67 Ways To Have An Intersectional International Women's Day
Let’s be clear - feminism isn’t feminism without intersectionality. Let’s take International Women’s Day to examine our privileges, embrace our differences and think about how we can build justice every day of the year. Here are 67 suggestions to get started.
- Register to vote - for every level of government. The school board can be as important as the Oval Office.
- Learn what to do if you see someone attacked for their identity.
- Take an anti-racism workshop.
- Follow the Journalists of Color Twitter list.
- Resolve to confront your friends and family when they say something problematic. Figure out your strategy. Practice in a mirror.
- Get a full eight hours of sleep.
- Take a selfie. Post it and tell everyone how cute you are. (Tag us! We wanna see!)
- Find out the name of the Indigenous people of the land you live and work on - and the treaty arrangements that govern that relationship.
- Book that doctor or therapist appointment you’ve been putting off.
- Support a women-owned business.
- Pick up a copy of Vivek Shraya’s I’m Afraid of Men.
- Donate to the Sylvia Rivera Law Project.
- Think of one way you can cut plastic waste from your life - and put it into action.
- Four words: Janelle Monae dance party.
- Write to your congressperson or MP about an issue that means a lot to you.
- Book your vacation. Even if it’s a stay-cation.
- Learn to make your own personal care products.
- Join Bitch Media’s The Rage.
- Learn to fix your car or bicycle.
- Donate to your local women’s shelter or Planned Parenthood. Alternatively, look into volunteering.
- Pick up Robin Marty’s Handbook for a Post-Roe America.
- Learn about the Stonewall Uprising.
- Have an orgasm. Hell, have two.
- Ask about pronouns. Don’t make a big deal out of it.
- List three ways you have privilege.
- Ask HR or your boss if they have a policy around accessibility.
- If you enjoy economic privilege - pick up the tab today.
- Go to a beach or park cleanup.
- If you’re Canadian, read the Calls to Action for the Truth and Reconciliation Commission on Residential Schools.
- Seek out your healing community.
- Notice how your commute could be inaccessible to a person with a disability.
- Start composting.
- Watch 13th, by Ava DuVernay.
- Come up with a concrete way to support your mental health (meditation! journaling! exercise!) and commit to doing it for 15 minutes a day.
- Find a package-free shop in your area and stock up waste-free!
- Get rid of that bra that does not fit. Ditto your uncomfortable underwear. It’s 2019. We should be past this.
- Read The Invisible Knapsack, if you haven’t already.
- Repeat after me: diets don’t work.
- Visit Harvard’s Project Implicit and take the daily task.
- Check in with your electricity or gas provider and see if there is a way to reduce your energy usage.
- Look for the B Corp symbol in your day-to-day purchases.
- Forgive someone.
- Watch Kimberlé Crenshaw’s TED talk on the urgency of intersectionality.
- Pick up Fat Shame by Amy Erdman Farrell.
- Quit your bank and join a Credit Union instead.
- Donate to National Bailout and help #FreeBlackMamas
- Find out who made your clothes, and then become a fashion revolutionary and push for greater transparency in the garment industry.
- Pay for your porn.
- Find an opportunity to laugh.
- Find a local organization supporting immigrants or refugees and help them out.
- Learn about the racist roots of modern gynecology.
- Learn how many slaves work for you. (Yup.)
- Start having a Meatless Monday.
- Sign your organ donor card.
- If you’re American, calculate your American Dream Score.
- Learn about environmental racism.
- Normalize the word cis. Practice using it in everyday conversations.
- Center fat people / fat liberation in your conversations about body positivity.
- Calculate your carbon footprint.
- Say so long to "lame" and chuck other ableist metaphors from your vocabulary, too.
- Quit gendered language. Why say his/hers when you could just say theirs?
- Be open to having your assumptions challenged. Listen and sit with your discomfort.
- Beautify your space with art by marginalized artists.
- Practice being kind to yourself.
- Book tickets to a local theatre performance that centers BIPOC artists.
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Say it louder for the folks in the back: Trans women are biological women.
- Use your privilege and platforms to amplify marginalized voices, but stay humble and know when to pass the mic.
Photo by Drop the Label Movement on Unsplash