As many people are aware, Donald Trump became the 45th President on Friday. And, again, as many people are aware, across the country (and around the world), the Women’s March took place. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able the march, but I fully support my fellow women who were able to attend the marches.
The day after the march, I was on Facebook and saw that a friend of mine had liked a post that spoke about how thousands of women marched against Trump for women’s rights, and underneath that was the Willy Wonka meme that said “tell me how many women’s rights Trump has taken away in the 24 hours he has actually been president…”
If emojis could show up in the paper, you would see the side eye emoji, the eye roll emoji and the side eye emoji again. But they don’t show up in paper, you’ll have to use your imagination to picture my facial expressions when I read that post.
The point of the march was to show the Trump administration and those who hold positions of power that this past election was incredibly divisive and to protest the harsh rhetoric that our now-president has used, both during his campaign and during his transition of power. The point of the march was to show that women’s rights are indeed human rights. The point of the march was to bring women, and men who support women, of all backgrounds together to show the administration that women are here and that they aren’t going to be silenced.
Which leads me to my next point. The Willy Wonka meme implies that women’s rights haven’t been affected by Trump’s presidency. However, that almost seems to be focusing on women’s rights for white women. That doesn’t include women of color or trans women, who historically have had less power and less rights than white women have. So, while Trump has (yet) to take away women’s rights, the post had an extremely narrow focus of what women’s rights entails.
Last night, when the marches had concluded, I saw a lot of tweets about what could be done now that the march was over. If you go to the Women’s March website, they have a new campaign called 10 Actions for the first 100 Days. While the full campaign hasn’t been released yet, the first step has been revealed. The first step is to write to your senator (here in Ohio, our senators are Rob Portman and Sherrod Brown) and let them know about what matters most to you and that you’re going to continue to fight.
There are also places that are currently taking donations. The day after the election, Jezebel posted a story on their website with a list of pro-immigrant, pro-women, pro-Earth and anti-bigotry organizations that need support and donations, some of which include the American Civil Liberties Union, the Anti-Defamation League, Border Angels, the Council on American-Islam Relations, EMILY’s List, the Native American Rights Fund, the New York City Alliance Against Sexual Assault, PEN America, Planned Parenthood and the Sierra Club, among others.
To my fellow women, and to the men who support women and women’s rights, change starts with us. Saturday proved once again that people of all backgrounds can peacefully come together to protest against hatred.
