On Saturday women everywhere walked down wide avenues and narrow streets. They filled parking lots and smiled and held signs and felt proud of themselves. They were in the mood to protest, and they did, thinking, they said, of each other, of the greater good, of the way they dream things were and the way they wish things could be. One woman stood for a photograph, feet spread wide in a show of standing her ground, smiling under big black letters that she had carefully printed on poster board: F*ck Hate.
They came out in droves, American women with their fresh cut and color. With their trendy boots and warm wool coats. They left their precious children safe at home with family or friends or even their husbands. They drove nice cars to rendezvous points with the marker still drying on their handmade posters, and they made sure to carry their new iPhones with them to capture their good deed.
They said they marched for women’s rights and human rights. Both are things that I care deeply about. Women should be revered and admired and compensated like we are amazing, magical creatures (because we are). Human beings should be loved and nurtured and treated with kindness. All things that I can get behind.
But, the idea of marching for human rights and women’s rights falls a little flat when you don’t allow pro-life women to join your protest. The truth is, at the heart of this march was a passion for seeing a certain kind of woman succeed. And that kind of woman isn’t me or most of my friends. We are the women they want to silence.
Today’s feminism isn’t a pro-women movement. It’s a pro-feminist movement. And, while the women marched for more of everything, down safe streets in a country where opportunity is banging on so many doors, in other places in our world women were starving to death. Watching their children grow distended bellies. Feeding their babies dirt just so that they will feel full for a few minutes. In other places, women are being sexually mutilated daily. They are living under cruel dictatorships. They are forced into prostitution. They are murdered for daring to say that they want a divorce.
And, right here in the US millions of babies, many of them girls, are being torn apart limb by limb, burned alive, thrown in a trash can, or chopped up and sold for parts. And the women of our great country, the very ones who claim that they want women to thrive, are leading the march that ends with millions of baby girls splayed out on a cold metal tray in some clinic, lying there alone until they are dead.
So, forgive me if I don’t feel the love behind the signs that tell us to f*ck hate. Forgive me if I doubt the sincerity of the richest women in the world when they organize an event that is about getting even more for themselves. Forgive me if I am disgusted by the reality that this march was actually about the most free and privileged women on this planet making much of themselves. Not when there are women all over this world who know what real suffering is. Not when the end game is tiny corpses filling up American dumpsters.
That’s just not a beat that I can march to.
Thank you for putting into words what is in my heavy heart after witnessing the weekend demonstrations.
thank you
you have such a gift for articulating truth with gentleness and respect. thank you.
Amen. It’s not me either. They are so lost and clueless that they are.
thank you a million times over!! I shared your post on Facebook. So proud to be raising our daughters on the Truth only found in God’s Word
Thank you for summing up exactly how I feel.
I was sent this post by a friend and had to come here to thank you for expressing what so many of us feel.
Phew, girl, you are a brave woman. This post so resonates with me and puts to words the unsettling feelings I had upon seeing this march. Thank you for your faithfulness to write even on the hard things.
This is a great article. There’s Hope for America, as long as we treasure the Blessings God has given, and obey His Word.
You asked for forgiveness, you are already forgiven for being a hypocritical Christian.
There is no call for trolling on this site.
Aleays on point Melissa!
Hi! I have been interested to hear how people are reacting to the women’s march. I am grateful to have had some dialogue with women and men of differing opinions and it has felt really hopeful. However, I had a hard time reading this. The second paragraph, beginning with “women came out with their fresh cut and color”, felt like a really harsh, sweeping (and largely untrue) judgement. There were millions of women, men and children across the world marching this past weekend. It feels unfair to categorize the entire group in this way. I hope you will reconsider your language here.
YES!!!
One of my nieces shared your blog post. I agree with most of what you say, but am disappointed that you would call all these women rich, spoiled, driving new cars etc. I have a sister and niece that marched and I can assure you that they are none of the above. To paint all with the same brush is to spread divisiveness and a perception that is not true. Both of these women are married to ministers of God, the same God that you worship. If you really want to give an honest, heartfelt comment, leave the negativity out.
Hey Cousin!! While I agree with slot if your points and I was saddened and disappointed by the stance toward the pto-life support… I know several women that marched in Dallas that don’t fit your description at all. They are school teachers and nurses. They are solidly middle class. Also, they are concerned about women’s rights and treatment around the globe and not just here. So, I just wanted to throw that out there since I know some people that went.
Thank you for saying what I feel! I come from a long line of strong, independent, loving, caring & giving women! They were examples to all who came after them. Life is truly a precious gift!
Such a detailed description for an event you didn’t attend.
I read your blog at someone’s request. From what I can tell, you are upset about not being invited to a gathering of people for whom you hold contempt. And, you seem to hold contempt for a caricature of these people which you have concocted in your own mind – you assume they are all “rich” women who have “fresh cuts and color,” own cars and iPhones, and are self-absorbed. You seem especially misinformed about the interests of these people.
First, you are mistaken about not being included – everyone was welcome and there were no gatekeepers at any of the marches. Many of the people who attended struggled financially to be there. An impressive number of men attended. There were even Trump supporters there. So, if you stayed away that is on you!
Maybe you are not talking about merely attending the march, but having a place on the podium? An underlying current in your blog seems to be a desire to shock your readers and rant about abortion. You are correct that your graphic misrepresentations about abortion services would be challenged and rejected for their inaccuracies. Perhaps that is why you stayed away.
You want the government to control women’s bodies and the most intimate, personal decisions of their lives, while the marchers want to keep the government out of those decisions. Outlawing abortion does not decrease the number of terminated pregnancies; it only forces poor women to obtain unsafe abortions in back alleys. The marches were focused on speaking truth to power, not providing a platform for ignorance or a platform seeking to restrict basic human rights. Why would you want to share that platform anyway?
You are dead wrong if you think the feminist movement is apathetic toward poor women and women outside the U.S. facing hunger and political oppression. I would encourage you to read up on feminism from credible sources. Better yet, you should have attended any one of the marches and had real conversations with these people.
Feminism cares deeply about women’s access to health care and control over their own bodies, racial justice and equality, the rights of the LGBT community and immigrants, health insurance for the poor and middle class, protecting the environment, and protecting freedom of religion for everyone. “Rich” women will continue to have health insurance, obtain cancer screenings, safe abortions, birth control, and other gynecological care, and receive other medical treatment despite the new administration’s policies. So, even if they were all “rich” women, which I assure you they were not, your assumption about them merely seeking to get “even more” for themselves is inaccurate.
Maybe you did not attend because you lacked any motivation to march. The people who attended the marches were seeking to protect their rights and those people whose rights are in serious jeopardy under the new administration. Your interests in “alternative facts” and criminalizing reproductive health care for women are not in jeopardy and instead may be furthered under the new administration. No wonder you cannot understand the marchers.
Where and in which direction would you like these people to march since you object to them marching down “safe” streets in the U.S.? If you did not notice, there were marches throughout this country and around the world, not all of which occurred in “safe” streets. Nevertheless, it seems incredibly reasonable to me that the Women’s March in D.C., intended to speak to our nation’s leaders, took place at The Mall and went from our nation’s Capital to the White House. Over 370 other marches took place near state capitals, city halls, public streets, and other civic areas – places where state and local leaders hold office and the media would pay attention. Why does that bother to you?
Maybe you should focus less on criticizing people who are trying to make a difference and standing up for what they believe in and focus more on getting your facts straight and trying to understand those with whom you disagree. Turn your armchair commentaries into actually doing something. Get down off your self-righteous high horse and hold your own march.
A word of advice. It sounds like you would like to march in unsafe, invisible parts of the world in front of the people who are starving under dictatorships and lack any power to change their circumstances on their own. I have doubts about the efficacy of your plans, but good luck with that. The marches last weekend took a difference approach and the impact was felt around the world. It has already invigorated and motivated city mayors to protect their citizens and stand up to the new administration. The size of the crowds certainly has consumed our new leader’s insecurities and inspired others to march for their beliefs and values. This is a democracy and you are entitled to your opinions, but I suspect you will be more successful if you are smart.
Instead of criticizing the Women’s March, you should be thanking everyone who has marched to give you the rights you have today. You have the right to vote because of women who marched. You have the right to birth control to plan and decide when to have a family and how many children to have because of women who marched. Every time you go to a job outside the home to provide for you and your family, you do so because of women who marched. You can open a banking account or a credit card, buy property, and make independent financial decisions because of women who marched. Even the opportunity to write your blog and seek an education is the product of protest, social unrest, activism, and resistance by women who marched. Even the most anti-feminist 21st century woman still lives in the shadows of female activists who were willing to fight for generations they would never know.