Why They March

I haven’t really had a chance to full form my thoughts on the world wide Women’s March that happened today. It’s a truly mixed bag of different ideas.. mostly pondering.

I went into the March with a lot of questions and came out with a lot of questions. I see this type of support world wide with enthusiasm and also skeptical reality.

So many agendas spread across so many women (and men). There was no clear message from what I could tell other than, we’re here and we have a problem with what we see happening.

And as successful as the marches were, I’d say that I’m very pessimistic going forward. This is because the one thing protesters wouldn’t say but I think everyone wants, the dissolution of a patriarchy… world wide.

Men can’t lead “us” anymore because they can’t be trusted to fight for what we want and/or need. Of course this is a gross generalization. This seems to be applied on multiple factors across different agendas as well including POC (people of color), LGBTQ, and immigrants.

They just simply don’t trust a “white man” to fight for what is best for them. And while MANY white men have fought for women’s rights and been at the forefront of civil liberties, it simply isn’t enough. Women have been losing ground on abortion for years now in so many states with tighter restrictions and controls.

I mention abortion in particular because the majority of the signs I saw were about pro-choice and a women’s right to make choices for her body.

And I remember thinking to myself, if the governing patriarchy would just stay out of women’s reproductive rights, there would be far less “resistance” in our current political climate.

The danger of course is the perceived idea that women want to take over. I think that is a bit ludicrous to buy into but who knows how people perceive these types of protests… I know a lot of people expressed that they thought the protesters were only anti-Trump or that they hate men all together.

Well, they probably all did hate Trump but definitely do not hate all men. There were so many men at the march here in Austin supporting their partners and friends.

I think the main message or rather the most impactful was to say, hey look young women around the world. If you want to choose to start leading and start representing your community, there is one behind you that will support you.

So maybe the “resistance” should start to be more well stated and defined going forward. It would be a shame for so many people to want a change in representation and not know how to achieve it.. (I’m looking at you Occupy Wall Street).