Did anyone attend a women's march on Saturday?
23I did in Chicago and it was seriously one of the most profound experiences of my life.
I wasn’t even planning on going until the night before, and I wasn’t expecting it to be so huge. I only wish I would have come up with an awesome sign.
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My gf’s daughter was at the one in DC and said it was awesome (she lives and works down there).
I’ll find out tomorrow if anyone I know at work went to the NYC one.
Yes. Tucson. Very nice.
@12xuser Yay! I went to school in Tucson. Was the march downtown, I assume? I’ll bet you got a good turnout with all the UofA students.
I honestly have no idea why people are really marching. All I know is that my Facebook has become a cesspool of people complaining about the people that went.
I’m really happy they were so successful. Just unfortunate that 40
Years after Womens lib we are still fighting for basic rights.
@shannenelaine for sure
@shannenelaine just curious (not trying to start flame war or anything) which “basic rights” do you feel deprived of?
@almax00 We don’t have to the right to our own bodies. We don’t have equal pay. We pay more for just about everything. We’re still relegated to caretaker of children in addition to being expected to work full time (for less pay). The basic right to be perceived as a human being and not as an object or an accessory. I could go on, but suffice to say that we are no where near we should be.
@shannenelaine Back in the seventies it was about equal pay for equal work. The equal work part seems to have been dropped. I don’t get it.
@shannenelaine
Right to your own bodies? What is that supposed to be? Abortion? Or other?
@almax00 Here’s an essay by someone, a woman of privilege, who maybe could explain it.
https://medium.com/@susan.speer/to-christy-on-facebook-who-doesnt-need-the-women-s-march-beb4948e1e4b#.ozmmaq4jx
@almax00 Well, here’s a start:
How Texas Lawmakers Continue To Undermine Women’s Health
@lisaviolet Wow. Thanks for the link.
@lisaviolet Made me cry. I spent 30 years monitoring federally funded local social services organizations. Part of my job was reading case notes in random sample files for about 50 service organizations. These agencies provided a wide range of services but the killers were the crisis services and emergency shelters. Let me tell you, that is one helluva reality check. You can’t feel too sorry for yourself tonight when this morning you peered through windows into the lives of people who are genuinely desperate, afraid, trapped. Knowing that these are real people who live right here in my town, in my neighborhood. In the course of your day you are going to make contact with at least one person who is carrying some terrible secret, eaten alive by terror, crushed by grief, drowning in circumstances they can’t seem to escape.
@moondrake It was really eye opening for me.
@Drunkenalien Pretty sure that’s what they mean. I’m pro choice but it’s ridiculous when they frame it in a selfish way. It just smacks of Cartman saying “I’ll do what I want!”
@sammydog01 Might have to do with very few feminists wanting to work some of the dangerous work that men do for high pay… But wanting the pay anyway. The DOL and basic logic pretty routinely disprove the wage gap thing but it’s a wonderful catchphrase.
@almax00 not getting sexually assaulted should be basic.
@gilar1ja What sources do you have showing that?
@whiskeyish The Big Book of Alternative Facts.
@Drunkenalien It seems like the politicians that are especially against abortion also want to make it as hard as possible for women to get birth control or accurate, science-based (as opposed to religious-based) sex ed. I can even understand some peoples’ attitudes against abortion, but when we are still fighting for access to birth control, it is ridiculous. It seems, and the last 8 years seem to indicate, that pro-choice policies actually decrease abortion more because when we have pro-choice politicians in charge of policies, they are actually a hell of a lot more likely to put in place policies that end up reducing unwanted pregnancy.
@Drunkenalien it’s the right to use abortion as birth control. I get if it’s rape/incest or there is a risk to the health of the mother, but the whole “f it, if I get pregnant I’ll just abort it” logic amazes me. The “choice” in pro-choice should come BEFORE conceiving the child. Unfortunately, morality doesn’t seem to mean much these days.
@logic How about access to contraceptives? In the efforts to deny women the choice of abortion, many women are being handed increased challenges in obtaining birth control. This leads to more unplanned pregnancies, more abortions, more unwanted children. People who don’t want abortions should be in favor of easy access to birth control.
@logic Yes, in the olden days if a woman got knocked up before marriage, she either got sent off to have the baby, or she got married.
In my case, I was that baby and my mother blamed me for every damned thing that was bad in her life. Oh, she loved me, because that’s what mothers do, but she didn’t like me. I was the reason for her shitty life. I was the reason she couldn’t leave my dad and have the life she felt she deserved. Hell, I ran away at six years old because because I knew she didn’t like me. Hours later, in the cold and snow of Salt Lake City, I finally went home because there was no place else to go.
Thank God I was an only child. But that woman’s unhappiness damaged me. I think she would have been a much happier woman if she’d had the option to abort me. And my little unborn baby soul could have just floated along until I found another mother who wanted me.
And we’d all have lived happily ever after.
The end.
@logic No one goes out and has abortions for fun. Having a child is a lifetime commitment, and not everyone is prepared for that. Birth control does fail. Before you say abstinence- do you only have sex when you want (another?) child?
I am so glad to “know” someone who went! YAY you! I spent most of the day glued to MSNBC for their great coverage. I went to D.C. three times in the late '80’s and early '90’s when the crowds were over 100,000, and I had the same sense of profound change as you. Care to share some of your “moments” and the things you saw? I’d love to hear them.
I thought the Chicago aerial views were among the best for showing how many densely packed people were there; seeing those images gave me (and much of the country) hope that we will still succeed in protecting human rights and affordable health care for all.
@magic_cave First off all, I wasn’t even planning on going at all. My BROTHER, of all people, talked me into going. He said he wanted to be there with his big sis, which makes me tear up a little to think about now.
I would say probably 1/4 or 1/5 of the crowd was men, which really surprised me. Pleasantly.
The signs were AMAZING. People really put a lot of thought and time into making them. And the hats too. There were so many different variations on the “pussy hats.”
I loved that nobody was selling anything and most of the signs were handmade. It just felt so completely genuine.
And the mood of the crowd was so surprisingly cheerful. Yes, people were upset about Trump, but mostly they were just happy to be together.
@magic_cave Also, since we didn’t get anywhere close to where the speeches were, we weren’t aware that the actual marching had been canceled because the crowd was too big. But some people started marching anyway and we just followed along. Then we did the chants – which is way more fun and empowering than I expected.
And at some point we realized we were just taking over a street that wasn’t blocked off by police. And we were chanting, “whose streets? Our streets!”
But it was a friendly sort of civil disobedience, if that makes sense. A few cars got stuck for awhile, but they were mostly on our side and were honking and cheering us on.
@christinerenee Two of the three big marches I was in had random groups of folks marching with drums. Big, nicely thumping drums, the kind that make both chants and the marching itself easier and really add to the high spirits of the event. I suspect your own good feelings will last for a long time. I still have some of the shoulder banners and a lot of various buttons and pins from those long-ago days. Just opening the boxes and looking at them triggers great memories.
Give your brother a cyber hug for me and tell him it’s always nice to see the “sisterly brothers.”
@magic_cave I was near the front of the DC march. The march route was changed at the last minute, extended much farther than planned because the number of people that showed up was too much for the shorter route.
When my group got back to the “official” start line of the march, we passed a marching band in the middle of the protesters. No idea who they were, or where they came from, but that was COOL!
More awesome was the fact that we had looped completely around the route and stood there for a few minutes before it occurred to us that we never saw the end of the marchers. We were ending our march when several thousand were STILL just starting.
Blew. My. Mind!
@fait wow! that’s beautiful!
@fait [grinning] Yep, that amazement hit me too. I was in about the middle of the mall, headed for the Washington Monument, planning to hang a right on 14th street, then a right onto Constitution, then end up on the grounds of the Capitol. Before my group could even get to 14th, the first marchers were already on the Capitol grounds. Ah, the memories!
@fait It’s been a day since I read your description of the size of the crowd. I just wanted to tell you I read it again just now, and I’m still grinning and chuckling. I’m so glad to wrote about it.
A friend of mine did but I had a previous committment.
@moondrake Bummer, maybe next time. I feel like there will be a next time.
@christinerenee I believe things are being planned for April.
@atravis6 Yay!
I managed to throw out my back and spent the morning at the chiropractor and the afternoon on ice - which sucks because I really wanted to be at the one here in my city. The march was the largest march/protest in city history and I’m so proud to know so many wonderful people who participated.
Also, a family member made the trip to DC and I’m so proud of her.
Every woman I know who marched came home feeling empowered and spoke of the love and strength of those marching with them. Such a great experience for all.
I see at least one person up there asking why women marched - here’s an easily googled link.
@Thumperchick I really believe there will be more of these marches. I don’t know about any official plans, but I feel like everyone who went on Saturday is looking forward to the next chance to do this again. And it will be even bigger next time because all the people who couldn’t make it or didn’t realize how great it would be will show up.
@christinerenee I know our local one was considered step one. The march concluded with a meeting and discussion of how to further make an impact.
@Thumperchick Great link – many thanks for posting it.
I went to the one in LA, and it was… overwhelming but seriously positive experience. The estimated crowd of 750k might be a little high, but it was was more than any pictures online showed it to be. There was literally no marching to be done because streets were completely packed with people. I saw a celebrity standing less than 20 feet away and it took me 15 minutes of finagling to get close enough to shake his hand. I didn’t have a sign, but I did have a shirt that said “words have meanings” which is, scarily enough, a political statement these days.
Here are a few:
@KDemo Looks more Anti-Trump than Equal Pay for Equal Work
@emt305 - And . . . ?
@emt305 Equal pay for equal work is only one issue among the many that women are concerned with. I’m a woman and I am concerned with many issues that Trump threatens to screw up.
@KDemo And what? What other rights do you not have? Can you not work outside your home? Can you not drive and, if you have the gas, go pretty much anywhere on the continent without checkpoints & being searched (except at borders)? Do you have to wear certain clothing or be stoned or beaten? Free to eat whatever you buy, wear whatever you want pretty much, love who you want to love. I guess I really must be out of touch, because I can’t really think of anything that I want to do that I can’t. Of course, if Trump builds that wall, I’m sure I wouldn’t be able to climb over it, so he may screw that up for me.
@emt305 Aw, come on, give him a chance, it’s only been six days…
@emt305 You’ll definitely be able to climb over it. But taking one of the tunnels under it is easier.
The ‘US-Mexico border is literally riddled with tunnels’
The link doesn’t seem to have taken:
http://www.businessinsider.com/inside-mexican-drug-cartel-narco-tunnels-on-the-us-mexico-border-2016-9
From what I saw, I was embarrassed to be a woman.
@lseeber Why? I used to go to protests regularly, and from what I saw it went amazingly well- especially given the number of people involved. The original reason I stopped going to protests as often was I was tired of getting tear gassed. This one had no violence, no serious altercations with police, well organized…
@lseeber (that was political views aside, since I think most Americans believe the right to complain about our government is important). My wife wanted me to add- “There are so many better reasons if you want to be embarrassed to be a woman- Miley Cyrus, Nikki Menage… Those women who would throw used tampons at other people- that’s not nice.”
@Pantheist I heart your wife. And you. I heart you, too. And my husband. I really heart my husband.
@lisaviolet
she says “we gota go back to watching midnight cowboy. See you guys lata”
@Pantheist A woman with priorities.
I have a bunch of facebook friends who went to marches throughout the country. DC, Alabama,Chicago, Denver, Sacramento, McMinnville Oregon, from all over. It is so great to read about their experiences.
Nobody felt threatened, everyone said it was peaceful.
I love seeing the photos of the police wearing the pink hats and smiling. It really made me feel good.
@lisaviolet Didn’t someone’s hair get set on fire?
I wasn’t there. I did just find the video and the person who did that really needs to be held accountable.
Thankfully it was put out before anything happened and the idea that someone one do that makes me ill. Whether they’re wearing a pink hat or a MAGA hat.
I did a wee bit o’ marching here in Seattle. Down with Cheeto Hitler!
I also marched in Richland, WA. Since this is smack in the middle of “red” country, I was gratified to have about 1000 or so other people marching with me. It was peaceful and there was a determined sort of mood. There were some folks in cars that drove by and gave either a thumbs-down or a middle finger salute, but we just waved or blew kisses at them. Lots of families. Loved it.
Marched in Seattle with 175,000 friends. It felt good to be with good people and do something positive.
I marched in Portland, Oregon. 100,000 strong! Peaceful, all genders, all ages and the signage was classic Portland. Haha. Very proud to have marched alongside these other beautiful souls…
This is one of my Facebook friends at the DC March. She made a poster of us who couldn’t be there in person.
I’m on the bottom row, second from the right in my pussy hat, holding one of our cats.
@lisaviolet Awww! What a great friend!
@lisaviolet Great sign, and you look wonderful!
@magic_cave Thank you.
I was at DC with two other people. We started the day trying to catch Metro into the city from Virginia. Metro announced that they had temporarily closed the station because they were at “maximum capacity”. I have never heard of that here before.
When we got to the Mall (early in the day), we attempted to find the stage. There were so many people that we couldn’t get anywhere remotely close to the stage or speakers. Couldn’t hear a thing. Couldn’t see a thing (except lots, and lots, and LOT of other protesters). There was a point in the day when it took the three of us over 90 minutes to “walk” about 6 feet and back. At one point, we were crammed in so closely that I counted 7 different other people touching me.
At 11:30 AM, the step counter on my phone had logged over 11,000 steps. We had traveled <1/4 mile in actual distance.
The day was one surprise after another. This included (but is not limited to) the following:
TLDR; I couldn’t hear or see any of the programming, stood crammed in like sardines for the morning, walked my ass off in the afternoon. Whole body hurt like holy hell when I finally got home. 5/5. Would march again.
@fait That sounds a lot like my day but more crowded. And I was sore the next day too! So worth it.
@fait If it’s any consolation at all, MSNBC reported that even Cher got stuck in the crowd and never made it to the stage for her speech. Can you imagine looking sideways through the shoulder-to-shoulder crowd and discovering that 30’ down the line is Cher, in the same shoulder-to-shoulder crowd?
@magic_cave Was that in DC? I was under the impression it was in NYC. But I could be mistaken.
@InFrom It’s entirely possible I’m the one who got it wrong. I spent the entire day camped in front of the TV watching the day’s events. By the end of the day (and well into the night reading news accounts) I’m not sure I could have told you The Spouse’s name without thinking about it first. So I’ll take a leap of faith here and thank you for the correction!
We were in DC as well, staying near the end of a Metro line in MD. We got kind of a late start, when we got into town it was past 11. We couldn’t get anywhere near the Mall, we were on a perpendicular (I gather) street near the Sackler. There were big video screens and speakers set up every couple of blocks, so we had a great view of everything. It was crowded, but not super-packed, and people around us were mellow, except for when people got bored with listening to speakers and chanted “March! March! March!”
It was a long, chilly, but ultimately energizing day. As I was lying in bed in the hotel that night, my Fitbit app notified me I needed only 285 more steps to complete 10K. I had to laugh. Sure, I’ll just jump up here and get dressed…
After going from almost no history of knitting to finishing two hats in less than two weeks, I have to say it feels like a letdown to have nothing to knit! I finished the last stitches as I was waiting on the long line to buy my Metro ticket on Saturday morning. I’m going to find myself a new knitting project, maybe something I can donate locally.
@InFrom We were lucky in Chicago that it was crazy warm – I never heard how warm it got but at least in the 50s. In January!
@christinerenee Yeah, the DC forecasts predicted mid-to-upper 50s, but I doubt we got to 50. It was just foggy and misty all day.
I was told there would be 50s…
@InFrom I love this! One of my SILs stayed up until 2:00 AM crocheting our hats. I was up until 11:30 making our Catsden’s Flag shirts.
@christinerenee Here in L.A. it poured on Friday and Sunday but we had the perfect LA day on Saturday!
@fait Great shirt!
I was in DC with my sister and her children and grandchildren, plus a few friends. It was glorious! I could hear all the speakers (but couldn’t see them or the big screen) and laughed and cheered. We made friends with all the folks around us. People came from all over. Right near us were folks from Kentucky, New Hampshire, Boston, and New York.
I have been to a lot of demonstrations, but this was definitely the sweetest and friendliest one I have ever been to. And the biggest! I felt great about affirming our rights to control our own bodies and our support for Planned Parenthood, which has helped me enormously over my life with health care and preventive screenings. I also felt hopeful that so many folks were willing to work for positive change.
It didn’t end at the end of the day because I feel committed to working for progressive change and candidates. I encourage everyone to participate.
My only suggestion for improvement is that I felt they could have had more music, especially music the whole crowd could join in on. But otherwise it was an inspiring, empowering, magical day.
My wife and I didn’t have the means to get down, but my Mom is happy she went.
@Pantheist great sign!
@Pantheist Why the blocked out faces?
@emt305 Because I didn’t ask their permission to post here.
@Pantheist Very thoughtful of you! Many people don’t even think of those kind of things.
@emt305 thanks!
Raleigh was awesome!
@jfoote Great photos!
@jfoote So glad to hear that! My son, DIL, and grandson will be moving to Raleigh in early March, and I’ve been gently poking him about NC politics. (He went to his first march with his dad and me – he was 6 at the time – and has never really stopped being politically active.)
I am so proud of you all!
I went to the Philly one, it was awesome. I’ve never been to a protest of any kind before this, but there were people singing, dancing, cracking jokes, and just generally being friendly the whole time. Lots of people were talking about how to become/stay involved. I’m very introverted, and yet I felt like I was a part of a community.
Everyone will be just fine. We need someone who can stand up for middle America and negotiate deals on behalf of the whole nation not just the coasts. I really doubt that women’s rights will be set back at all. If anything more women will be freed from poverty.
@logandale - Not sure what you mean by the deal negotiation thing, but I just hope you pay attention and keep an open mind. Because, if you do, you are in for a major reality shock.
And welcome to the forum.
Thank you
@carl669 Did you design this sign?
@lisaviolet hmm… though i’ve said that many a time, i think “fuck the fucking fuckers!” is more my style.
@carl669 - But why beat around the bush?
@KDemo i always try to be subtle with my language
I marched in Seattle. Everyone I knew who marched or saw the march told me how uplifted they felt.
I told them, “That’s great! Whatever you do, don’t stop here. We must make this the beginning of something powerful and, most importantly, something that causes real change.”
A couple of my photos from Seattle’s march:
Yes. Locally. Apparently I passed by a TV camera and never noticed. Someone told me my face was briefly on the news. Guess that makes me a marked woman when someone decides to try to ID us all and take revenge. LOL
@Kidsandliz We were joking about the same thing. At least there were A LOT of us. They can’t take revenge on ALL of us. I hope.
@christinerenee You forget - the revenge taker has access to all sorts of resources that he now thinks is “his” to do with as he sees fit. LOL
@Kidsandliz