Women’s marches across the world: Great placards, but do we really feel safer?
Sir Ian McKellen with a placard showing his friend and colleague, Sir Patrick Stewart, in the classic Star Trek: The Next Generation ‘facepalm’ meme.
“Not my own – I found it at the end of the march in Trafalgar Square,” he admitted on Twitter.
I really hope the Women’s Marches, not only in Washington DC, or London, but everywhere they happened across the world, were declarations of intent, rather than end in themselves.
I don’t think anybody is safer from the ravages of Donald Trump (in the States), Brexit (in the UK) or any of the other evils taking place in the world right now, as a result of taking a weekend walk.
The events were tremendous outpourings of feeling – against oppression, “for the protection of our fundamental rights and for the safeguarding of freedoms threatened by recent political events; for the dignity and equality of all peoples, for the safety and health of our planet and for the strength of our vibrant and diverse communities” according to the Women’s March London website.
Those things are no safer today than they were on Friday.
I hope that everybody, who marched with placards held high, was also looking at the people around them, making connections, forming networks, and planning the steps that will need to be taken after the marches ended.
It was great to see so many celebrities taking part as well. I sincerely hope that they, with their much higher public profiles, will continue to support the rest of us. Ultimately, we are no different from them and the changes being inflicted on our way of life will harm them as well as us.
Those placards really were great, though. Let’s have a look at some of them, and some of the celebs who took part.
Carrie Fisher may have passed on but she has also passed into legend. This was just one of the many images based on her character, Princess/General Leia, from Star Wars. Many marchers turned up in costume as her.
Protesters called themselves ‘nasty women’ in reference to Donald Trump’s attack on Hillary Clinton:
— Laura Whitmore ⚡️ (@thewhitmore) January 21, 2017
‘Supernatural’ star Misha Collins with some ‘nasty women’.
Representing classicists and ancient historians at the NYC #WomensMarch pic.twitter.com/zGQxjSjvsb
— Elizabeth H (@heintgestae) January 21, 2017
Here's to all those women who marched . And here's to all the ones who couldn't.
Never saw better placards anywhere ! @womensmarch— Sam Neill (@TwoPaddocks) January 21, 2017
The march attracted many more people than the inauguration of Mr Trump, who has already been dubbed the least popular modern president:
Wow. Donald Trump should have scheduled his inauguration for today. There seem to be a lot more people in town pic.twitter.com/maWafH3Pde
— Bill McKibben (@billmckibben) January 21, 2017
https://twitter.com/cjspencer7/status/822849564218687489
ITV’s Queen Victoria – Jenna Coleman – marched in London. I’ve included the inset image of her as she took the main photo and therefore isn’t in it.
Likewise [Image blurred deliberately].
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I don’t think anyone feels safer, but my US family are getting over the shock of the election and are feeling empowered. I now have a daughter in law in New York City talking about running for local office, a sister and brother in law already active Democrats getting even more involved and a nephew who is a union activist having helped to organise transport into Denver for their women’s march. It looks like a ball has started to roll.
You can tell Trump is feeling disquieted at least, judging by his and his press secretary’s ridiculous reaction to the numbers (or lack of them) at his inauguration.
Much is being made about what Plato said about democracy leading to tyranny. Now that is scary!
Your information about your relatives is very encouraging.
Brexit is not an evil, unless you are an unelected failed politician mandarin in the brussels commission who is worried there might not be an eu left to pay your massive pension. We don’t know how trump is going to be as President of a foreign country, after all people were worried about Reagan when he got elected, and they thought Obama ould be good, they got those wrong, as for women outside of the US marching and waving placards about hey will have achieved precisely zilch, when all is said and done Trump got elected and no doubt many women voted for him so the sisterhood are nto even speaking for all of their own gender.
People were right to be worried about Reagan!
As for Obama – yes he was a disappointment, but I wonder how much of that was because his hands were tied by Congress being in Republican hands.
In 2011 Ronald Reagan was voted America’s greatest President, when you look at some of his predecessors, we can safely forget the ones who followed him, that is some accolade.
That says a lot about the kind of people who vote in such polls.
Do you mean Americans ?
I meant the subset of Americans who responded to the polls you mentioned.
What evidence do you have that it is what you refer to as a subset, is not actually the whole or at least a majority of the whole?
It was an opinion poll, not an election. In how many opinion polls have you participated that actually sought responses from a whole voting population, let alone succeeded in doing so? None, I reckon.
President Breaking Wind – I like it! Sounds like a good name for a Red Indian Chief.
Only if you wanted to insult the Native American.
I’m very depressed by the sexism inherent in this. No one questions other protest marches. Why lecture women on what they should do next? The modern Trade Union movement started with the match girls strike, every big stride forward for decades stated with women textile workers uniting and I could go on. I’ve had people treating me as though I’m stupid in the past and that the women’s movement is somehow irrelevant all my life . I though we had got past that by now.
Who’s lecturing?
I merely expressed concern that going for a walk is not enough to make a difference. Surely you can see the logic in that.
The modern trade union movement wouldn’t have started at all if people had gone on a protest march and then gone home – they talked, grouped together, formed organisations and stayed active.
I merely expressed the desire for similar activity, following on from what was certainly an impressive display of concern at the weekend.