The countdown to
holiday season has begun, presents are being bought and wrapped in
haste all around the world (well...I mean...), my country is about to
abolish the dictatorship and I have received my very first Christmas
gift this winter. Actually, it was from gorgeous Beyonce who has
finally decided to come out as a feminist after years of deliberate
avoiding the very word itself, like it could smear her pop icon image. However, her knew song 'Flawless' features a sample from a
speech made by a Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
at TEDxEuston in London. To be brutally honest here, the singer also
managed to release her new album on-line on Thursday, no long-living
PR and marketing strategies or advertising of any sort being prepared
beforehand. Although, this is not the thing that strikes me the most,
primarily, because top celebrities like Beyonce know where they are
going most of the time and only take risks from which they would
benefit in the end. Does it mean feminism is mainstream? I hope so.
Perhaps, it is, or rather it might be in the USA, Western Europe and
that's that.
To clarify a few
things I shall now come back to Ukraine and its current state.
Surely, you have seen it on BBC, CNN or in front pages of some
respected newspapers where it occasionally pops up covered in
blue-and-yellow flags. The truth is, we are struggling here to
impeach the President, also known as ex-con, uneducated half-wit and
notorious dictator who had completely destroyed the country through
astonishing corruption and total lawlessness, despite huge economical
potential and motivated, talented workforce. We had a little chance
to improve, although, by signing some sort of a trade pact with the
EU, demanding us to make certain alterations in the system at first
and become a bit more democratic and a bit less post-Soviet like.
Instead, that bastard has nearly sold my country to Russia in
exchange for some cash for him and his 'family' of oligarchs and
criminals, used force against peaceful protesters and holds political
prisoners. I can't help but wonder if he was searching for some
inspiration in Stalin and Ceaușescu biographies. In fact, I could go
on about it for days, but I'd rather think of something positive
about the whole thing.
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| Christmas Tree in Kyiv |
We have taken to the
streets, thousands of us for the first time since the Orange
Revolution in 2004, and this is remarkable, given that Ukrainians are
quite submissive and dismal and always had been like that through
history. What I have seen so far - is more or less libertarian
#Euromaidan with impressive infrastructure and volunteers performing
their work so diligently like any payed worker ever would. 
Now, politics aside, I'm
listening to 'Flawless' again and can't stop thinking of an
improvised kitchen in one of the occupied state buildings at
Independence Square in Kyiv and how women are the only ones to be
encouraged to work there. I notice comments urging men to come to
#Euromaidan and defend Ukrainian women and children. I also almost
shed a tear when read all those most shared stories on Facebook about
brave and strong men forcing women (and by forcing I mean an actual
overpowering and taking away) to leave the barricades during the
confrontation with police and seek for the safe place. It isn't about
being reluctant to agree there are more men capable of
physical power than women, it is about complete and utter neglect of women,
their rights and their feelings. We are freezing to death in the
centre of the city to gain better future, we are longing for liberal
democracy and for the rights and choices of the individual to be
respected and overpowering a person and forcing him/her into
something does not sound very Western European to me, neither it
sounds liberal to anyone, I reckon. 'Because I am female
I am expected to aspire to marriage
I am expected to make my life choices
Always keeping in mind that
One of the posters of Euromaidan. Author: Alexander Lisovsky
Marriage is the most important'.
I personally admire every man and woman who spends days and nights in the heart of Kyiv under the snow, risking their health, career and, perhaps, even life. Hopefully, there would be enough space in history books for everyone, regardless of their gender.
