By: Juliyana Straley
Twitter: @jstraley7
Email: straleyj@findlay.edu
We will not be silenced. We will not give up until women everywhere get exactly what they deserve: respect, equality, and appreciation.
To me, the Women’s March is a misunderstood mission; it’s more than “pussy” hats and walking around without a bra on, it’s about equality for all. It’s about teaching those in America, and around the world, that everyone deserves dignity and respect and how lucky that we, as women, are to have the right to march. We march for the women who can’t because there are far too many.
The Women’s March mission, directly from their website, includes Black women, Native women, poor women, immigrant women, disabled women, Muslim women, and lesbian queer and trans women. The goal is to end violence, because every single person in the world deserves to live a healthy, safe life free from racial profiling and police brutality.
The Women’s March believes in reproductive freedom meaning that all women should have access to quality reproductive healthcare services, birth control, and sexual education regardless of income, education, or race. Furthermore, the organization believes in LGBTQIA rights, worker’s rights, civil rights, disability rights, immigrant rights, and environmental justice.
Many people think feminism is a dirty word; if you say it too loud you’ll get uncomfortable stares from across the room. Others refuse to label themselves a feminist because they think women are simply complaining and whining about their situations.
Is wanting equal pay so absurd? Is being sexualized ok? Should we not stand up for the girls who are being groped, raped, and sexually assaulted by those in authority? As Gloria Steinem said, “a feminist is anyone who recognizes the equality and full humanity of women and men”.
I commend these women and if I were able, I would have been there myself. Change is uncomfortable and awkward; it’s hard to implement which tends to make people shy away from it, but change is coming.
Women are no longer silently accepting the fact that society makes them second best. Together, women are rising up for change because women’s rights are human rights, and human rights are women’s rights. The future is not female, the present is female.