strong as they are (tho it's hard, it's not 100% impossible) but the chance for us (women) doing so should be available.
Now lets talk about the "feminism" on twitter. I HATE TWITTER FEMINIST :) they often bring their arguments by lowering the men down (ofc, not all of them). What is it for?? Yes, some men could be really trash and shit but, women could do the same thing too. If they (men) get it wrong, then correct them, not lowering them down and pleaseee do that to women too. I did that to my dad, all the time, I don't like how my dad used to treat me so I fought for "this equality" in such a long time (I don't blame him 100% since he was born in the family where men were literally kings) and my dad finally accepted it. His era and my era were different and he needs to understand about it, he simply doesn't know because it was different when he was young. Now, he support me following my dreams, asked me to do house chores simply because I'm his child not because I'm a woman and respect my opinions because I'm worthy enough to be his discussion mate and it feels great.
It probably sounds so naive but I believe that we could slowly change Indonesia to a better place, one by one more people would understand basic humanity like this, and respect each other because we are human, we all the same. And all genders are worthy to protect.
