What Does BEYONCE Have To Do With Ukrainian Revolution?

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. 

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.