How not to congratulate on March 8

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

A quick guide to common wording to avoid on International Women's Day.

You are the decoration of our office

It seems to you that you did not mean anything bad, you just call your colleagues beautiful. But the decoration is a ring on a finger, a ficus on the windowsill, a gold tooth in the mouth of a drug lord, that is, all those cute and useless trinkets that, at best, emphasize the status of the owner. And your colleagues, exhausted by the rush jobs, have every right to be offended by such congratulations.

According to the International Labor Organization, women in Russia earn 30% less than men in the same positions.

At the same time, calculations that took into account objective parameters when assigning a salary (level of education, skills) showed that the salary of a Russian woman should be higher than that of a carrier of the Y chromosome with the same specialty, by 11.1%. And who is here, one wonders, the decoration of the office.

So it is better for colleagues to wish for things that will be useful at work: interesting projects, accommodating clients, crowding at the doorstep of investors and, of course, that the boss notices all the achievements and accomplishments. The latter is especially important if you are the boss.

I wish to stay / be gentle, kind, caring

It should be noted right away that the wording "to remain" seems more harmless than "to be." You kind of celebrate the positive qualities of the lady and wish her to remain the same. The second version simply does not stand up to criticism, because it is a desperate attempt to show what is wrong with a person and how he should be.

Now let's move on to the second part of the congratulations. Gentle, kind, caring, affectionate, patient - all these qualities are considered stereotypically feminine and beneficial to anyone except the addressee of congratulations. The kind can be forced to do what you need to outweigh the lion's share of routine chores, the gentle one will not contradict when a strange idea comes to your mind.

It is better to replace the duty words with individual wishes. If you are not familiar with a woman, wish that dreams come true, and self-realization - it is difficult to miss with this.

On this holiday for all mothers …

If on Defender of the Fatherland Day you can still argue whether you are trembling or you have the right to celebrate, then March 8 is not a field for discussion. This is a completely gender holiday. It is enough to consider yourself a woman to celebrate it. And at the same time it is not at all necessary to give birth.

And it's enough to identify a woman through her interaction with other people and find out whose mother, grandmother or sister she is in order to congratulate. She is a separate and valuable person in herself, and the whole International Women's Day is about that.

I wish to be always young

You can talk about a young soul as much as you like, but youth is tied to the calendar. In Russia, you officially fall into this age category up to 30 years, in some cases - up to 35. You can stay young forever only during tragic events and with continuation “in our hearts”. In other cases, this is an impossible wish that translates that a woman has value while she is young.

You are a real woman, so …

Perhaps a feminine meter was invented somewhere. But it’s hardly built into you to be able to make such loud statements. In 2018, it is generally naive to speak in public space about the criteria of a "real woman" that have stuck in your head. And those who do not correspond to them are fake?

In addition, many of the stereotypical criteria can indeed be offensive. Not everyone wants to be considered quivering and weak violets, which constantly need to be saved and protected.

Let men admire / fall at their feet

Moving in space when someone is constantly falling under your feet is uncomfortable and unsafe. And not many women need mass worship. Male admiration, given how many are accustomed to express it, often borders on harassment, and whistling from cars, meaningful winks and obsessive attempts to conduct are more frightening than pleasing.

Your good husband and kids

It seems that in a decent society it is no longer necessary to remind that people themselves are able to determine whether they need relationships and children. Wish you happiness in your personal life in a broad sense, and then the lady herself will figure out who she needs and in what quantities: a man, a woman, or 40 cats.

Today you will finally be able to rest, all worries are on your husband

Such a remark can be overlooked or considered a joke if all responsibilities in the family are shared equally. For others, this is an extremely annoying reminder that on all other days a heap of unpleasant but necessary duties is unfairly assigned to one person. Moreover, despite the stereotypes, women also often hang the shelves.

I wish my husband a big salary

Great wish for my husband. Circle his birthday on your calendar and save congratulations. A woman wants to receive a decent salary herself. At least for a sense of security in case something goes wrong in her personal life. So that later those who wanted a big salary for her husband would not sneer at her that she could not leave the house tyrant in slippers alone.

I wish that husband and son protect

A woman is hardly ready to risk her husband and son in really critical situations. Moreover, on International Women's Day, it is better to move away from the noble myth of a male protector and look at the facts.

According to statistics, among those convicted of murder, 86.5% are men, for torture - 94.9%, for rape - 99.6%, for robbery - 93.3%. Therefore, it would be just fine if the stronger sex stopped attacking.

I wish you to be a good hostess

Such a congratulation has the right to life if it has a continuation. For example, "I wish to be a good mistress of the mansion that I will give you." Otherwise, you just wish the woman some more kitchen slavery.

The phrase "a good hostess" has nothing to do with the popular prints of America in the 50s and does not mean dresses from Dior and running around friends and shops before her husband comes home from work. There is nothing glamorous about washing the toilet, sorting someone else's dirty laundry, washing dishes from dried food residues.

Let streams sing in your honor, and men give flowers

On the occasion of March 8, a lot of ready-made congratulations have been created, the most terrible of them are in verses. They have one thing in common: they do not take into account the problems women face at all. Lack of flowers is much easier to survive than a glass ceiling, inequality in wages, reluctance of employers to hire women for certain jobs, harassment, unfair distribution of household responsibilities, reproductive violence.

So let the streams sing to themselves, and the world moves towards an equal distribution of rights and responsibilities.