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what it feels like for a girl

Today is International Women's Day.

As a privileged international woman myself, in a way (a Californian living in London), today is humbling. I'm incredibly aware that I am lucky enough and have enough agency that I can make the decision to move to a country that gives me the freedom to do sex work in the way I choose. I was able to move away from a country that no longer seems to feel women deserve free birth control, away from a country that would rather jail me than help me if I suffered abuse at the hands of a client, away from a country that refuses to let me marry who I choose. Not that Britain's perfect, by any means- the triggering minicab antirape ads, for example, or how Britain wants to argue that violence against women isn't a violation of women's rights. So it has issues. It's just a hell of a lot better than the States.
Even as I get angry about how the patriarchy actively affects my life, I am still incredibly aware of how fucking privileged I am. If I had a physical disability, London would be almost entirely inaccessible to me. If I was a WOC, I would deal with a range of prejudices and issues, particularly if I was Asian, though not by any means exclusively. There's a million ways in which I am not oppressed every day that other women are, and I am both grateful for that and feel responsibility for acting against those oppressions.
We've come a long way, but we have a long way to go.

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