Hundreds of thousands of women who aren't driving about it
January 18, 2019 5:05 AM   Subscribe

Women's March AND March for Life Reproductive rights are an often contentious flash point in American politics, and this weekend, in the midst of a the Trump shutdown (current Omnigate catch-all thread on mefi), that flash point will be in Washington, as both the March for Life and the Women's March make their way to the National Mall. The Women's March started in 2017 as a global protest for recognition of women's issues upon the election of Donald Trump, and at 500,000-1,000,000 participants was supposedly the largest march on Washington since the Vietnam War protests, and made pussy hats a thing (although in 2018 they were less of a thing), while the March for Life, though smaller at tens of thousands, is both much older, starting in 1972, and used to draw much bigger crowds, and also tends to be a bit more religiony. Wherever you stand on the issue, this is the weekend they're marching about it in Washington.

[Posted as a relief valve for the Omnigate catch-all and because it deserves its own space anyway. Also, I've tried to keep the post and description as...bland as possible, and I know I've left lots of important context out, but metafilter is really good at providing that in the comments, so by all means.]
posted by saysthis (48 comments total) 18 users marked this as a favorite
 
This never happens, why am I up all night? Buzzfeed, I suppose. Anyway, there has been lots of handwringing about the anti-Semitism controversy in the Women's March leadership and fears that somehow this will kill the enthusiasm for women in politics. I'm old, I made it through the earlier fights, and maybe I'm too philosophical about it, but it's politics, it's how it works. Women are moving forward, with or without Women's March.
posted by kemrocken at 5:27 AM on January 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


I think the need for a Woman's March is so great that well, I think it should live on without the founders if necessary. I don't think that the weirdness going on with those people should ruin everything.
posted by jenfullmoon at 6:48 AM on January 18, 2019 [20 favorites]


I've lived in Washington, DC since 2010. The city feels very different under the current administration. I enjoyed participating in the 2017 Women's March, but am planning to avoid downtown this weekend. It's cold and there are far fewer bathrooms available due to the shutdown. Safe and warm marching to everyone who attends!
posted by wicked_sassy at 6:53 AM on January 18, 2019 [4 favorites]


We're going to have a winter storm this weekend so our local march has been postponed a week. I don't know if that means for the attendance.

I don't think there has been any discussion about the founders but things are so small here that the Facebook page where things are organized rarely gets more than a few comments anyway.
posted by PussKillian at 7:39 AM on January 18, 2019




The march at the MN capitol is still going on. One of the cosponsors here is a Jewish women's organization and I get the feeling each local chapter keeps itself separate from the DC March to some extent.

At the volunteer meeting I went to we were explicitly told that the MN Women's March does not promote pink pussy hats because they are not inclusive. There were some confused looks so one organizer said: "Just so we're clear: we are saying that not all women have pussies and not all pussies are pink."

They also said that some of the music that will be played has curse words in it. The leader said "those curses are necessary to the meaning of the songs. That's what happens when you have a pussy-grabber in chief."

My sign ideas:

Mike Pence is just as bad

never too cold to march for justice

Children should be:
[x] with their families
[x] in school
[x] allowed to hug each other
[ ] imprisoned in tent camps
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:13 AM on January 18, 2019 [24 favorites]


March Forward Massachusetts put out a statement saying that they denounce hate speech of any kind, MFM and Women's March, Inc. are separate entities, and they:

 "acknowledge that the (sic) much of the demand to “condemn” or “renounce” Louis Farrakhan is not itself a call to work for justice on behalf of marginalized communities, but is merely performative. We recognized the complicated relationship between the Nation of Islam and communities that have been underserved and oppressed forever. Furthermore, we concede the insidious double standards to which black women are held as a means of keeping them down."

They quote activist Monica Cannon-Grant:

"Meanwhile black women continue to be asked to denounce who they support and be held to a higher standard, while standing in solidarity with all women, being ignored, and having their issues be dismissed and disregarded."
posted by ruetheday at 8:26 AM on January 18, 2019 [12 favorites]


Meanwhile, at March for Life, Ben Shapiro is reading podcast ads to the crowd.
posted by Existential Dread at 8:29 AM on January 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


I was in DC this week for work and was startled when I went down to the hotel lobby in my way to get coffee to see it full of several large groups of teenagers with anti-abortion signs just milling about, being loud, and taking up all the space. There were some adults and nuns and some other clergy, but mostly it was teenagers wearing matching shirts/hats/jackets, with posters for their march.

It was disorienting.

When I finally got outside a group was kind of counter protesting, handing out zines about women's health, and talking to the anti-abortion folks that took the opportunity to call them baby killers. I stopped to thank them for being out there, fighting for women's rights. One of the anti-abortion people (who was pregnant and kept invoking her unborn child in her shouting) then told me that I couldn't know anything about this since I'm a lesbian and not a mother (neither of which is true). I told her she was being awfully judgemental for being Christian, called her and her companion assholes and then went back to my room to pack and check out.

Metro was packed on my way to the airport with groups going to some demonstration. It was so clear that they didn't know how to handle transit and were lost and confused by the map. They missed their intended stop because they were so overwhelmed. I felt bad because I normally would have stepped in to help but I didn't feel like engaging. As we pulled out of the station they wanted to get off at, I made eye contact with the one other person not in their group in the car and they let out a small chuckle.

I'm happy to not be in DC today.
posted by kendrak at 8:35 AM on January 18, 2019 [24 favorites]


At the volunteer meeting I went to we were explicitly told that the MN Women's March does not promote pink pussy hats because they are not inclusive. There were some confused looks so one organizer said: "Just so we're clear: we are saying that not all women have pussies and not all pussies are pink."

They are supposed to look like cat's ears! Not vulvas. They are okay cat's ears (not great, but they wanted a very simple pattern) - they are TERRIBLE vulvas. Yes, they were directly in response to Trump's remarks about a woman's pussy. But the pattern designers used the pun with cats for the hat design. (I don't know how or when "pussy" began to refer to women's vulvas as well as cats, though I do know that the use of "pussy" to mean "weak or scared" predates it by some time: it referred to the behaviour of cats (which are generally timid)).

As for the colour: I just assumed they were pink for the same reasons that Barbie packaging, breast cancer ribbons and my local women's hospital all use pink - it's currently coded as "female". Again, I don't think anyone wanted to wear a representation of anyone's genitals on their head.

But the accident of having colour coded hats lead to a massive advantage in 2017: No one could ever use photos of the Women's March and claim that they were actually from Trump's much less-well-attended inauguration, because the crowd was tinged with pink from all the hats.

Maybe they weren't the perfect symbol, given how they've been (mis-)interpreted. But I feel like activist movements fall too easily in making the perfect the enemy of the good. Concentrate on centering POC and trans women instead, maybe have some significant speakers from those communities, if you wish to draw attention to those issues.

Anyway, there has been lots of handwringing about the anti-Semitism controversy in the Women's March leadership and fears that somehow this will kill the enthusiasm for women in politics.

This is very much a topic of conversation within the Jewish community, but I wasn't sure if it was being discussed outside of it. How public has it been?

Also, I wish we (that is, the Jewish community) would distinguish between anti-Semitism and pro-Palestinian sentiments; one can be pro-Palestinian without being anti-Semitic. One can even be pro-Palestinian and a Zionist. But that's a topic for another thread/website.
posted by jb at 8:36 AM on January 18, 2019 [42 favorites]


Do not be divided...march!
posted by Oyéah at 8:47 AM on January 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


Seems a bit risky from a PR perspective to do them on the same weekend. Makes it very easy to take photos of the (larger) Women's March and claim that it's the March For Life.

The MFL seems like it's absolutely one of those organizations/events that, like the Westboro Baptist Church, have a much bigger media footprint than they actually have in the real world, in terms of people who will actually show up. But also that they'd take any opportunity to inflate it.
posted by Kadin2048 at 8:47 AM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


"Anyway, there has been lots of handwringing about the anti-Semitism controversy in the Women's March leadership and fears that somehow this will kill the enthusiasm for women in politics."

This is very much a topic of conversation within the Jewish community, but I wasn't sure if it was being discussed outside of it. How public has it been?


Very, as far as I can tell. Every time I brought up the idea of making the shut down a focus of the Women's March this weekend, people told me that they no longer wanted to support the Women's March due to the antisemitism of its leaders. In both local and national Facebook groups.

However, someone pretty much always replied with "Why, what'd they do?" So I guess not everyone knows.

I answered with this Vox link.
posted by OnceUponATime at 8:48 AM on January 18, 2019 [6 favorites]


For one more city's data point, Pittsburgh's women's march has distanced itself from the national organization.

Considering the incoming snowstorm, I'm hoping for safe passage for all involved.
posted by cage and aquarium at 8:52 AM on January 18, 2019


They are supposed to look like cat's ears!

Yes, but I think they caught on at least in part due to the name "pussy hat". The phenomenon at work here seems to be "we are all represented by this thing that doesn't represent you!" That matters even if it is not the intent or the origin.
posted by Emmy Rae at 8:55 AM on January 18, 2019 [9 favorites]


Seems a bit risky from a PR perspective to do them on the same weekend. Makes it very easy to take photos of the (larger) Women's March and claim that it's the March For Life.

This seems like a good reason to have colour-coded hats. If pink is not a good colour, how about purple? That said, they might all be mistaken for bisexual activists, but is this a bad thing?

Actually, our bi/pan group once got a social media campaign mixed in with the "March for Life". We had decided to run a small social media campaign to encourage people to march with us in the local Pride Parade using the hashtag #WhyWeMarch. It was only after we started it that we realised that the tag was mostly used by people marching in the anti-abortion movement. But we decided that was just fine: our message got out to the community we were trying to reach thanks to retweets, etc., and meanwhile, the anti-abortion feeds were filled with messages about how it's important for bisexual and pansexual people to be visible and proud. It felt like a win-win.
posted by jb at 9:00 AM on January 18, 2019 [7 favorites]


Also, realize that the conversation within and among Jewish groups just for the NYC and DC marches is not a simple binary and has a number of angles of concern. For instance, a coalition of Jewish women of color released an open letter expressing their frustration over their voices not being part of the conversation.
posted by zombieflanders at 9:10 AM on January 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


I'm conflicted, the anti-Semitism concerns are valid. But I'll march because the effect of the March is not anti-Semitic, and we can and must address it internally, though it's difficult because it seems like a distributed organizational model. I guess I'd better make my sign. Will be looking here for inspiration.
posted by theora55 at 9:12 AM on January 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


I was in DC this week for work and was startled when I went down to the hotel lobby in my way to get coffee to see it full of several large groups of teenagers with anti-abortion signs just milling about, being loud, and taking up all the space. There were some adults and nuns and some other clergy, but mostly it was teenagers wearing matching shirts/hats/jackets, with posters for their march.

The number of teenagers they manage to turn out is always a bit of a surprise, but my wife pointed out that some of them probably don't really believe in the cause and are just doing it because of peer pressure, some of them will get their first exposure to society outside their groupthink by coming to DC, and a third group will completely change their minds when they get to college. Knowing that those cracks in the cult already exist or will exist soon enough, their numbers are slightly less depressing.
posted by fedward at 9:16 AM on January 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


The March for Life people reliably manage to enrage me--even aside from the definite political, social, historical, etc., reasons--because after their march they always just dump their signs everywhere on the sidewalk by where I work, leaving a long snail-trail of posterboards with fetus-photos on them.

PICK UP YOUR FETUS PHOTOS, YOU ASSHOLES. SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO WALK HERE.
posted by theatro at 9:28 AM on January 18, 2019 [24 favorites]


March for Life is heavily promoted to church youth groups and parochial schools. It's kind of a big fun field trip to a place where there can also be good sightseeing that your parents will be down with, supervised by responsible adults from your religious community. That's pretty much how it was seen at my Catholic school, which always sent a contingent of the more Actually Catholic and not Just Attending Catholic School for the Academics girls.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:30 AM on January 18, 2019 [13 favorites]


For a lot of those kids, it's probably their only opportunity to get out of their stultifying homes and schools. I knew people like that growing up. Crappy protests or church "retreats" were basically the only thing they had to look forward to until college, and for some of them even that just meant Christian college, followed by marriage, followed by making their own kids miserable.

I feel bad for them.

I mean, I also wouldn't piss on them if they were on fire and there was a line for the Porta-John. C'est la guerre, assholes.
posted by Kadin2048 at 9:41 AM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


regarding the pussy hats and TERF-dom,

I am a man who is married to a trans man. I've been considering TERFs and what they mean for quite some time, and what it means to be a feminist.

And I don't have a resolution on the pussy hats. It seems like a grey area to me. It could be very offensive to some women who don't have vulvae. But, the definition of feminine - colors, dress, jobs, language, behavior - is so arbitrary, that any aspect that is held up as a symbol could be criticized for the same reason.

And, I am suspicious that the red pillars have investigated the movement and found an element that they could use to cause division.

I hate all this second guessing. I wish things could be simple. I've thought of getting a pink hat myself, but wasn't sure I deserved to wear one. And now an argument is going around that it actually hurts instead of helps...
posted by rebent at 9:46 AM on January 18, 2019 [8 favorites]


I’ve walked by the setup points a few times and it’s usually jammed full of buses with the names of private schools, many of the schools have custom shirts, etc. I’m sure the reasons for participating run the gamut from sincere beliefs to parental expectations or a free trip but it seems telling that attendance seems to go pretty from K-12 to senior citizen.
posted by adamsc at 9:51 AM on January 18, 2019


there's also a big gay kink/fetish/leather convention in DC this weekend [no joke]

I do so love it when these things get double-booked.
posted by schmod at 10:07 AM on January 18, 2019 [14 favorites]


PICK UP YOUR FETUS PHOTOS, YOU ASSHOLES. SOME OF US ARE TRYING TO WALK HERE.

for real! every goddamn year the march for life is always the one that litters the most! capitol hill looks so terrible afterwards every time. they don't care about women's choice or apparently clean streets and the environment, which i guess goes hand in hand.
posted by numaner at 10:22 AM on January 18, 2019 [2 favorites]


I'm probably not going to the Women's March tomorrow because of Farrakhan. Very conflicted about it, though, and haven't entirely made up my mind.
posted by rue72 at 10:39 AM on January 18, 2019


Maybe they weren't the perfect symbol, given how they've been (mis-)interpreted. But I feel like activist movements fall too easily in making the perfect the enemy of the good. Concentrate on centering POC and trans women instead, maybe have some significant speakers from those communities, if you wish to draw attention to those issues.

This "perfect [trans inclusion] is the enemy of the good [issues that directly affect cis women]" attitude is exactly why i avoid events that choose to make vulva symbolism the hill they want to die on. Many trans women have spoken up and said it makes us uncomfortable. If you agree that symbols matter, then change it. If symbols don't matter to you, then why not change it? As usual, actually doing any work to include trans women falls *just outside* the horizon of possibility... how predictable.
posted by yaymukund at 10:39 AM on January 18, 2019 [12 favorites]


They are supposed to look like cat's ears! Not vulvas. They are okay cat's ears (not great, but they wanted a very simple pattern) - they are TERRIBLE vulvas.

Yes!! I am too ticked off by this muddled thinking to haul myself out there on a single-digit day. It reminds me of the government official who got in trouble a few years ago for using the word “niggardly.”
posted by lakeroon at 10:53 AM on January 18, 2019 [5 favorites]


I'm trans and I liked the hats and still want one. I can also understand how they aren't fully inclusive or intersectional, but in these trying and fucked up times I appreciated the whimsy and the combination of resolute but playful protest and pushback, especially through the lens that these were cat hats, not vulvas.

The fact that this somehow got lost that these were cat eared hats not genitalia hats is problematic to me and indicative of how not just the media and mainstream glommed on to the outrage about the idea of women wearing genitalia hats, but fellow protesters and supporters did, too, and quickly formed a circular firing squad around it.

Instead of maybe just letting something that was fairly silly and innocent just be for once.

I was in Seattle for the big march and the incredible amount and variety of hats was fun and inspiring. I saw plenty of hats that weren't pink, including trans flag colors, brown hats, striped hats and more. I felt well included even presenting masculine and was glad to be there.
posted by loquacious at 11:06 AM on January 18, 2019 [28 favorites]


It's never just about the hats though, it's also about the conversations around the hats and the tendency for people to double down or portray genuine disagreement or discomfort as illegitimate or violent ("causing division," "red pillars," "second guessing," "outrage", "circular firing squad"). It's great that many of you think this is just light and fun but not everyone experiences the same trauma even within the same community. If your leftist coalition is too fragile to have these discussions, then I don't want to be a part of it. I think we can (& must) be so much better.
posted by yaymukund at 12:48 PM on January 18, 2019 [7 favorites]


I'm still waiting for an inclusive event to advertise their inclusive stance by stating "women and cis women welcome"

When I see that I'll know who they are centering. Until then your event aspires for inclusion and I respect that however I do not go to it with high expectations.
posted by nikaspark at 1:11 PM on January 18, 2019 [10 favorites]


And for the record I think Seattle's march (more like 3 days of bad assery) is actually managing to do a pretty good job with it this year. And I will be attending.
posted by nikaspark at 1:12 PM on January 18, 2019 [1 favorite]


In Atlanta, we will not be having a "Women's March" event as we did in 2017 and 2018. Instead, we will have a day of service on Saturday, and then we will all march together in the annual march in honor of Dr. King on Monday. It's always one of the best days of the year in our city anyway, and it will be great to have more people join the march who might not have before. It was absolutely the right call. (And the Delta Foundation is paying to reopen the King Historic Site operated by the National Parks Service so that the march can end there as usual)
posted by hydropsyche at 2:34 PM on January 18, 2019 [10 favorites]


The hats are not vulvas. How could anyone feel hurt by cats ears? I’m not trying to be difficult, but this argument has me gobsmacked. The primary reason for the hats is so our crowd cannot be appropriated and claimed for another rally. That’s it. Claiming that the hats are exclusionary seems, frankly, I can’t think of a more polite word than divisionary. It’s intentionally picking a well recognized symbol and insisting that it be changed, for no reason other than some people don’t like it? Then don’t wear it?

Calling ciswomen snowflakes and fragile leftists because there’s a symbol they use that you don’t like, but don’t have a logical reason to discontinue is ironic to say the least.
posted by SecretAgentSockpuppet at 4:44 PM on January 18, 2019 [15 favorites]




The whole pussy hat = vulva thing was started by conservatives, so I've been disappointed that people on the left have run with that. They are cat ears, a play on words, created by a WOC in response to the "grab 'em by the pussy" statement. It was a violent statement towards women, and since trans women are women, it was violent to both cis and trans women.

Now granted, I did see women with actual vulva hats, but also, many, but not all, women have vulvas. If actual vulva hats were the symbol, then yes, that's absolutely exclusionary. There were a lot of signs that equated womanhood with having a uterus, and that was exclusionary, too.

I have a pink pussy hat. I'll never wear it again because people do find it exclusionary, but I'm also kinda irked that the right got away with redefining it. I can do both.

I'm also irked that the leaders have never fully addressed the Farrakhan/anti-Semitism thing because it's divisive AF and not at all helping the problem of anti-Semitism (NOT anti-Zionism but straight up Jew hate) on the left. Which I know exists because I've been a target of it.
posted by Ruki at 6:12 PM on January 18, 2019 [17 favorites]


i mean.... I ever thought it was a vulva because of the way it looked.

I thought that's what it represented because it's called the PUSSY hat. right? I thought that was literally what the hat was about.
posted by rebent at 7:11 PM on January 18, 2019 [3 favorites]


From the official website:

We love the clever wordplay of “pussyhat” and “pussycat,” buy yes, “pussy” is also a derogatory term for female genitalia. We chose this loaded word for our project because we want to reclaim the term as a means of empowerment. In this day and age, if we have pussies we are assigned the gender of “woman.” Women, whether transgender or cisgender, are mistreated in this society. In order to get fair treatment, the answer is not to deny our femaleness and femininity, the answer is to demand fair treatment. A woman’s body is her own. We are honoring this truth and standing up for our rights.

So I'm highlighting this part because I am trying to better understand why this is considered exclusionary. The vulgar use of pussy is defined as women's genitals. If you are a woman, you have women's genitals, no matter what said genitals look like. That's my belief and understanding as a cis women. So while a trans woman may or may not have a vulva, she has a pussy by virtue of being a woman. Cat ears, play on words, NOT a vulva.

The page I linked also talked about the visual representation aspect as the primary reason.

It's not a hill I want to die on but I am saddened that trans women feel excluded by the vulva narrative promoted by the right. It was never a vulva but the right sure won because now it's a symbol just as divisive as the Women's March itself. I don't find any of this fun. Quite the opposite, really.
posted by Ruki at 8:09 PM on January 18, 2019 [11 favorites]


I attend a diverse and progressive Baptist church in the heart of downtown DC. (Our current senior co-pastors are a married lesbian couple, and we have been led by a trans woman in recent history as well.)

The 2 weekends I hate the most are the weekend all the police groups and FOPs come into town, because that's ALWAYS ALWAYS ALWAYS the weekend our Black Lives Matter sign is vandalized or torn to shreds, and the weekend of the March for Life, because we invariably get visits from those people, who I guess just google "Baptist church near me" and don't read up on our congregation. Anyway, usually they leave about 2 minutes into the service, after seeing that we allow LADIES to participate fully in worship, but sometimes they stick around to be horrible assholes to the pastors.

Anyway, due to the shutdown we're apparently hosting a large-ish DC LGBTQIA+ meeting in our church building tomorrow before & during worship (it was originally planned to take place in one of the Smithsonian museums, I think). So we're keeping a more watchful eye on security than usual.

I hate March for Life weekend.
posted by duffell at 2:27 PM on January 19, 2019 [7 favorites]


I marched today! Every one was there, the entire set and then some, every cause thousands in Bakersfield. It seemed like a little maze set up starting and ending in a park. No disruption of downtown. What else I saw was dozens of expensive video cameras and they looked official. I have radar for surveillance and there was that aplenty. It was all light, cheery, ran into my family after I figured out where to park and just started walking. My favorite sign, succinct, reminded me of MEFI, ITMFA! There were so many grandmothers, babies, dreamers, pussy hats, rainbow pussy hats, parade and event management from every cause, lots of men. One chant was "We Are Not Divided!" It was a very friendly event. Except for the creeptacular, obvious, surveillance
posted by Oyéah at 2:56 PM on January 19, 2019 [5 favorites]


I went to the event in Juneau, Alaska and I thought the organizers did a good job as far as being inclusive. Four of the speakers were Alaska Native and one of the speakers was a trans woman. After the rally, a group of native dancers led a procession to the local convention center where booths were set up for all sorts of local and national organizations (Planned Parenthood, SEAGLA, environmental groups, etc). They did address antisemitism on the event page by stressing that the event was entirely locally organized and that they worked with many members of the local synagogue, but I kind of wish that had made a cleaner break with the national organization.

The local newspaper put up photos of the event (technically paywalled, but you can still read 5 articles for free I think).
posted by timelord at 3:02 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


Update from St Paul, MN. Very cold day so fairly low participation. [Okay I just looked at an article in the Star Tribune - apparently we were 4000!] Sorry Juneau, we are like 30 degrees colder than you. It was 0 when I got to the march.

The organizing meeting I went to (mentioned upthread) was mainly white ladies. The speakers, however, represented a lot of different groups. Several black women, among them a trans woman (CeCe McDonald), several Muslim women in hijab (including my rep, Ilhan Omar), and BLM leaders. Several Native women. At least one Latina (I didn't see all the speakers; had to go warm up.) A woman with a disability. A few high schoolers. An immigration attorney who has been working at the border.

A few good signs:
- Watch out, we're syncing our periods
- IKEA has better cabinets
- Hope not grope
- FAKE CRISIS NO WALL
- The present is female
- Behind every strong woman are more strong women
- The inferiority of women is man made
- Pic of RBG with the words "When there are 9"

A few people tried to use the crowd to their own purposes. Someone distributed socialist lit that said Hillary Clinton isn't a real feminist or something like that. A couple of people with signs and lit about ending male circumcision were speaking loudly during the speeches, but then they gave up and left.

Also, a couple of people with signs on tall sticks listing all the sins we were committing and telling us to repent and find Jesus. One of the women carrying a big women's march flag stood near them, maneuvering her flag to cover up their signs. They kept moving, so she would move... very clever.

Planned Parenthood handed out hats in their signature bright pink, so the crowd looked pretty pink even though their weren't many pussy hats.
posted by Emmy Rae at 3:45 PM on January 19, 2019 [4 favorites]


It is too bad about the pussyhats, but obviously I don't want to wear something divisive. One thing I liked about them was they were easy for children to identify, and a way for parents and teachers to quietly express solidarity with their students. I was waiting with my kid for his school bus one morning wearing mine (because it was freeeeezing) and a little 6-year-old girl from down the street, who's a PoC, said shyly, "I like your hat, is it a kittycat hat?" I said, "It is a kittycat hat, thank you for noticing!" And she said, even more shyly, "I have one too, because I don't like Trump." and I told her I felt the same. I got approached a few other times by junior high and high school students who just wanted to tell me they noticed it and they liked it or they were glad to see an adult wearing it around town. It's just such a scary time for young PoCs and young women and young LGBTQ+ people, and it was just a visible way to let those kids know they weren't alone in the community.

Oh well. On to other wearable symbols, yard signs, and very loud public objections to assholes!
posted by Eyebrows McGee at 5:46 PM on January 19, 2019 [10 favorites]


I enjoyed the one in Napa I went to--they definitely had PoC and at least one person from another country in the presentation section, as well as Nancy Pelosi's daughter and their local congressman. Pussy hats abounded and there was one lady who has been providing them to people all year, apparently. It was a nice turnout. I was kind of sad there were fewer options for marches to go to (the one closest to me is terrible for parking so I try to go to protests in other towns) but I hadn't been to this town before and it was fun to hang out there afterwards post-march. They had supportive signs in the store windows (I really wish I could have done a marcher's mimosa but I was driving) as well and people in the stores I went in asked how it went.
posted by jenfullmoon at 9:37 PM on January 19, 2019 [1 favorite]


Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Speaks at 2019 Women's March in New York City (De Elizabeth, Teen Vogue)
"Justice is about making sure that being polite is not the same thing as being quiet."
Tweet with video link
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:43 AM on January 20, 2019


@MargieOmero
Spotted at the #WomensMarch2019 [Sign titled "Public Trust". Trump, 24%. Gas Station Sushi, 27%.]
posted by ZeusHumms at 9:47 AM on January 20, 2019 [3 favorites]


Oh well. On to other wearable symbols, yard signs, and very loud public objections to assholes!

Bear in mind ANY symbol you wear is going to be called out as divisive and objectionable, because the whole point is to isolate women, mage them think they alone in resisting. It's a very productive game to have ostensible allies attack each other


As for me, Iattended the march, because damn it, the tech bros and MRA trolls in Silicon need to be reminded they haven't quite succeeded in killing MeeToo and forcing women to shut up and go back to putting up with their shit.

It was a warm, beautiful day, and we had a good, diverse crowd. So we'll do it again next year. We're going to keep marching, until it's pointed out that marching and speaking out is divisive and exclusionary and wouldn't it be better if we just didn't say anything?
posted by happyroach at 11:13 AM on January 23, 2019 [10 favorites]


« Older Puputov Cocktails and Other Shitty Weapons   |   That's "one hundred ten", not "six" Newer »


This thread has been archived and is closed to new comments