Not just any of those 364 days

 This charming opening picture is from the website of The Feminist Association Unioni

Next Monday is the International Women's Day. I've found I have two opinions that are seemingly opposed but in reality actually quite well in line.

Brought up to embrace the smart, the bright, the right kind of world view and notion of equality, and having rolled the gender questions around in many different contexts, I am genuinely happy that such a tradition exists. But at the same time I think we might be ready to try on Equality 2.0, where men would get their own day, too. That's equality for you, ladies and gentlemen. Don't you agree?

Possibly the coolest cartoonist in the world is Swedish Nina Hemmingsson (check her Myspace). In this picture: "Welcome to today's seminar, surely we'll proceed just like we usually do, so that you with penises get to speak a little more, while you without one get interrupted more often. Allrighty, let's roll."

Like the DocPoint film selection this year already kind of  showed, this decade it might be Miesten vuoro, the men's turn. And don't you go thinking now that I am ignoring the age-old oppression and gender inequality which comes as close to being a fact as it is possible for any historical material - but it's hardly the bulk of today's men that are to be blamed? By now, everyone should get treated in exactly the same way as anyone else, irrespective of their gender or sexual orientation. I want equality and I want it in everything, full stop.

While we keep that in mind, there's no reason not to celebrate Women's Day as a gained benefit of sorts.  This goes for all human kind - no gender reservations. Here are a few suggestions:

Disney's freshest,  The Princess and the Frog, with original voices of course. The fact that they are showing it at 9pm proves my point: they are movies for the entire family, whether you already have one or not is utterly irrelevant!  I've heard that this one - quite unsurprisingly coinciding with the industry's first African-American heroine - has all that jazz in it, spicing up the eternal moral lesson.

Projektori theatre festival in Q-teatteri; on Monday you can watch Ari-Pekka Lahti's and  Juha Luukkonen's play Ihmeellinen armo ('the amazing grace'). Allusion to Women's Day might be a bit far-fetched, but they only show the festival productions three times per play, so it's time to act.

Them Bitter Virgins

For people of leisure: nothing fits the day's agenda better than the wonderful cabaret ensemble Kitkerät Neitsyet (the Bitter Virgins) with their special Women's Day programme in Itäkeskus' Stoa, at 1pm.

Since Monday nights usually don't equal a vibrant gig night, the evening could perhaps be best spent in the company of a good book. To celebrate the day's occasion, I encourage everyone to find a copy of one of the first emancipated works of feminist fiction, Kate Chopin's The Awakening from 1899 (!) is a superb work of fiction that has finally been translated also into Finnish (Herääminen, published by Faros).

If you'd rather flip through something that's doable with a shorter-to-short attention span, and if you're fluent in Finnish, have a look at the web version of Tulva, a kick-ass magazine published by The Feminist Association Unioni.

And who knows, some of the attitude might stick beyond midnight! Have an excellent Women's Day, everyone!

  Rokkia, rouvat!

  Tulva's list of women
  with rock and roll.