{"id":601,"date":"2020-01-24T22:14:50","date_gmt":"2020-01-25T04:14:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/datadc\/?p=601"},"modified":"2020-05-15T22:19:30","modified_gmt":"2020-05-16T03:19:30","slug":"this-is-what-a-feminist-looks-like","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pages.stolaf.edu\/datadc\/2020\/01\/24\/this-is-what-a-feminist-looks-like\/","title":{"rendered":"THIS IS WHAT A FEMINIST LOOKS LIKE"},"content":{"rendered":"

On Saturday, January 18th a group of us decided to go to the Women\u2019s March in D.C. We met the crowd at Freedom Plaza to listen to the many speakers before we marched over to surround the White House for the fourth time since the march’s inception in 2017. It was one of the coldest days since we arrived to D.C. and it began to rain, snow, and hail onto all of our pink hats, but this didn\u2019t stop most of us for standing up for things we believe are important (and, as Minnesotans, a little cold and precipitation never stopped us, right?).<\/span><\/p>\n

The Women\u2019s March was proposed by a woman on Facebook named Teresa Shook<\/a>. She said that because of the history of Donald Trump\u2019s inappropriate sexual actions towards women and his election over the first female presidential nominee of a major party in U.S. history, a response from women was necessary. After thousands of women signed up to march in Washington D.C., activists and organizers began planning a large-scale event scheduled for January 21, 2017, the day after Trump\u2019s Inauguration. Their mission statement: \u201cto harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change.”1<\/sup><\/a>As many as 500,000 people showed up, many wearing pink clothing. One of the items of clothing included pink hats with cat ears called \u201cpussyhats,\u201d created to reclaim the use of the word \u201cpussy\u201d after Trump\u2019s statement that he would \u201cgrab [women] by the pussy\u201d in 2005.<\/p>\n

\"A <\/span>The march spread worldwide as well, with a sister march happening in all 50 states and in more than 30 countries. It was later reported that a whopping 4.1 million people participated in marches around the United States, and up to 5 million people worldwide. It was the largest single-day protest in history!<\/span><\/p>\n

The first thing we were met with at Freedom Plaza on that rainy morning was people handing out free signs for us to hold while we marched, and we were able to get free pink hats from Planned Parenthood, <\/a>who sponsors the march. We then proceeded to find the best signs that people created. Here are a few of my favorites that I was able to get a picture of:<\/span><\/p>\n

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“sisterhood is powerful”<\/p><\/div>\n

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“This is my resisting bitch face”<\/p><\/div>\n

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“Behind every strong woman are more strong women”<\/p><\/div>\n

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on the sashes: “my body,” “my choice,” “my freedom”<\/p><\/div>\n

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I believe this is to be interpreted as a vagina portrayed as a monster<\/p><\/div>\n

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This is not just a march for women\u2019s rights though. This is intersectional feminism. We must understand, for example, that \u201cthe problem of access to health care looks different for black women, trans women, disabled women and Indigenous women, and thus policies that address health care must take into account these different impacts and experiences.\u201d2<\/sup><\/a> It also means that people are advocating for other issues alongside sexism and misogyny; we saw people holding signs and flags for LGBTQ pride, gun reform, climate change, and lots and lots of signs, chants, and props regarding the impeachment of President Trump.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

It is also important to note that the first speaker we heard before the march is a part of the indigenous group whose land we were standing on, and she honored this by educating us about the land and singing a song from her native people. There were many speakers after her, including Martin Luther King III<\/a> and his wife Arndrea Waters King. The last speakers talked about the protests that began in Chile for International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women<\/a>\u00a0on 25 November 2019. They taught us the song that has now been performed by protesters in Mexico, Colombia, France, Spain, Turkey, and the United Kingdom, called \u201cUn Violador en tu Camino\u201d (A Rapist in your Path).\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n