Woman
I know... I have been procrastinating of late... hardly updating my LJ much. I do actually have much thoughts waiting to be penned down; just that I'm too lazy to log on my computer.
Anyway I have been wanting to rant out a particular issue for some time ever since she was elected into office. Who? I am talking about Julia Gillard.
Since then, much emphasis has been paid especially with regards to her social life, notably of her marital status. Almost every news article about her would inevitable have the "Ms Gillard is unmarried" somewhere, which really irked me immensely.
Why does being an unmarried woman disturb the public or society so? You don't exactly find people interested if a man is unmarried, except to speculate if he's gay of course! But when a woman is unmarried, suddenly she is the focus of all the attention.
While there is interest in her political work, the inevitable "she is unmarried" sentence will pop up, as if her marital status is crucial in determining her political value. Is being an unmarried woman really that bad? Must a woman be married before she can be taken as an equal?
Take for example... a bachelor as opposed to a spinster... which one carries a more negative connotation at first glance?
The social onus for a woman is certainly really harsh and extremely unfair and I feel that by now in this current age, we should be celebrating true equality among the sexes. If a man can choose to be unmarried and be celebrated for it, so should a woman!
We shouldn't be thinking that she's unattractive, a shrew, old maid etc simply because if she is single. A woman has as much right as any man to be unmarried.