Oh My Gosh! Where's the Women's March 2.0 thread?

Chris P

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Ha! I was just coming here to start it!

Gorgeous day here in DC. So great to see the enthusiasm and hopefulness of a year ago has not waned. We are smarter, better organized, and have a clearer vision as well as some documented successes from the daze of a year ago.

And we've got awesome signs.
"We may have uteruses but at least we use our brains."
"Voting is the cure for electile dysfunction."
"Today we march. Tomorrow we run (for office)."
So many genius ones.

And pics. I got pics.

tAgXfGw.jpg


jFQmlEs.jpg
 

Roxxsmom

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ElaineA

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I'm finding some of the convos I'm seeing on Twitter interesting--how little in-depth coverage the Resistance movement has gotten in the last year, and the "what if" the numbers we saw in both WM & WM 2.0 were white men marching speculation. Would the MSM be covering/discussing the demands of the marchers and how those demands should affect government policy in more depth?

I'm pretty sure the establishment (business, politics, media, all) thought, oh, this is...somethin' :Shrug:, but it seems pretty clear by all the !O_O! coverage of local and federal seat-flipping, they didn't pay attention to the actual organization that is part and parcel of the Women's March, and all the other associated grassroots movements that sprang up (or were bolstered, like Emily's List), and are quite remarkably coordinated in Big Picture Goals.

Can't say I'm surprised, or really that put out about it. Those not prepared for the tsunami, don't be surprised when you get swept away. We'll be waving from high ground.
 

nighttimer

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Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.


Oh, my dear GOD
.

You must watch Viola Davis' speech. If you have a living soul. You Must Watch and You Must Hear because Viola is a damn Queen:

We only move forward when it doesnÂ’t cost us anything. But IÂ’m here today saying that no one and nothing can be great unless it costs you something.

Seventy percent of girls who are sexually trafficked are girls of color. They are coming out of the foster care system, they are coming out of poverty. It is a billion-dollar business.

Nothing and no one can be great without a cost.

I am always introduced as an award-winning actor. But my testimony is one of poverty. My testimony is one of being sexually assaulted and very much seeing a childhood that was robbed from me. And I know that every single day, when I think of that, I know that the trauma of those events are still with me today. And thatÂ’s what drives me to the voting booth. ThatÂ’s what allows me to listen to the women who are still in silence. ThatÂ’s what allows me to even be a citizen on this planet
.

Fuck. I LOVE me some Viola Davis.

And then, there's Halsey. I'm not as familiar with Halsey as I am Viola Davis, but where she got my attention, she now has my interest.

I won't post the whole entire, but here's a sample and it is awesome:

It’s 2009

and I’m 14 and I’m crying.
Not really sure where I am,
but I’m holding the hand
of my best friend Sam
in the waiting room of a Planned
Parenthood.
The air is sterile and clean
The walls are that “not grey but green”
And the lights are so bright they could burn a hole through the seam
Of my jeans.
And my phone is buzzing in the pocket.
My mom is asking me
If I remembered my keys
Cause she’s closing the door
and she needs to lock it.
But I can’t tell my mom
Where I’ve gone
I can’t tell anyone at all
You see my best friend Sam
was raped by a man
that we knew cause he worked
In the after school program.
And he held her down
with her textbooks beside her
And he covered her mouth and then he came...
inside her.
So now I’m with Sam
At the place with a plan
Waiting for the results of a medical exam
And she’s praying
she doesn’t need an abortion.
She couldn’t afford it
Her parents would “like totally kill her”
 
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edutton

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I was quite pleasantly surprised at the turnout for the Charlotte march - like many people, I suspect, I was concerned that the momentum needed to sustain it wasn't really there. I was wrong. Official numbers aren't out yet, but while it was definitely smaller than last year, it was still a respectable crowd.
 

Roxxsmom

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Oh, my God.

Oh, my God.


Oh, my dear GOD
.

You must watch Viola Davis' speech. If you have a living soul. You Must Watch and You Must Hear because Viola is a damn Queen:

That's a powerful speech. And she's right--it's easy to coast and assume moving forward is a given with little effort or sacrifice while not seeing the people being left behind, the ones for whom the system isn't working at all. Maybe that's one problem with the women's movement--it's been very successful in some ways and for some people, at least to a point, so women and girls of more privileged backgrounds think the battle is won.

Until something unthinkable happens. Then they're alone and invisible, just as the women with less privilege have been all along.
 

MaeZe

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I don't think the battle is won.

#MeToo has made some important inroads. Time will tell if those are permanent changes.

Political gains: Not yet, but 2018 looks promising.
Minority rights: not much gained there and a lot of advances like legalizing homosexual marriage are threatened. Discrimination gains were small and those are also threatened.


With all the work left to be done, attacking each other is the least helpful thing people could be doing.
 
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Brightdreamer

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With all the work left to be done, attacking each other is the least helpful thing people could be doing.

Least helpful to us, that is. For those who prefer the status quo - especially those who would prefer the status quo as rolled back a few generations - the infighting is exceptionally helpful. Divide and conquer...
 

MaeZe

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Least helpful to us, that is. For those who prefer the status quo - especially those who would prefer the status quo as rolled back a few generations - the infighting is exceptionally helpful. Divide and conquer...

I have a drafted post about this but it comes across as a conspiracy theory. If I can document the Russian trolls working to stir this kind of internal conflict up, I may post the post.
 
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Brightdreamer

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I have a drafted post about this but it comes across as a conspiracy theory. If I can document the Russian trolls working to stir this kind of internal conflict up, I may post the post.

Sadly, it doesn't necessarily have to be an outside agent tossing stones in our midst - seems it's too easy to find reasons to infight among ourselves. (Not that I'm totally discounting the ability, and possible/probably reality, of external forces exacerbating existing schisms for their own gain...)
 

MaeZe

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Kate Starbird, a professor of computer science at the U of WA has done some work in this area. It's very difficult to understand from this research paper: Drawing the Lines of Contention: Networked Frame Contests Within #BlackLivesMatter** Discourse because it relies heavily on non-lay person language. But this lecture she gave last Oct that I went to was given in non-ivory tower English. Well worth the hour of time:

Finding "Fake News" in Times of Crisis: Online Rumors, Conspiracy Theories and Disinformation

Essentially her research team mapped out internet traffic revealing all sorts of interesting things like the Russian bot armies amplifying animosity between sides and within sides.


**In no way does any of this discredit the BLM movement. That was not an outcome of the research, nor were they looking for that. Rather the internet traffic shows things like amplifying hatred for the other guy.
 
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MaeZe

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Sadly, it doesn't necessarily have to be an outside agent tossing stones in our midst - seems it's too easy to find reasons to infight among ourselves. (Not that I'm totally discounting the ability, and possible/probably reality, of external forces exacerbating existing schisms for their own gain...)
It would seem a number of posts have been removed from this thread.

Perhaps it's best if I wait and see how the discussion goes before saying more.
 

Myrealana

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I had another obligation, so I couldn't be there, but I sent the signs we saved from last year with my foster daughter and her friend.

The turnout in Denver was considerably smaller than last year, but still numbers to be proud of.
 

Roxxsmom

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I don't think the battle is won.

Nor do I, but I know a number of women my age and younger (and even some who are older) who think, or at least they did prior to the 2016 election, that there's no need for feminism anymore, because some of the more blatant forms of sexism are rarer these days.

There has also been a tendency of mainstream feminism, which has been mostly a white and upper-middle-class movement, to ignore the issues that disproportionately affect women from other communities. The march was more diverse this year, but it still seems to be a very white crowd overall.

I've been guilty of this. I suspect there are still horrific things about which I have no idea. I don't think those of us who have been blind to issues not affecting us so much are bad people. It's pretty human to connect most with things you personally have experienced or worry about.

However, when one group has disproportionately had the means to shape the women's movement, it means it isn't as balanced as it should be. I hope we can have a more inclusive and well-rounded women's movement without jettisoning issues that affect any particular group of women.

We also need to keep the passion and momentum going until the midterm elections and beyond. A lot can happen between now and then, and it probably will. We can't take the wave of protest for granted. I'm very worried, for instance, that there will be some middle-class backlash against the Dems for the government shutdown, and there may be some independent, middle-class voters who don't itemize who will be seduced by a lower tax bill this year (and before the effects of less revenue start to be felt).
 
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AW Admin

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It would seem a number of posts have been removed from this thread.

Perhaps it's best if I wait and see how the discussion goes before saying more.

Perhaps you might check the threads and notice that there's a locked derail thread.

Stop the passive-aggressive crap. I have neither the time nor the interest to deal with it.
 

lizmonster

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Nor do I, but I know a number of women my age and younger (and even some who are older) who think, or at least they did prior to the 2016 election, that there's no need for feminism anymore, because some of the more blatant forms of sexism are rarer these days.

I had a Moment the other day when my extraordinarily outspoken 13-year-old balked at the word "feminism." She said "Well, I'm not a feminazi or anything," and I'm afraid we both kind of steamrolled her and told her about Rush Limbaugh and the origins of that word and she kind of gave us the "Okay! Okay!" response.

Even in the 80s the word was maligned. It's irritating that such misinformation gains traction.
 

Twick

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It's kind of sad seeing young women denying that they're feminists, yet who expect all the gains that feminists fought for. I suppose it's sort of like anti-vaxxers - modern medicine has been so successful that some people no longer can conceive of a time when infectious illness could devastate populations. These women can't imagine a time when (as when I was growing up) the want ads had "Help wanted - male" and "Help wanted - female," and if you applied, say, for a accounting position when you were female (or secretary when you were male) you were a dangerous radical.
 

RedRajah

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It's not even a young woman thing. I remember my mother's internalized misogyny when I was a kid with her saying "I'm not a feminist -- I'm a humanist!". :(
 

lizmonster

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It's not even a young woman thing. I remember my mother's internalized misogyny when I was a kid with her saying "I'm not a feminist -- I'm a humanist!". :(

Yeah, I think this is the kind of crap The Kid has been hearing. At least the conversation has been started now.
 

frimble3

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Yeah, I think this is the kind of crap The Kid has been hearing. At least the conversation has been started now.
Perhaps remind her about the airline safety thing, about putting your own oxygen mask on first, before you help others? Women can help themselves first, which in turn will help everyone else. And, if someone feels that she's got all the rights and protections that she needs, she can reach out to help others who need a hand up.
I think this is the role of all those 'white, upper middle-class' women in the marches - they're also marching for those who can't, either physically or financially, take a day off to march in the streets.*
Figure, a minimum wage woman, maybe working two jobs, can't risk losing pay, let alone have someone look after the kids/family/do all the stuff she normally does on her time 'off'. Or, the woman who has some sort of a disability, who is going to blow all her spoons just getting to the march.
*And, please, let's hope they are paying the people they employ a decent wage, with reasonable working conditions.
 

lizmonster

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Perhaps remind her about the airline safety thing, about putting your own oxygen mask on first, before you help others?

TBF, I think The Kid is a huge feminist. It's just the word that she somehow doesn't want to embrace, because internet.

I think this is the role of all those 'white, upper middle-class' women in the marches - they're also marching for those who can't, either physically or financially, take a day off to march in the streets.*

At the risk of putting my foot in it...I think it's possible to be proud of the marches and the marchers, and simultaneously recognize that historically the feminist movement, like a lot of other movements, has (in aggregate) not put enough work into addressing the issues of those who aren't part of the perceived mainstream, and making sure they're included as both leaders and participants.

We are DOING, and that's awesome.

We can always be DOING BETTER, and we should do that, too.