No Panty Day Rant: Seriously?

I'm sure you have caught this image somewhere in your Twitter Log, Facebook Newsfeed, or Instagram. When I saw this the other day, I did not take them seriously. In fact, I laughed at the notion that anyone would take any time to discussing or celebrating this Instagram holiday. However, I woke up this morning with my Twitter Log filled with discussions about the No Panty Day.  I thought to myself, "Seriously? Did someone really start a conversation about this." I thought it was one of those random pictures people put on social media. After all, I put up several pictures a day. When I saw the conversation from the brothas and sistahs, I started to get annoyed. Extremely annoyed. I felt my blood pressure start to increase because I know there was some dumb broad out there who was going commando because some stupid Instagram picture told them to do so. I started making a few comments on Twitter and Facebook earlier. But I felt like I had more to say. Besides, most of the day today I was helping my friend and getting some school work done before my free day. (Sidenote: If you are a graduate student, my advice is to take ONE free day where you do not do any work. We all need a break before we burn ourselves out...but I digress.) However, I knew that I was going to rant further about this day later. Let me just tell you why I was confused about today. I just have a few things to say about this day before it ends:

1. Women going commando is NOT an unusual thing. Real women do not need an Instagram to tell us to go panty-less. So, for that person who created that Instragram, they just wanted that for their own pleasure. And let me tell you, when women go commando, it does not look like that. You'd be surprised at the women in Target who are going panty-less. However, they do not boast about it. It's not because they are trying to get attention. Sometimes it's for the sole purpose of utility or needing some freedom. If she has to run to the store after that evening shower, then she puts on some leggings without panties and runs to Publix. A lot of women do not sleep with panties on (unless they are entertaining...). Many women may wear long dresses without underwear on a warm day. Sometimes women don't want that panty line to show in white pants. Whatever the situation, women TYPICALLY go commando. Sometime throughout the day the sistah has no draws on. It's not worth making a fuss over. It just is what it is.

2. Certain things should be kept between women. I'm so tired of that one sistah out there who messes it up for all of sistahood simply because they want some male attention. The whole panty conversation should remain between women. It's just one of those things that we could keep to ourselves. I know that I'm a blabber mouth, an open book. However, my commando status is usually kept within that girl circle. MAYBE whomever I'm dating at the time knows. Otherwise, it's not really any of your business. At least not for me to share on social networks.

3. It amazes me how some women react to male horny impulses. Are women REALLY that hungry for male attention? I'm making an assumption that this image was made by a man because no woman would make a celebration of this. And we wonder whether patriarchy is alive today? Of course it is! The mere fact that a man can put something on social networks to get attention from women. Sisters, we can claim that we are so "free" from patriarchy, but we often are the ones perpetrating it for attention. Think about it: it's a day to facilitate HIS fantasy, not yours. His fantasy is to have you walk around commando. You think there will ever be a "boxer/brief free" day tomorrow? Come on now. Every woman knows hot penis is not sexy. 

4. I was tempted to wear my granny panties just to rebel. Yeah, the ones you wear during that time of the month that come in the Jockey 3 pack you get from Target. But I was already dressed before I decided to revolt. I was thinking of a Canary Blue color just to make a point. My form of activism and rebellion.

5. Simply because I consider myself a feminist does not mean I believe in the burning bra myth. Yes, the burning bra symbol of feminism is a MYTH. And quite frankly, I like my underwear! The older generation of women passed down this jewel that I will always remember: every woman should always have a solid foundation because if she feels good underneath, she will carry herself with more confidence. Having great underwear on leads to increased self worth? I don't know. However, there's some validity in that. Believe it or not, that's a billion dollar industry for a reason. Do you think that women wear fun/sexy underwear for the benefit of others? Hate to break the news to you, but we wear them because we like the way they fit and what they do for our bodies. That push up bra works really well with a certain shirt. The thong works well with a dress we have in our closet. We like what it does for us. Believe it or not, under garments have nothing to do with sexual attention. Besides, I have heard plenty of people say that underwear only "hinders the process". So, it's really for us.

6. A woman's REAL liberation is doing what she want to do regardless of what she's told to do. In other words, it's like I said earlier, commando is not unusual. Women who are comfortable with their bodies do what they want to do on their own terms. That is real liberation for women. We wear underwear because we want, not for societal norms. We go commando from time to time because we feel like it, not because some Instagram told us it was cute for one day. Grown, mature women are liberated because we rise above societal norms and do things because we feel like it. I'm starting to realize how freeing it is to just be your own person, removing all those things you "should do" and incorporate those things you "want". Of course no one is running a muck. Yet, it's doing you without any regret. At the end of the day, that's real liberation, not because you decided not to wear underwear one day it was in style.

The good thing about today was the fact that people were having conversations about  personal hygiene. Some brothas and sistahs received a tutorial about the female anatomy outside of sex. As I was looking on my Twitter Log, it was flooded with Vagina talk. I loved it. I was also disappointed to learn how little my sistahs knew about their own bodies. I could understand why the brotha's don't know, they only want the Vajayjay for one reason anyway. But, my sisters asking questions disturbed me on so many levels. So, perhaps the creator of this day had this in mind when he developed the idea for this so-called celebration. Enough people were annoyed enough to discuss it, brothas made enough jokes about it, and sistahs started to correct the brothas. Before you know it, regardless of gender, we all spent our Friday discussing this "V" spot. So, while I am ranting about it now, I see the outcome wasn't as terrible as I anticipated. We all got our  adult sex education today. So instead of calling today "No Panty Day" it should be a "Adult Vajayjay Education Day".  Eh, nevermind, it's not catchy enough. Well, until next year ladies, continue to do what you do. Because we all know that we do this all the time. ;)