I guess the end-game is that we won't actually need such days because everyone will be equal and no-one will feel the need to promote their gender/sexuality/etc., but that we may want such days to celebrate the achievements of others that have helped, and continue to help, achieve equality.
Taking an example from my own experience, I think one thing that hasn't changed is the huge pressure on married women of child-bearing age to have children. And if they have one child, when are they having a second. Etc.
Women who have no kids get called selfish, women who have one get called selfish - but have too many and you're selfishly using up too many resources. And don't get me started on the strength of everyone's opinions about working mothers and SAHMs.
It shows total disrespect and an attitude that women have no right to privacy about the most private aspect of their body: their reproductive system.
It shows that women's lives are subject to being picked over, judged, held in contempt, criticized, and sneered at. It's an arena in which the utter lack of respect that many have toward women becomes abundantly clear, and sadly, it seems that we have made no progress in this area at all.
I was exposed to intense pressure to reproduce, and it was the worst prejudice and sexism I've ever experienced in my entire life. My personality, my individuality, what I wanted, my achievements, my uniqueness - NOTHING mattered except my reproductive status. I was literally nothing but a womb on legs to both families from the moment I got married, and from friends and the odd stranger in a bar, too. As in, "Do you have kids?" "No." "Better get on with it, hadn't you?" This wouldn't have mattered if my own families hadn't turned against me as well.
I was called names by my family - selfish, immature - all because I wasn't reproducing. And I wasn't sharing any info. - for all they knew, I could have had multiple miscarriages. They assumed they would know, because in their eyes I became the family brood mare the minute I got married, even though my siblings had already provided heirs.
Suddenly everything I was disappeared and I was just an animal. I was hated in my family for not having kids - or at least, that's what it felt like. It was THAT bad. I can relate very well to The Handmaid's Tale. It remains one of the worst, most shocking things that's ever happened to me.
So in my experience, there has been no progress in letting women be individuals worthy of respect at all.
Sorry for the flame emojis. Bad memories.
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