You've Got a Lot of Strength Left

Crochet-top sleeveless blouse: Old Navy, remixed * Cardigan: Moth from Anthropologie, thrifted * Mustard cords: Gap, remixed * Espadrille flats: Old Navy, remixed

Today is Equal Pay Day. Today is the day when women in the United States "catch up" to the rate of pay that men made in the previous year. It signifies the point into the year that a woman would have to work to earn the same amount that the average man worked during 2009. This is depressing. It's the end of flipping April, for crying out loud! We're three and a half months behind. Which is pretty unbelievable, if you ask me, and even more infuriating when you realize how much people in general seem to think that the "problem" of gender inequality is "solved". (Gah, there is so much wrong with the labels in that sentence!)

I feel like people seem to think that feminism is a bad word. Feminism seems to mean crazy hardcore women who hate men and constantly bitch while sporting bad mullets (don't ask where the mullets bit came from, it just popped out). But that's not what feminism is, and that's not who feminists are, and that's not what feminism stands for. If we keep forgetting, or ignoring, the true inequalities that society presents us, like the fact that it takes us until April to make as much as our dude friends made in December, that date may never get earlier.

In related but slightly depressing news, I'm currently watching that episode of Friends where they're all playing football on Thanksgiving. The teams get separated into boys versus girls, and in the process, the girls are debating how they'll ever beat the boys. Monica's impassioned speech includes comments like "do this for all the terrible first dates you've ever had" and other such nonsense. They finally are able to beat the boys by resorting to "feminine" "tricks" like flashing, clinging, and oh, more flashing. See ladies? That's how we can catch up to men in the workplace. We just need to start flashing them more! Then they'll be too distracted to remember to pay us less.

Title song: Maxwell, "This Woman's Work"