The Prosperous Pussy Hats Are More Problematic Than You Think
Before wearing these hats, think about what you are really saying when you wear them.
This past weekend was the third annual Women's March all around the country. Women from all over came to their nearest march with handmade signs and wearing knitted pussy hats to show off their "pussy power". While I do see the intention of the hats and that I am fully aware that two years ago when the first Women's March was relevant with Donald Trump's statement about grabbing women by the pussy, there's quite a lot that many people are missing when they wear those hats today.
The biggest thing that should be pointed out about the pussy hats is that they make the assumption that women are entirely defined by their genitalia, which is something that I thought feminists were supposed to fight against. Since the hats have those connotations attached to them, they are often seen as trans and non-binary exclusive. This, along with the fact that they also exclude women of color since every pussy hat is pink, give an exclusionary image to the feminist movement that many people would think the movement has grown out of by this time. But unfortunately, it hasn't, and many women have yet to learn why the pussy hats are outdated.
I have seen many women who claim to be feminists openly exclude trans women from conversations about women's rights, along with saying blatantly transphobic statements, so I was not so surprised when seeing many women at the march still wearing those pussy hats (along with holding signs that say "the future is female" but that's an article for another time). I hope that one day, more and more women will realize the problematic connotations that the pussy hats hold and the hats will be ditched by the movement for good. Although I hope, I still understand that it is more than likely that it will not happen and it makes my stomach sink every time.
As I said before, I have seen many people wear the pussy hats at the Women's March when I went this year. While I was making my sign to take to the march, I made a promise to myself that I would not accept one of those hats because I was fully aware of the racist and transphobic connotations that the hats had. I wanted to go to the march with the intention to fight for all women and with the realization that not all women have vaginas.
The biggest thing I wanted to say about the matter is that I'm super grateful that the Women's March exists and that so many women are supporting it and going to each march around the country every year. I'm upset about the fact that so many women are still missing the point of the feminist movement and what it truly means to fight for women. I would like to end this with my statement I ended up putting on my sign: "If you don't fight for all women, you fight for no women."
