Saturday I attended the Women's March on Louisiana, which took place in New Orleans. Sister marches took place in cities all over the United States, and overseas as well, in London, Sydney, Oslo, Dublin, and Cardiff, just to name a few. Celebrities, lawmakers, and a staggering amount of supporters flooded the streets. Though the numbers are still coming in, it's estimated that more than two and a half million people participated on Saturday--every news channel in America had at least one aerial shot of an amorphous crowd, spotted with pink, overwhelming an entire big city intersection.
So, you may ask yourself: what did this accomplish? Why is it important?
1. It started out non-violent, and it remained so in every city, all day.
My opinions on violent vs. nonviolent protest belong in another article, but do you know how dedicated every single person involved has to be to keeping their cool to keep a protest that spread out and massive completely peaceful? In New Orleans, there were very few hecklers; I only saw one Trump supporter attempt to harass the passing crowd of marchers. In other cities, however, I'm sure the story might have been much different. There were people there, actually trying to get a rise out of marchers, trying to incite outrage, trying to fuel a riot, and they did not succeed. And that is an accomplishment. Yesterday, over two million people were dedicated to love, not hate.
2. It was inclusive.
I have never seen a more diverse group of people than I saw in New Orleans on Saturday. There were trans folk there, people who are non-binary, Latinas, Latinos, black folks; people of every ethnicity, every skin color, every sexual orientation were there, together, joined in one cause. And every single speaker, world-wide, recognized each and every one of those groups. Too often marches and protests like this are overcome by "white feminism", which, incidentally, is the specific brand of feminism "anti-feminist" women so often scoff at, but Saturday, it was a different story.
3. #FreeMelania
Maybe this existed before it adorned all those signs yesterday, but I had never seen it. Come on, really. Someone needs to send her some help.
4. It stayed focused on its goals
If you don't know, women's rights are generally heralded as: the ability to choose what we do with our own bodies; the right not to be raped, and the appropriate punishment for our rapist if we are; equal pay (don't get me started on people who say the wage gap doesn't exist); and the ability to choose how we lead our lives. This is what the march was about, from beginning to end. Saturday, despite the fact that there were many signs that made fun of Donald Trump, it did not turn into a smear campaign. Every speaker and the vast majority of marchers remained focused on promoting women's rights.
5. Hope.
As a rather popular contemporary film said so well, rebellions are built on hope. Hope is so incredibly important to those that don't feel represented by the new administration. Saturday, there was hope in the air. In the crowd in front of me, there was a little boy sitting on his dad's shoulders. His dad was bouncing him up and down, and every time he did, the little boy would say "Yes we can!" And that, to me, was the most important thing of all. We are fighting for the next generation as much as ourselves. Saturday was a huge step in the right direction.
