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Discussion » Questions » Politics » Is the women's march part of a movement or just group therapy for Trump haters?
Stu Spelling Bee

Is the women's march part of a movement or just group therapy for Trump haters?

Is there a plan for attendees to return to their respective hometowns, run for office, and/or do anything differently than they had done before the 2016 election? Without that kind of action, does it not run the risk of becoming nothing more than annual group therapy?

Posted - January 22, 2018
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Responses


  • 46117
    You are supposed to be well-informed and you ask this?

    Seriously?

    How about reading the issue instead of skirting it?   This is about bringing the issues to lIGHT.  Then and only then can something be done about it.  The women in this country are not even aware of their oppression.



    A year after millions of people turned out for the Women’s March and took to the streets en masse to protest President Trump’s inauguration, demonstrators gathered on Saturday in cities across the United States, galvanized by their disdain for Mr. Trump and his administration’s policies.

    A deluge of revelations about powerful men abusing women, leading to the #MeToo moment, has pushed activists to demand deeper social and political change. Progressive women are eager to build on the movement and translate their enthusiasm into electoral victories in this year’s midterm elections.

    Here are some highlights:

    • More than 200,000 protesters attended the march in New York on Saturday, according to Mayor Bill de Blasio. Mayor Eric Garcetti of Los Angeles said 600,000 attended the march there, while organizers of the Chicago march said 300,000 attended that event. Thousands also turned out in Washington, Philadelphia, Austin and hundreds of other cities and towns around the country and world.

    • Several speakers urged women to channel their energy into helping Democrats win races in the upcoming midterm elections. A rally called “Power to the Polls,” organized by the leaders of last year’s Women’s March in Washington, will be held on Sunday in Las Vegas.

    • President Trump said in a tweet that it was a “perfect day for all Women to March,” while touting “unprecedented economic success and wealth creation” under his watch.


    • Read our analysis of how activists have tried to sustain the energy from last year’s marches — and the challenges they face next.
    New York marchers said they felt empowered: ‘I feel like the revolution is now.’

    That’s what Vanessa Medina, a 32-year-old nurse, said prompted her to participate this year, even though she didn’t march last January. Ms. Medina, of Clifton, N.J., cited the Time’s Up campaign against sexual harassment and Republicans’ attempts to defund Planned Parenthood as her reasons for protesting.

    “I want equal pay,” her 11-year-old daughter, Xenaya, chimed in. “And equal rights.”
    Continue reading the main story
    Photo
    A group of marchers crowded into a subway car in New York. Credit Andrew Kelly/Reuters

    Ann Dee Allen of Wauwatosa, Wis., stood by a vendor table on 60th Street and Broadway, holding a T-shirt and a handful of buttons she had just bought for the demonstration.

    “I feel differently about it this year,” said Ms. Allen, 61, who works in communications for a health care organization. “Last year, I just felt kind of angry and impassioned. This year, I feel like I’m in it for the long haul.”

    Women filled Central Park West from 61st Street north as far as the eye could see. A D.J. spun songs. The wind kicked up.

    Desiree Joy Frias, 24, of the Bronx, and her grandmother, Daisy Vanderhorst, wore red capes and curved white hoods — the telltale outfits of the enslaved child-bearers of “The Handmaid’s Tale,” which was recently adapted for television from Margaret Atwood’s dystopian science fiction novel.

    “We both watch the show,” said Ms. Frias, a law school graduate who said she belongs to an activist group called the “Handmaid Coalition.” “We’re a group of men and women that believe fiction should not become reality.”




    This post was edited by WM BARR . =ABSOLUTE TRASH at January 22, 2018 9:52 AM MST
      January 22, 2018 9:22 AM MST
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  • 13277
    "Skirting it." Great pun, lol. But what's wrong with asking the question? It's a legitimate issue. Are you afraid you won't like the answer? No matter how many turned out, nothing will change without more grass-roots effort. And, unfortunately, it certainly won't change the reality of Trump being president. This post was edited by Stu Spelling Bee at January 22, 2018 9:29 AM MST
      January 22, 2018 9:27 AM MST
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  • 34284
    It is not prowoman. It is antiTrump. If it were simply prowoman, conservative women, prolife women would be welcome. 
      January 22, 2018 9:51 AM MST
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  • 6098
    Very true.  Certainly gets my goat to have anyone telling me I am not "prowoman" if I don't agree with them.  We have "equal rights" and sounds like they have no notion of what things used to be like when we did not.  And if they want "equal pay" let them work for it and really make themselves valuable to their employers rather than trying to have a government guarantee it to them - which would only serve to put more and more women as well of men out of work1  
      January 22, 2018 10:06 AM MST
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  • 34284
    I agree. Personally I have never seen a job where a woman did not make just as much as the man doing the same job. They compare apples to oranges on that. They compare women who are not working because she is at home with her child. Of course she is not making the same as the man who is at work. Bunch of BS. 
      January 22, 2018 10:10 AM MST
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  • 6098
    I know - that's weird that anyone intelligent could ever think like that.  And a very literal interpretation of "equality".  Which used to mean equal opportunity to make something of ourselves and we all get a vote.  Then meant equal pay for equal work - because there was a time when we did not get that. But now I just don't see that around me. Doesn't it make sense that the persons most valuable to their employers should receive the most highest salaries?  Goodness I have been here a long time and I make more than most men who work here!  And perhaps more than I should really.  Its like they expect that we will all somehow be just exactly the same in everything.  And really I think a lot of women do have trouble with women who succeed - like they resent it when one of us. or lots of us - do.  I always received more encouragement at work from men than from other women. I think there exists  a kind  of mindset among many women that if one of us does well somehow we are taking something away from them.  Weird I know but I do often get a sense of that.  Why don't they use their time and energy to support and emulate those of us who have done well?  Instead of resenting us and trying to tear us down? 
      January 22, 2018 10:31 AM MST
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  • 3375
    I promise that many liberal or moderate women do NOT readily judge conservative women.  I am conservative with many of my personal views and many of my liberal friends are as well.  

    I think we all have moments where we make broad assumptions of a group of people that vote differently.  I have friends that did vote for Trump and while I may not understand it, it doesn't mean I don't respect them on many other levels.  I can only hope they feel the same way about me.  
      January 22, 2018 10:38 AM MST
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  • 6098
    Thank you - sorry I meant not just conservative women but successful women as well.  Funny my views have been pretty much the same all my life but in the 1970s they were regarded as "liberal" and now they are "conservative".  Which shows how context changes things. I was very comfortable with liberalism as it once was and that I grew up with.  But then it all became just too outrageous and impractical so I could no longer support most of it.  My husband and I live in one of the most liberal communities in one of the most liberal states - Massachusetts.  So even our relative conservatism (by historical standards) perhaps would seem liberal to some others.  But we disagree with friends on some issues while agreeing on other issues - which is usually the way it is.  Just sorry to see all the hate involved.  Or labelling others "haters" if we don't happen to agree with them.  Which I never was labelled until just a couple of years ago.  Actually we supported more conservative candidates in 2016 and only voted for Trump (historically a liberal) because what he espoused came the closest to what we believed in in terms of personal responsibility and personal initiative and respect for religion. 
      January 22, 2018 10:52 AM MST
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  • 3375
    Great comment.  I would give anything to talk about issues without the hate.  I do see where the assumptions start because both Democrats and Republicans that you may see on the Internet can sound so vile.  I know I have said harsh things about Trump, but it doesn't mean I agree with every liberal out there.  

    I simply like nice people that are polite to others, even if they disagree politically.  I think most of us inevitably want many of the same things in life.
      January 22, 2018 3:13 PM MST
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  • 6098
    I know there was one around a year ago and I met some women who were going down at a winter farmers market.  I thought they were protesting the results of the 2016 election.  Don't know about "group therapy" but would say that they felt they were making a public protest.  Yes they seemed to really hate Pres. Trump. Which is ironic because they accused my husband and I (who voted for Trump) of "hate".  Which in more polite times was called being "sore losers".  Or was it "poor losers"?

    But the way these things really work is some people get outraged and they vote people out then once their people get in everything is hunky-dory for a while their opponents get outraged  and vote those people out. 
      January 22, 2018 9:54 AM MST
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  • 3375
    I did not attend one, but knew some people that did.  They were far from militant "femi-nazi" types as the right would like to portray.  Many that went were overwhelmed by the election of a man like Donald Trump.  There were many issues that pertain to the rights of women that suddenly felt under attack.  Maybe women (and some men) just gathered to bond and to talk about how we need to do more to have more balance in our government that will protect basic human rights.  And please don't ask me to list all the things that most women (and men) worry about.  It's been discussed enough here and I don't have the energy to go through it point by point right now.
      January 22, 2018 9:58 AM MST
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  • 3191
    Group therapy.

    Sure, there will be a political pendulum swing, just as there always is.  And yes, Trump may have spurred that on.  Much as Obama did with the Tea Party.  Will it bring any great change to the political canvas in DC?  Doubtful.  


      January 22, 2018 10:10 AM MST
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  • 5835
    This is a significant turn of events. It is the first time women have demonstrated for or against something without taking their clothes off.
      January 22, 2018 10:18 AM MST
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  • 13277
    And what are you contributing with your chauvinistic, thoughtless attitude?
      January 22, 2018 10:33 AM MST
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  • 6098
    Not sure what that is supposed to mean. I participated in various demonstrations going back to the 1970s and don't remember any where any of us removed our clothing.  
      January 22, 2018 10:39 AM MST
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  • 5614
    Your question mimic my own questions. This march and many others were inspired by Louis Farrakhan's Million Man March. Remember the first one was The Million Women March. It is about the illusion of female unity and is the celebration of symbolic gains. This post was edited by O-uknow at January 22, 2018 9:00 PM MST
      January 22, 2018 8:58 PM MST
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  • 17599
    Mindless follow the leader.  That is the game of the year.  It must be fun for those who actually fund this kind of thing to watch these people march and scream as they've been instructed to do.  I'm embarrassed for them.
      January 22, 2018 11:49 PM MST
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