from a Scottish comedian and arts journalist called Vonny Moyes who happens to also be a mother-of-four. It's a response to the misogynist and patronising Unionist official campaign video
who pigeon holed undecided female voters as some kind of bizarre, anachronistic housewife/"busy mum" archetype. Vonny's main point is that she is more than just a mother, something Better Together apparently don't understand.
My day starts at 6am. Daybreak is always more punctual than my ability to face it. If that doesn’t get me first, I’m soon held hostage by a three-year-old with a list of edible demands. I’ll descend the stairs, toddler hanging from my neck, punch a bundle of clothes into the machine, deal with a pair of grumpy cats, and then start the production line. Five orange plates with five different ratios toast to peanut butter, armed with spoons and thrust onto the breakfast bar, awaiting the impending arrival of a three-headed, six-legged hurricane.
As the littlest decorates the table with soggy toast crumbs, out comes the ironing board to undo the damage of a hasty hang-up job on three uniforms. What follows is a an hour of musical bathrooms, impossibly tiny buttons, braiding hair, brushing teeth, wiping faces, packing lunches, locating AWOL shoes, standing on Lego, checking homework and refereeing spats, before shepherding four tiny people out of the house and into the world for another day. Number four sits on my shoulders, I take a twin in hand, Heidi takes another, and we hot-foot it to the school. By 9 am, they’re ferried through the doors, and by some miracle I don’t immediately cease to exist?
Why?
I am more than a mother.
Don’t get me wrong; every day I am filled with an indescribable love for each of them, but despite their monopoly on my heart, I’ve never lost sight of myself. My duty as a person does not end with service to my children. My value to society does not stem from the cracking set of ovaries I’m sporting. I extend far beyond these four little humans; I have my own hopes and fear, my own talents and skills and every right to be heard beyond matters of domesticity. This fully functioning womb situation is a bonus; I am a whole person all by myself, and let me tell you, I intend to let you know.
My identity is colourful, and made up of more parts than I can count. Part of that includes a political identity; something most don’t talk about. I don’t seek to shelter my children from. They live in a house where discussions about the referendum are normal. Where austerity and taxes talk isn’t avoided. They’re being raised in a home where their future is not some hazy eventuality, but something we talk about together, as a family.
Why?
We’re on the cusp of the most important decision of our time. We are the rudder that will navigate us through scaremongering and lies. We will change political history forever. When you look back on this moment in thirty year’s time, will you wish you’d given it more thought? Will you regret a knee-jerk reaction based on main-stream media fiction and second-hand facts? You have time to engage this. Politics is in everything we do.
I’d like to send a message to Better Together, and to all of those who want what’s best for our country; especially those who don't yet believe in us.
We are not cereal bowls, ironing and school runs. We are not Heat magazine. We are not his wife. We are not skinny jeans, flattering cuts and calorie controlled diets. We are not bikini bodies or little black dresses. We are not playgroups, and playdates and playparks. We are not girls-nights-in, "rom coms" and IT bags. We are not the fairer sex. We are not fat-free lattes, lip-gloss or walking home in bare feet after a big night out.
If this is what they think of us, what hope do we have for a fairer politics beyond the referendum?
We are people. We are not your identikit assumption, and your attempt to belittle us into ignorance is poor. With diversity comes infinite opportunity. We have beliefs, values and skills that you cannot afford to ignore. We women are 51% of the populations; a majority demographic. You won’t silence us, at the ballots or beyond.
I’m not a gambler. I will not stand by and hope another unelected government of the non-representative elite will remember our hardships after September. I am imploring you, the 51% as people of Scotland to make a decision based on your own research.
Register to vote, and turn up at that ballot on 18th to be counted as a person, not a stereotype.
Women, Scotland needs you.
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