Tis the season for Peppermint Mocha Lattés, Ugg boots and every other stereotypical accessory associated with women during the Holiday season. Women obsess over the perfect New Years dress, demand to find Urban Decay under the tree, and belt “All I Want for Christmas Is You” while simultaneously complaining about boys. Our boyfriends try to find the perfect gift, desperately texting our friends from the mall the night before Christmas, taking their fifth lap around Victoria’s Secret.
Somehow our culture formed the norm of women being materialistic holiday vultures. We drop too much money on our ten “best friends,” demand unrealistic gifts from our significant other and binge drink Starbucks. This negative portrayal of complicated, selfish and unsatisfied women needs to be reversed. Look past the Michael Kors watches, and take a minute to realize what women actually want this holiday season.
Most women, besides the radicals, can only dream of a world with no catcalling. Imagine a place where women can walk down the street and not be commanded to smile. No woman will feel the need to fold her arms over her chest while walking past a construction site, or feel ashamed to wear a mini skirt. It’s unfortunate that Santa can’t deliver common sense and courtesy to some people this December 25th. But we can still hope, right?
Instead of cash or gift cards this Holiday, all women really want is a pay raise. Forget the Christmas bonuses, we demand this money year round. It is a fantasy world where women, who account for 47% of the U.S. labor force, are given equal pay as men. How satisfying to be given equal recognition for our hard work.
Speaking of job equality, this Holiday season, us women also demand the stopping of work harassment. Avoiding the bosses’ wandering eyes is exhausting, we came here to work not be the next contestant on The Dating Game. The first time we say no to your advancements needs to be the last time, it’s pathetic when dogs understand the word no better than most men.
How about the shockingly absurd wish that we be given actual recognition for academic, social and artistic achievements. Heidi Klum saved her son and nanny from the ocean, yet her “nip slip” is what became the headline news. Amal Clooney, acclaimed British lawyer specializing in criminal, human rights and extradition law, or to the news, George Clooney’s well-dressed wife. Women can only hope for the Christmas miracle where their brains overpower their beauty. Where an actress is asked thought provoking questions about her character instead of what diet she used to become that thin.
Santa would be the most popular man around if he could end woman’s fears. The fear of being blamed for our own sexual assaults, the ability to put our drinks down at parties without wondering if they have been roofied, to walk to our cars without holding our keys like a weapon. The ultimate holiday gift is the freedom to walk alone at night, to stop constantly apologizing to men because we fear the loss of their affection and to confidently reject sexual harassment without wondering if it will have us killed. These daily fears constantly overpower any Michael Kors watch we can receive Christmas morning.
Among all the beautiful holiday cheer, the gifts, plates of cookies and family time, the harsh realities of our misogynistic society are not lost. The never-ending gift of support for women equality lasts way past New Years Eve, begin the change today.
