International Womans Day

Today is the International Womans Day, a day celebrated (at least here in Norway, where socialism is not considered a foul word LOL) by those wanting to oppose the long-time oppression of half of the worlds population.

From putting baby girls into the woods, through child porn and prostitution, rape and murder, woman are treated badly around the globe, so one can't deny the need for a day to fight womans rights. Sure, those of us living in the western hemisphere have less problems in this respect (even stock concervative US of A almost got a female president at the latest crossroad LOL), but it's still a problem. And it's a problem for us males as well, because when you oppress people to secure your own position, you will miss a lot of the things the oppressed people could have contributed to society.

An interesting news story about equal opportunities from my country: Ski-jumping is a classic sport, and until recently it was an all-male gig, but female jumpers have developed lately. However, there have been a lot of resistance among the "old-school boys" regarding this. As recent as 2004, the leading female ski-jumper, Anette Sagen, was denied jumping in our largest sky jump hill merely because the chairman felt it was inappropriate for woman.


Outside of the closed circles of the old men governing the sport this was met with amused anger. So when the newly renovated Holmenkollen ski jump in Oslo was opened a week ago, the city council (who paid for the fun, and really, if you spend USD200 million on something you really deserve a say or two) decided that Anette Sagen should be given the honour of the first jump.

But typically enough: The night before the official opening, all the major male ski jumpers was gathered to "test" the hill before the official opening, and it was actually our most successful male jumper that made the first jump. If this was merely an increadible short-sighted decision or the last attempt by the old school to take a revenge is hard to say. But it's been the main news story here in Norway for a week, culiminating in the exclusion of said jumper from the next two large jump events.

So there you go. One might say we make drama out of really nothing. We don't need the womans day anymore. Others will say that we will need the day forever, to make sure the world don't start running in reverse.

But anyhow: This post was meant to be a positive one, and a big "thank you" to all the great and talented woman in Second Life I have either met, or just admired the wonderful creations of.

Happy womans day, weather you feel a need to celebrate it or not!