My informant told me of a holiday that his family celebrated. The following is a transcript of our interview:
“informant: Every year on March 8th, we celebrate Women Day. Its from Ukraine, where my family is from. Basically men get the important women in their lives (wives, girlfriends, sisters, daughters, etc) flowers. Like valentines day but you just honor women. Our family does more than flowers though; gifts to show our appreciation for women. It is pretty big over in Europe, like if you don’t celebrate it as a man you’re the biggest piece of shit. It is very important over there to celebrate women.”
My informant reveres the holiday, and says honoring women is important to his family and their culture, claiming they are all brought up as “momma’s boys.”
This holiday empowers a underprivileged group (women do not share equal rights with men in many places). Thus, the outrage towards men who don’t celebrate it aimed towards their insensitivity and disregard for the female gender. This celebrates the female identity, reinforcing women’s identities.
An article on this can be found on wikipedia : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Women’s_Day