Women's March - A Female Revolution

Women's March - A Female Revolution A blog by: Samantha Adoptante

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Starting a Revolution

Hundreds, thousands, millions. All marching with the harmonious objective of advocating not only women’s rights, but those of other marginalized groups such as minorities, LGBTQ, etc. Starting a march or activist movement is no easy feat. For Teresa Shook, however, it seemed as easy and instantaneous as creating a Facebook page. It was November 8th, the world had all eyes on the United States as Donald Trump had just won the presidency. 

Like many others, Teresa was dumbfounded, discouraged, and upset at the election outcome. The next night, she took to Facebook and created a Facebook event page calling for a march on Washington after Trump’s inauguration. The retired attorney went to bed with 40 responses and woke up to more than 10,000. Bob Bland, a New York-based fashion designer did the same and pushed to “build a coalition of ALL marginalized allies + do this,” he wrote on Facebook. Bland had grown a following after designing “Nasty Woman” and “Bad Hombre” t-shirts. Piggybacking off of these designs, he proposed a “Million Pussy March.”

Image Source: https://www.theatlantic.com/entertainment/archive/2017/01/the-inauguration-and-the-counter-inauguration/514055/

Bland worked with others to consolidate these protest pages, including Shook’s and then teamed up with three New York-based activists to be co-chairs of the national march. This trio included Tamika Mallory, a gun control advocate, Carmen Perez, head of the Gathering for Justice, and Linda Sarsour who had led a successful campaign to close New York City public schools on two Muslim holidays. The increasing support for this march and movement was shaping it up to be one of the largest inauguration demonstrations in history. Naming it took a few days. An early name considered was “Million Woman March,” but in the end, the organizers adopted “Women’s March on Washington” paying homage to Martin Luther King Jr.’s civil rights march of 1963. The organizers even got the blessing of King’s daughter, Bernice. 

Today, there is not only a march on Washington, but all over the country and the world. WomensMarchGlobal.org houses event calendars and news on all Women’s March chapters in the world. Notable marches are in New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Seattle, and even countries overseas such as Sweden, Italy, France, etc. On the Women’s March Global website, people are able to see the many chapters of Women’s March all around the country and the world. What started as a Facebook page quickly grew into a monumental march, and then sister marches, and now a worldwide movement. As you will see, modern day activist movements are often fueled by social media, online communities, and celebrities or people of power acting as figureheads to further advocate the cause.

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Star Power

Behind every prominent social movement today, there are celebrities and powerful people who utilize their platforms to further push the cause. More and more, people are looking to social media for their news and entertainment all in one. Outside of activist movements, people follow the lives of their favorite celebrities, even ones they hate, to get a glimpse of their world. 

Source: Melissa Benoist (Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/p/BPiCe8UDmg6/)

Often celebrities become the voice of, or figureheads or representatives of activist movements. Their fans follow them; their haters criticize them. Either way, they are attracting more attention to the movement. The Women’s March on Washington immediately attracted many celebrities. Using their platform for a good cause is often praised by many, at least to those who are agreeable with their opinions and actions. 

In society today, a celebrity is often shamed or criticized if they do not voice their opinion on certain controversial topics. An example of this was Taylor Swift, who remained fairly neutral and silent following Donald Trump’s victory of presidency. Many of people, even her fans, bashed her because she was not using her platform for “good.” Just recently, she came out with a long Instagram post outlining her support for LGBTQ rights and equal rights for women and people of color. Celebrities, whether they realize or genuinely care, have great influence in activist movements and they can use their status and power to help these movements grow. America Ferrera’s speech at the Women’s March on Washington gained a lot of attention. She placed emphasis on how she is a woman and an immigrant which appealed to many people.

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Going Global

In today’s digital age, we are able to use the internet as a place of gathering. A place to foster community and bring light to certain issues. The Women’s March on Washington and the masses it attracted was powerful on its own, however this influence held strong as people took to social media to further push the cause. In our society today, the concept of going viral is very prevalent. One picture, one post, reblogged/reposted/retweeted by the right people could end up being shared hundreds of thousands of times. 

We create relationships with people we may never meet. There are so many ways to build relationships and connections over the internet. Online communities are shaped and given meaning by the people who were part of them and those who are a part of them. An online group or community is shaped by all who move in and through it. This could be in the form of a Facebook page or group, a forum, a blog, etc. 

With this integration of community and online relationships, our work and leisure seems to be changing. On every social media platform, it is almost inevitable that you will see content on some controversial topics. The internet has given individuals freedom to post whatever they want, wherever they want, whenever they want. The internet and social media have become part of people’s jobs. A tool they use to further their agendas and spread the word. It is not simply just a place to gather and watch funny videos or update people about your life through status posts. There is constant discussion over politics, war, money, etc. 

It has become almost a mirror, an intangible version of our real lives except, people have more flexibility to alter who they are online. With social media movements that further activist movements such as the Women’s March, an online community of those who support equal rights for women, LGBTQ, and other marginalized groups has formed.

These are some hashtags that were notably used following the march:

#1yearsincewomensmarch

#togetherwerise

#WomensMarch

#lookbackmarchforward

#womensmarchglobal

#whyimarch

Hashtags are a powerful way to archive thoughts, opinions, and content on the internet. Almost every social media site, if not all, utilizes hashtags in some way. Twitter is a popular platform for this feature. Below are some prominent tweets following the march.

Source: http://time.com/4642303/womens-march-celebrities/

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The Future is Female

Source: https://www.ateliermave.com/the-future-is-female/

The Women’s March on Washington stormed the nation’s headlines at a very tense time in our country. The mission of Women’s March as a grassroots movement now is to “harness the political power of diverse women and their communities to create transformative social change.” Their website highlights their past and future events, as well as exposure they have received in the press. In 2018 alone, the march grew into an organization that was on the front lines protesting the family separation actions at the US border as well as the nomination of Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. 

The 2019 march is planned for January 19 at 10AM on the National Mall, followed by a 1:30 PM rally on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. Leaders of the movement recognize that these marches and demonstrations are really helping women feel empowered and have mobilized many to get directly involved in politics and fight for their rights. They hope to continue the marches in the years to come. Women are becoming head of the renaissance of the government and it is clear through the Women’s March and its many sister chapters. 

On the Women’s March Global website, individuals are able to see where the sister chapters are. Leaders encourage those who can’t make the big marches in the big cities to get involved in their local chapters, even start their own. With the growing spotlight on women’s rights and rights of other marginalized group, there is no doubt the Women’s March will continue to be at the forefront of this matter.

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#WomensMarch

The hashtag I plan to study is #WomensMarch. This hashtag surfaced in 2017 after the Women’s March worldwide protest occurred. The main protest and march occurred in Washington D.C. on January 21st, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration. It was the largest single-day protest in U.S. history. The goal of the march is to advocate women’s rights, immigration reform, LGBTQ rights, racial equality, etc. While the main march in Washington amassed 500,000 to 1 million people, between 3.3 million and 5.6 million participated in the marches in the U.S. The hashtag gave life to the march which became a movement and stand for women’s rights. I have chosen this because it was so impactful and still very relevant considering all the women’s rights movements rising today. The hashtag was all over social media and in anticipation for the 2019 march, it is still very relevant. I am more so interested on the type of content people are posting with this hashtag. Are they mostly people who have gone to the marches? Or people who are simply contributing their support and/or opinions on the issues?

SOURCES

https://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/womens-march

https://www.latimes.com/nation/la-na-pol-womens-march-live-how-the-women-s-march-came-into-1484865755-htmlstory.html

https://womensmarchglobal.org/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpdgPTUGFQw

https://www.cosmopolitan.com/entertainment/celebs/a15831369/womens-march-celebrities-2018/ 

https://www.bustle.com/p/what-are-the-womens-march-hashtags-heres-what-you-can-tag-on-social-media-7942165

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QMy1Tvco21s