“The President is not America. The cabinet is not America. Congress is not America. We are America, and we are here to stay.”
America Ferrera made this powerful statement in front of thousands as she delivered a speech at the Women’s March in Washington D.C. last weekend. As a feminist, it was great to see a public figure stand up for those who were feeling uneasy to say the least, with Trump finally in office.
Various cities across America held rallies and marches, generally grouped together at the “Women’s March,” on Jan. 21, the day after Donald Trump’s presidential inauguration, in support of all the people feeling oppressed after the election. In fact, the Women’s March in Washington D.C. had three times the amount of people in attendance than at Trump’s inauguration, according to various sources.
Each of these marches and rallies were distinct in size and attendance, and their ideals were similar: according to the Women’s March website, the purpose was to “join in diversity to show our presence in numbers [is] too great to ignore.”
Not only did large cities participate in these group gatherings, but small cities like Peoria did, as well. Hundreds gathered on Saturday to peacefully rally against bigotry and the marginalization of American minorities, including many Bradley University students.
Freshmen Sarah White and Cori Wash attended the rally together and were willing to share their approval of the event and its message.
“People went for a lot of different reasons,” White said. “I feel like I’m not doing anything [actively] and just watching the news … I wanted to learn about ways I could help out, just to feel that support from everyone else and [to see] that I’m not alone in feeling this way [as a woman]. I think that for this movement [to be effective], there needs to be a clear focus and a clear agenda.”
Wash also brought up the notion that the marches weren’t purely anti-Trump, and that while they were in response to his presidency, there was much more to them than that.
“People have this misconception that [the March is] solely about Trump, but it’s not,” Wash said. “It’s about visibility… It’s about celebrating differences because he’s trying to put people in boxes … The march was basically saying that we don’t care if [Trump is] in power or not … [he represents] everything we don’t believe in.”
The Women’s March has been criticized for being angry and hostile by several media outlets, but these two students were convinced this was not true in the case of Peoria’s rally.
“It was more uplifting than anything,” White said. “People were angry, but you just see different [races], men, women and all these different people coming together and supporting [one another]. The rhetoric wasn’t angry at all.”
Wash agreed, stating that “It was very empowering to watch people from different backgrounds and different religions come together and tell this one powerful man, ‘No.’ That’s one of the most empowering things I’ve ever seen in my 18 years of life.”
The takeaway from the Women’s March seems to be that even if you are marginalized and targeted as a minority (whether it’s by gender, sexuality, race and/or religion), there’s power in numbers. Though I was not able to participate, the Women’s March made me appreciate being a woman in this day and age because we have a voice that previous generations of women could only dream about. The fact that women created, organized and led such a huge national event to support people from all different backgrounds is truly amazing and can be considered a great moment in feminist history.
Now that we are on a roll with modern feminism, it’s important to keep up our activism in the movement.
“Being civically engaged is important,” White said. “You can’t just vote in presidential elections. Even though it’s exhausting…you need to vote in the local elections and for representatives.”
Wash furthered this point by stating “Don’t take a couple pictures at the March and put them on Instagram. If you want to do something about it, do something; consistency needs to be there. No one [ever] got what they wanted without a fight.”
