Deborah Lilly, Mullumbimby
‘International Ladies Day’? No way! That’s pathetic. It’s time we stood up as women and put an end to being defined by an outdated patriarchal moniker.
To call a woman a lady is a social construct that flatters, cajoles, and manipulates women into behaving a certain way, being compliant, submissive, and ‘rapable’.
My great aunt married a man she didn’t love because she didn’t know how to say ‘No’. A man could rape his wife and it was legal until recently.
Even now, women are still doing things expected of them because their role has been defined by others.
It’s time to turn the tables and embrace our authority, embody and empower ourselves as WOMEN. Say ‘No’ to the L-word, which shrinks possible parity. Man was born of woman. The time has come to reclaim matriarchy. The Dalai Lama said, ‘The world will be saved by the western woman’. He didn’t say ‘lady’.
For four decades The Echo has printed the stories some people loved, some people hated, and some pretended not to read. If you want us to keep telling the truth, the real truth, not the sugar-coated version. We’ll need your support to keep the presses rolling. 
