Dose of X

Life can be ecstatic, exciting and extraordinary... if you make it to be.

Published Friday, March 08, 2002 by XY | E-mail this post

INTERNATIONAL WOMEN'S DAY
March 8. This is the day when women all over the world commemorate several decades of struggle for equality and justice. Some may think that's so passé. Women are treated fairly and equally in these times. But are we really?

I grew up in a household of women (4 sisters, and 1 brother, the youngest - responsible for carrying the legacy of our family’s name, as dictated by our patriarchal society). I studied in an exclusive school for girls in elementary. Thus, I naively believed that girls rule, and that there is no such thing as inequality.

But, 1st taste of reality... high school... U.P.... where I learned about the things taught outside the four walls of the classroom. And who can beat first-hand experience? My best friends and I were all Citizens’ Army Training (C.A.T.) officers in our senior year. It was the first time in so many years that our school revived C.A.T and joined this annual review thingy (my memory fails me, but it's that competition between schools where actual military officers grade your unit’s performance based on certain criteria… Fudz, unsa gani tawag ato? :P). We were serious about making it. And so was our commandant. However, di namin akalain na aabot pala sa puntong halos ibugaw na kaming mga babaeng opisyal dun sa mga military officers na mag-re-review sa amin. We had a party and the review officers were invited. Our commandant was telling us to entertain these beer-bellied men, and sit with them. I remember crying after that party. I believed in playing fairly. Moreso, I believed in my dignity as a woman, as a person. We eventually did come out top in that review, beating the long-time winner. The worse thing is, I learned much later, that they (the officers of that other school) never believed in our victory. No matter how much sweat and effort we put into that activity, our credibility was marred just the same.

I’ve had other harrowing experiences through the years. Andiyang me stalker ako who expressed his obscene "admiration" thru SMS and email… To my dismay, I discovered that I was voted by our party to run in the University Student Council primarily because of “charm”, “looks” and "marketability". Buong akala ko ay dahil ito sa kakayahan ko bilang isang lider at dahil sa aking mga prinsipyo… Me naging manager ako na laging ako ang inuutusang kausapin ang aking mga counterpart sa U.S. at Malaysia pag kelangan naming ng tulong, dahil makukuha daw ito sa charm… At sabi pa niya, ang pagiging engineer daw ay trabahong panlalaki… Mas bagay daw sila doon sa laboratory at mag-debug ng mga problema… Tang ina! Hindi ba ako ay graduate din ng ECE, at pucha, di ko nakuha sa pag-papa-cute ang mga matataas kong marka!

It’s a good thing that I do not take all this sitting down. Years of experience and a strong foundation have taught me to stand up for what I believe in. And I believe in my worth, as a woman, as a person. It should never be equated with my outside appearance because my brain is definitely bigger than my breasts (to quote a line from that Joyce Jimenez movie… :P)…

And yeah, I long for that time when we will not have to celebrate “women’s day”. That is when we are truly victorious. After all, we don’t celebrate “men’s day”, right?

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