Snowflake Challenge: Day 14 - Women's March London

[lokifan]

Day 14
Go forth and commit an act of kindness. Leave a comment in this post saying you did it, tell us about it if you’re comfortable doing so.

I thought I’d do one of the missing Snowflake Challenges, since the mods assure us there’s no hard deadline. And I’m going to count something I did today. I went to the anti-Trump Women’s March here in London. It was great: a really positive atmosphere, despite the angst of the thing and the fact that 15 000 to 25 000 people were expected to show up and it was actually 100 000.

On a personal note, I’m glad I did it because I immediately felt so much better than yesterday. Doing something helped a lot, as did the community aspect. Both my sisters and my mum were there, and I marched with the female cousin of mine who lives in London and two American friends of hers. YAY SISTERHOOD.

A Japanese tourist asked me what was happening. I said it was an anti-Trump women’s march, and he expressed confusion because “this is the UK” - and that’s the reason I’m counting this as an act of kindness, because I was able to explain it politely and also, thanks to my job, avoid using the English most native speakers don’t realise is difficult (i.e. phrasal verbs). It was helpful for me too, because I’m a measurable goals sort of person and this is the first demonstration I’ve been on that didn’t really have one? Not a shared one, anyway. Not least because while I know some disagree, I do not think Pence would be an improvement.

So I told him that it was in solidarity with American women, as well as brown & black & immigrant Americans. And that it was to express our public grief and anger. To push forward a little on myriad feminist & lefty causes closer to home - I saw Repeal The Eighth signs (re: the appalling lack of abortion rights for Irish & Northern Irish women) and tampon tax signs as well as anti-Brexit ones. To inflict what international pressure we can on Trump & Republicans, particularly given the British/American “Special Relationship” and Trump’s being a bit of an Anglophile. And that because Britain is significantly more left-wing than the US, the US has elected several presidents who kind of horrified Britons, most famously George W Bush. But this is on a new scale, and this is not normal. That was the most important reason, I realised as I was saying it. To show that This Is Not Normal.


There were lots of GRAB THEM BY THE PATRIARCHY and LOVE TRUMPS HATE signs, as well as NASTY WOMEN t-shirts and pussycat ears. I liked the SPECIAL RELATIONSHIP? JUST SAY NO one. I saw a couple with SHE’S MY EQUAL and HE’S MY EQUAL signs which was charming. There were a lot of kids (and dogs) at the march, and I saw one little girl with BULLIES SHOULDN’T WIN and a little boy with JUST BE NICE. *weeps* STILL LIKE AIR I RISE was lovely, as was the Mary Wallstonecraft quote: THE BEGINNING IS ALWAYS TODAY.

BE MORE BUFFY (with a rainbow flag attached!) was great - on the back it said CAN STAND UP, WILL STAND UP. SLAYERS, EVERY ONE OF US. Someone made a fake Trump head onna stick with devil horns which was epic. I’M WITH HER with arrows pointing in all directions made me happy, FREE MELANIA made me laugh, and WHEN THEY GO LOW, WE GO HIGH with a picture of Michelle Obama made me a bit sad. The one that almost made me cry was “THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AND GIRLS IS THE UNFINISHED BUSINESS OF THE 21ST CENTURY” - HILLARY CLINTON.

For me, though, the competition for best sign was won by A WOMAN’S PLACE IS IN THE RESISTANCE, with a picture of Princess Leia.

Comments

[damerell]

A friend of mine had "FEMINAZIS" AGAINST ACTUAL NAZIS which seems to have been widely noticed.

[lokifan]

That is DELIGHTFUL. I'm beaming at my laptop right now.