We Are Woman

I thought I’d take a minute this morning to post the pictures I took at the We Are Woman March on Capital Hill last Saturday.  Now, something I’ve heard a lot over the last couple of weeks, "Why are you marching for equal rights?  Women already have equal rights."  No, we don’t.  The ERA was originally introduced in Congress in 1923, and it was first passed in the Senate in 1972.  To this day, it has not been ratified.  For 40 years, women have been marching in Washington and around the country to secure equal rights and protection, and it is absolutely baffling to me that this is even still up for discussion in 2012.

You may feel that, as one person put it to me, you get "treated pretty well" in your job, in your life, in your community.  But that can still be taken away from you.  Under the US Constitution, we are not deemed equal.  We are not deemed deserving of the same rights and protections that our male counterparts receive.  And I don’t know how that makes the rest of you feel, but it pisses me the fuck off.

Remember in November, ladies.  If you are not registered to vote, please take the time to do so.  In the last presidential election, women voters outnumbered men by 10 million.  We can make a difference.

Off my soapbox and on to the photos!  First, the prep:

So, because the Capital lawn has no shelter from the elements, this year’s genius idea was to paint umbrellas instead of signs.  Rain or shine, we would be prepared.  This was mine, of course.

And this was Christy’s!

Now, on to the good shots:

Mother fucking girl power.  Yeah!

Various painted t-shirts and underoos.  I particularly like the "Stay out of my Box" pair.

One of the many booths displayed on the lawn.  This particular booth was for Turning Point, a group trying to get a memorial erected for the Women’s Suffragist Movement.

Christy signing a pledge to support the ERA.

This lovely lady has been marching for equal rights since the 70’s.  She asked us to keep fighting the fight because she doesn’t have many more years left to do it.

These were some of her buttons and patches that she’s had since the 70’s.  It was very moving to see this woman dedicated to her cause for 40 years.

Another woman who has been on the front lines for years.

There were signs explaining why so many women continue to fight for equal rights.

The GOP likes to call us names, but guess what?  Our vote is one right you can’t take away from us.

We will NOT go back!

It was a beautiful, sun-shining day for a rally!

The umbrellas reallly were a great idea for keeping cool.

You can try to bury the ERA, but we will just keep resurrecting it.

The diversity of age groups that attended was amazing and heartwarming to see.

We are Woman!  Hear our Voice!

I particularly liked that umbrella on the left.

Remember in November!

Kimberley Johnson of Rock the Slut Vote speaking at the march.

Reformed Whores performing at the march.

I highly recommend you look up their

YouTube videos.  They’re hilarious!

One of the more flamboyantly decorated umbrellas.

Some people dressed up as vaginas, each unique.

Some signs just told it like it is.

Probably my most favorite capture of the rally.

There was a small group of protesters at the edge of our rally.  These particular protesters have been rallying outside of my own OBGYN several of the past weekends.  I’m all for protesting your beliefs, but what pisses me off about this particular group is the disgusting scare tactics they use.  The hold 20 foot posters depicting photoshopped bloody aborted fetuses, and they basically accost unwilling, unexpecting passersby on a busy, four-lane street through Alexandria, VA, with these gross, fake images.  I would be furious if I was a mother driving by with my children in the car, who were forced to see these images.  Parents should not be forced into the position to have to explain to their kids what they just saw.

Now, that being said, I’m only going to post one photo I took of the main protester.  The gruesome signs are in the background, but blurred out.  I’m not going to accost you with their other signs like they do the rest of the world.  At the rally, Christy and I and several other women banded together for about an hour, standing in front of them and shielding everyone else from having to see it.  There were actually a lot of tourists that were not participating in the rally, many of which were small children, that did not deserve that.

I also at one point got into a shouting match with this particular protester.  I countered her with the fact that she only cares that a baby is born.  She doesn’t care about what happens to it after the fact.  She has no plan to take care of children that parents don’t want, children that are born into poverty, or children that are born with little to no chance of surviving outside the womb.  Some compassion she has.  She ended up getting flustered with me, and hobbled off to mindlessly start yelling, "Kill those babies!  Kill those children!"

She also spouted that she is completely against birth control, that taking birth control is choosing to abort your child.  That bitch is cray.
 

You better believe that at the first inkling that any kind of personhood movement might actually gain some ground, I will be back in my doctor’s office getting my fucking tubes tied.  Crazy mother fuckers.

Anywho, one final photo, taken from my phone at a cafe, showing off my buttons and stickers…

We Are Woman March, success!

Cheers!
Felina