A march for gender equality
On Saturday Jan. 21, 2017 women and men all over the world marched in unity to oppose the values that they believe Trump represents. The Women’s March went beyond the United States, and protestors from all over the world attended marches to protest women’s rights and other issues that they fear will arise from Trump’s presidency.
The Women’s March in Washington was the focus, where an estimated 470,000 people attended, according to Marcel Altenburg and Keith Still, who are crowd scientists at Manchester Metropolitan University in Britain. This means the Women’s March in Washington was roughly three times the size of the audience that attended Trump’s inauguration.
While the courageous people all over the world marched, some sat behind their computers and used the online platform to spew negativity regarding the marches.
Memes, blogs, statuses and other writings and pictures are still surfacing throughout the Internet, bashing “feminism” and criticizing those who marched.
The article, “This Woman DOES NOT support The Women’s March” on Blogher.com highlights the opposition of what the women and men stood for on Jan 21.
“This WOMAN does not support it. They call it a women’s march but it’s only for women who share the same thoughts and beliefs as they do. That means they are the women who believe X, Y, and Z. Oh and hate Trump even though he hasn’t done one thing yet. Way to be open. Way to be accepting. Way to NOT represent all women. I’m all for equal pay with men, but marching and chanting isn’t going to do a damn thing. In fact, it’s going to do just the opposite. Trump won, get over it and also give him a chance. This country needs UNITY not more DIVISION and all this does is keep us from getting together,” the article stated.
A popular post written by Cheyenne Marie Binger is plastered all over Facebook and has more than 21,000 likes and 5,000 comments. The words toward the end of the post are striking.
“The problem is women are allowed to do whatever they want, right alongside men, and instead of actually doing it they choose to scream that they aren't equal because that's easier than actually applying yourself? I'm not sure why they scream and cry that they aren't equal.”
Women have overcome an abundance of inequalities, but to women who are denying the importance of the marches, you’re oblivious. There are surpluses of historic women who gave us a voice by marching and protesting. They were arrested, imprisoned and beaten and there are woman saying “marching and chanting” isn’t going to do anything.
Women like Susan B. Anthony, Rosa Parks and Alice Paul used their voices so that we could have a voice and rights. We didn’t earn the rights we have, we were born and they already existed.
Women are still fighting to breastfeed in public; there is still a gender pay gap and the right to choose what we do with our bodies is still undermined.
Women are still scared to walk alone at night. They’re still catcalled and shamed based on how they choose to clothe themselves.
Some women are more privileged than others, but it’s puzzling that people think that being unified and standing up for what you believe in is useless. Women of color and transgender and gay women are treated even less than.
We’re not equal to men, and people need to open their eyes and see that. We’re not equal in The United States and women abroad are most definitely not equal.
Jessica Valenti from the Washington Post sums it up perfectly.
“We have no problem condemning atrocities done to women abroad, yet too many of us in the United States ignore the oppression on our doorstep. We’re suffering under the mass delusion that women in America have achieved equality.”