Why Did the Women’s March Feel So Ineffective?
If you’re not ready to die for it, put the word ‘freedom’ out of your vocabulary. — Malcolm X
Although 2017 is only in its third month, we already see that this year will be marked with controversy, despair, and lots of protests. This is the year our new president, Donald Trump, took his seat in the oval office and began his four year reign. Donald Trump has said a series of things that has upset everyone- literally everyone. From calling Mexican immigrants “drug dealers and rapists,” silencing the EPA for going against his views of climate change, to even saying you can “grab ‘em by the pussy” when referring to women. These are only a fraction of the controversial things that he has said and done. Because of Trump’s controversial dialect and the fact that he is now our president, we have seen a series of protests take place since his inauguration. One of the biggest protests was the Women’s March that took place worldwide. The Women’s March combined women of every color, ethnicity, age, and sexuality to fight against President Trump’s sexism. The movement became so large that women all over the world decided to take part in our action and march with us as well. Undoubtedly, the movement was huge, but, why does it feel like it had no impact on our society?
The Women’s March was was created after Trump’s victory and was supposed to be a post-inauguration protest that would fight his regime because of the derogatory words used by Trump towards women. The Women’s March website indicates it’s goal is to show that women’s rights are human rights. Don’t get me wrong this sounded really amazing, however, somewhere along the march people began to protest for immigration rights, for Black Lives Matter, for the LGBTQ community, for religious tolerance, for the scientists who were being silenced, and some even protested for the impeachment of Trump. Within the movement, a lot of other movements sprouted out which kind of made the march a bit confusing.
You might read that and think- what? Are you serious? We’re protesting Trump and his rhetoric! Well, yes, we are protesting against some things he’s said and done, but what was our main goal? As stated, the Women’s March website shows that the goal was to show women’s rights are human rights. Apparently we were going to march to show the world that we women deserve equality. This is a bit confusing because the protest was supposed to be a fight against Trump’s presidency and the sexism that constantly spews out of his mouth. Also, when we added the title “Women” to march, it was assumed we would fight for women. Instead when we fought for all other aspects of Trump’s rhetoric, the march really just got all jumbled up and the goal became unclear. We’re we still fighting for women’s rights? For immigrants? For the LGBTQ community? Or were we calling for the impeachment of Trump and his administration? The answer is still unclear. Vice News also acknowledges this and says it was “the world’s first whatever you want it to be march.” Because we did not have a clear goal within the Women’s March, it was virtually impossible to create any change to our regime.
The next reason why the Women’s March felt a bit ineffective was because we were not all united. As stated, the Women’s March was assumed to be a protest against Trump and his controversial words towards women. Things began to get a bit confusing afterwards when the message got mixed up. However, things began to also get confusing when women who were prolife advocates were banned from attending this march. These women also opposed Trump and his new presidency but were denied the right to attend because of a difference in opinion. Instead of uniting for a common cause that we believed in, we ended up dividing ourselves and our potential allies. The point of the March was to rally against a sexist president who thinks it’s okay to do as he pleases, but we transformed it into something completely different to the point that we excluded women who could have fought alongside us if our goal had remained to fight Trump.
Going back to the multitude of protests during the actual main March, the image to the right shows a powerful, insightful sign. The sign asks white women if they will be at the next Black Lives Matter march. This is controversial because the reality is that well, they won’t. The Women’s March puts up a front that everyone is united in solidarity with one another. While that may be true in that moment, most of these people are absent during Black Lives Matters movements, immigration protests, and virtually almost everything else. Some women may not even agree with these other movements which made all the other movements going on within the Women’s March a bit more contraversial. Many people of color inclusively opposed going to this march because many felt that they did not have a sisterhood with the white women marching in this “white women’s march.” Bell Hooks, Feminist Theory: From Margin to Center, expresses the importance of sisterhood. She quotes,
“Abandoning the idea of Sisterhood as an expression of political solidarity weakens and diminishes feminist movement. Solidarity strengthens resistance struggle. There can be no mass-based feminist movement to end sexist oppression without a united front-women must take the initiative and demonstrate the power of solidarity.”
If we are not united and standing in solidarity with one another, then no real change can come about.
The last reason why the Women’s March and any other march have not been effective is because we lack a sense of urgency. Although marching is a great way to spread awareness to a widespread of issues, it will not do much. We can march on the streets (although we must get a permit to do so), we can hold up banners and signs (although we must buy them from those who oppress us), and we can shout at the top of our lungs that we need change — but in reality this will not bring change. We must change our tactics; we don’t need to march for change, we need a revolution to bring change. Pat Parker’s, “Revolution: It’s Not Neat or Pretty or Quick,” from This Bridge Called My Back, expresses that the only way to bring real change is through revolution. Parker states, “…to support national liberation struggles alone is not enough. We must actively fight within the confines of this country to bring it down.” Parker also mentions, “In order to survive in this world we must make a commitment to change it; not reform it - revolutionize it.”
This revolutionary urgency was clearly evident in the demonstrations in Egypt called by Asmaa Mahfouz on the 25th of January in 2011. Her plea to protest the corrupt government of Egypt, especially their President Mubarak, was heard all over Egypt as she explained in a YouTube video how protesters had risked their lives setting themselves on fire in order to make a statement on the corruption of the government. This video helped spread awareness and many gathered in Cairo’s Tahrir Square to march alongside her and their fellow Egyptian brothers and sisters. This protest soon began to receive death threats but the crowd did not care because they knew it was time for a change. One of the women at the demonstrations even stated that her father had told her and her brother, “Don’t run away from gun fire, run towards it.” The protests lasted for days and many staked out in the dangerous Town Square enduring all the violence from the police and government until they finally got their president to resign.
The Women’s March initially had a slightly similar goal — to fight Trump’s new presidency. We wanted to change this government that constantly devalued women and constantly kept us oppressed. Our outcome was nothing near what Egypt was able to achieve. We did not have a clear goal, we did not have unity, and we sure as hell did not have a sense of urgency. Most people are unwilling to go to a protest because of the fear of consequences these protests will bring. If we want change, we must face the system head on. We cannot use the systems tools to simply march and chant what we want, we must fight for it. But to fight for it, we must clearly define our goal. If we think Trump and his administration is corrupt, we must find a way to overthrow him and get him out. We must also unite. If we agree that we want Trump out, we must fight together despite the differences in our ideologies. We stand stronger together, not divided. We also need a sense of urgency. Marching is great, but it is not urgent, it is planned. Similarly, the Women’s March was great in spreading awareness, but that’s all it did. If we want real change, we must come together and not be afraid of the bombshells thrown at us. We must work for change. If we can achieve all of this then our protests will finally have some effectiveness to them.
