Social Constructs and One Particular Driver's License

It's Women's day 2020. When I was writing this it was actually the next day. This piece is getting written an 1 AM in the morning because earlier that evening I was ridiculed by my mother for not wishing her on Women's day. To be honest the thought never even crossed my mind until she asked me about it. Not when I had seen a countless status updates on WhatsApp earlier, neither when I window shopped all across Phoenix Market City, every shop advertising Women's day all over.

I have never been zealously social. I am social when I feel like it or when it's needed. I am very bad at remembering dates. Thank god (or not) for facebook and google calendar. I make it a point to remember the birthdays atleast of people very close, the other days I couldn't care any lesser. The prompt for writing this post is when I got into thinking why this was expected of me. Even better reason for this post was that I was bloated with a good dinner and some good dose of exurb1a and got lost down a spiral of thoughts.

After a lot of thought I ask people this question. All days for which google draws doodles were invented by us humans and chosen to be celebrated by us humans. Key point, none of them mandatorily celebrated. No one is forcing you to celebrate (or are they?) anything. The same humans came up with this brilliantly inefficient system called democracy and a system of laws (more about political philosophy later, on some other post). My mom lost her wallet once to a couple of thieves at the weekly market. It had some money, her debit cards and her driver's license. The cards were blocked immediately, the money, I hope the thieves had a good time. The thing in question is the driver's license. She never got it replaced. For almost a decade she managed with just a laminated photocopy of the original that got lost.

No one apprended her, eventhough it was borderline illegal. Fortunately for her, no one asked to see her license for almost a decade. When it was finally made mandatory to carry the original at all times, sometime last year, she applied for a new one and got it. Almost a decade. Here comes the question, If she can ignore a social construct named law, mandated to be followed strictly by every citizen, how and why am I ridiculed for not wishing a women on women's day which is nothing but another social construct which is far less trivial than the other case?

I think it is safe to assume some variation of this hypocrisy exists in all households. Imagine the delights, happiness and wholesomeness and at the same time the fights, breakups and permanent damages these constructs can bring upon. I am not saying they are not needed. Humans are inherently social beings, but do we need to bring upon ourselves problems from constructs we created and let it destroy relationships and harm everything around us? (Stupid question. Forget it. that's all we do.)

Also as a side note, I do respect all women, this post has nothing to say about the respect I have for the women in my life. Again, this has to be explicitly mentioned when the people in my life already know the kind of a person I am, which just strengthens my argument on social constructs. You need not follow it. This side note is present only to prove the point and I need not have written it to show my respct for women. Think of this as part of the post to prove the point that it is socially required of me to provide it and at the same time not a part of it to prove the point that I need not follow the social requirements.

My head hurts, I am going to bed. Good Night. Happy Women's day to all the women reading this.