Pictures From Women’s Marches on Every Continent
January 22, 2017 8:04 AM Subscribe

Crowds in hundreds of cities around the world gathered Satuday in conjunction with the Women’s March on Washington. New York Times compiles photos from a LOT of marches into a single page illustrating the vast numbers and global reach of the sea of pink hats.

Last I saw, this was still being expanded with new photos added overnight.

posted by hippybear (300 comments total) 160 users marked this as a favorite

This is fabulous, thanks for posting!
posted by bile and syntax at 8:08 AM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump no doubt thinks these crowds are gathering FOR HIM. You just wait and see.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 8:13 AM on January 22, 2017

Trump was on twitter wondering why "these people didn't vote". WE DID YOU JACKHOLE YOU LOST THE POPULAR VOTE.

San Francisco's march was rainy and enormous and lovely.
posted by rtha at 8:20 AM on January 22, 2017 [101 favorites]

Marvellous! Well done, everybody!
posted by Capt. Renault at 8:21 AM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

The best sign I've seen.
posted by bile and syntax at 8:22 AM on January 22, 2017 [77 favorites]

As I'm scrolling through, and shouting out, "Ghana! Columbia! Georgia! Stockholm!" I realize I sound like an announcer at a beauty pageant. I am briefly dismayed.

But then...

"New Zealand! Antarctica!"

I could do this all day.
posted by slipthought at 8:25 AM on January 22, 2017 [27 favorites]

I was at the grocery store on Friday evening and there was this older woman in line behind me wearing a pussyhat. I said to her, "Oh, I like your hat!", and she responded, "Thanks. I made it myself." I said "Yeah, I bet you did, are you heading into Spokane to march tomorrow?" She said she was. On my way out of the store I told her to have a great day at the march.

Organizers in Spokane had planned on fewer than 500 people. Between 7000 and 8000 turned out.
posted by hippybear at 8:27 AM on January 22, 2017 [86 favorites]

A most impressive crowd even in my small city. Certainly the biggest rally I've ever seen there, and there have been lots.
posted by JanetLand at 8:29 AM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

Amazing. Just amazing.

The thing I keep coming back to is the way the pink shows up in the wide shots of the crowd. On the ground in DC, so much of that pink, so many hats were so clearly homemade. So many people from so many places spent an incredible amount of time making that happen.

And then I see the pictures from all the other marches all around the world, and I see that what overwhelmed me in DC was itself only a small part of the whole. It's absolutely staggering.
posted by Akhu at 8:30 AM on January 22, 2017 [47 favorites]

Somebody was pointing out that the pink hats will make it harder to pretend pics of the marches were from the Inauguration.
posted by Pope Guilty at 8:38 AM on January 22, 2017 [175 favorites]

Pretty great turnout here in Peoria, Illinois!
posted by obfuscation at 8:38 AM on January 22, 2017 [15 favorites]

Even Cosmo is getting in on the coverage of the march: your favorite celebrities marching.
posted by gingerbeer at 8:42 AM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

Thanks for this. I couldn't figure out how to create an FPP that would accurately reflect the day. This is wonderful.

One of my favorites:

This is not one day.
This is Day One.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 8:49 AM on January 22, 2017 [106 favorites]

Antarctica! I saw these pictures last night when I got home from the amazing march in Boston. It was so moving to see all those crowds from around the world. Let's keep the momentum going!
posted by pangolin party at 8:50 AM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Here's some video (not mine) from the march in Des Moines.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 8:52 AM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Was there a woman's march in any Russian city? I know the government is pro-Trump but I would think that in a major city like Moscow there would be some organized dissent.
posted by yossarian1 at 9:00 AM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

For anyone struggling to picture what losing the popular vote by almost 3 million looks like, these provide a nice visual.
posted by windbox at 9:02 AM on January 22, 2017 [35 favorites]

Best anthem: MILCK performing "Quiet" with a flash choir at the D.C. March #icantkeepquiet (official video)
posted by effbot at 9:07 AM on January 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

Soundartist Felicity Ford (aka KNITSONIK) recorded some of the chants at yesterday's London march. You can listen to them here (soundcloud autoplay). Life-affirming & powerful.
posted by kariebookish at 9:09 AM on January 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

My conservative friends on Facebook are really particularly offended by one celebrity's speech. I wrote this back to them:

"WHO'S THAT GIRL? Oh yeah, her. I think her inflammatory speech here really crossed the BORDERLINE. But what do I know-- when it comes to politics I am LIKE A VIRGIN. Then again, everyone has a constitutional right to EXPRESS YOURSELF. Who knows what this next four years will bring? Will any of us LIVE TO TELL? I know a lot of other countries, especially in Latin America, are worried about their trade relations with the USA right now, but I just want to say DON'T CRY FOR ME ARGENTINA. You know, sometimes I think Facebook isn't the best place to have political discussions-- invariably someone will tell me PAPA DON'T PREACH and then I'm like, "Why don't you just take FOUR MINUTES and try to OPEN YOUR HEART?" But they never listen, they're too HUNG UP. And a lot of my liberal friends are applauding her speech and telling her to TAKE A BOW. To them she represents a RAY OF LIGHT. I guess this was at a big women's rights rally, maybe that's why the inauguration had lower attendance-- like a GHOSTTOWN I don't think she really cares about our opinions, she would just say BITCH I'M MADONNA."

I feel like I am about to be unfriended multiple times. ;)
posted by seasparrow at 9:33 AM on January 22, 2017 [87 favorites]

I love that the NYT page just kept going when I thought "oh, I must be near the end" and that, from what I could tell, each city was only represented once. It really showed how much of a worldwide event this was. Being a math geek, my favorite sign was one my brother saw in Boston
posted by noneuclidean at 9:34 AM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

LAist has a nice roundup of photos:

-- Hundreds of Thousands Rally For L.A. Women's March
-- Some Of Our Favorite Signs From The L.A. Women's March
-- Forty Photos Of The L.A. Women's March From LAist Readers
-- L.A. Women's March Is Overflowing The Public Transportation System

And four Lebowski signs I saw:

Calmer Than You Trump
This Agression Will Not Stand
Donny You're Outtta Your Element
And one more I forgot
posted by Room 641-A at 9:40 AM on January 22, 2017 [23 favorites]

In the last women's march FPP there were a lot of pussy hat naysayers and I said that it wasn't really my pink-eschewing just-barely-femme-presenting aesthetic either but I have to say (I'm at a rest stop on my way back from D.C.) they made for both an amazing visual in crowd shots and remain a visible sign of resistance. On the road, women are still wearing them. They're holding them up in windows as we drive by one another. It really was a pretty brilliant idea.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:45 AM on January 22, 2017 [115 favorites]

The best news is how many of these marches were overwhelmed.

In Boston, the group of friends I was with didn't get to actually march. We arrived around 10 am and weren't close to the route entrances. With 100,000 people (later estimated at 150,000) it would take 10 hours to get everyone through the route.

Marches all over the country including in red states were surprised by the turn out.

Trump doesn't believe in these numbers. But all the Representatives in Congress know they can't ignore these numbers and what they mean.
posted by justkevin at 9:46 AM on January 22, 2017 [37 favorites]

I donated money to PP in lieu of going to the march, but wanted to thank all marchers here, and everywhere, for putting a physical presence to the dislike and lack of consent for a trump government. My Facebook feed isn't typically very political, but this was all that was on it yesterday.
posted by codacorolla at 9:49 AM on January 22, 2017 [30 favorites]

(previ ously) Photos from Rome.
posted by progosk at 9:50 AM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm pretty proud of how we did here in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, with our sealskin banner.
posted by ZaphodB at 9:51 AM on January 22, 2017 [59 favorites]

Was there a woman's march in any Russian city? I know the government is pro-Trump but I would think that in a major city like Moscow there would be some organized dissent.

I saw a photo - I think from Moscow - of a few people in solidarity. I don't know how safe it is to protest in Russia right now. Certainly it hasn't been for people protesting for LGBTQ rights.
posted by jb at 9:51 AM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

It occurred to me to wonder yesterday, though: where were the Obamas?

On vacation in Palm Springs is what I believe I read.
posted by hippybear at 9:52 AM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

I went to a small, local march. Normally I wouldn't go out of my way to do something like that, more of a cheer at the sidelines kind of person, but it was a GREAT day. A lot of people I went with were reinvigorated. We just needed a little fire to temper our steel. And I know a lot of people who regretted not going. Just imagine if all of them had shown up!
posted by jenjenc at 9:55 AM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

Follow-up: I just actually went into the rest stop to pee. Four buses of marchers also here, chanting in the food court: "We are the popular vote!" So many hats.
posted by soren_lorensen at 9:57 AM on January 22, 2017 [26 favorites]

Was there a woman's march in any Russian city?

The Sister marches page lists Minsk (Belarus) and Moscow, but the latter just says "TBA", where's the former specifies "Here in Minsk, we can’t march in the streets but we will stand together online in solidarity with those women, families and friends of all genders, to remind our local leaders, and the world that the majority of us stand for and will defend human rights. This is not a protest. This is a peaceful act of solidarity with women around the globe!"

Was wondering if there'd been anything in China, but I can't seem to find anything.
posted by progosk at 9:58 AM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Here's a link to crowd size estimates for the marches, for anyone who wants to see the numbers.
posted by bile and syntax at 9:59 AM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

I just sobbed for twenty minutes. This is possibly the most beautiful and inspiring thing I've ever seen. Thank you so much to those who marched. I can't wait to be out there with you soon.
posted by AFABulous at 10:08 AM on January 22, 2017 [39 favorites]

So lovely! It would be to get a gallery/wiki going of all the signs and their slogans. I loved the clever puns and heartfelt statements, but the gleeful irreverence of this one especially had me in stitches.
posted by freya_lamb at 10:10 AM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

It kinda melts my heart to see all those kids walking in Auckland. The Big Smoke does right.
posted by New England Cultist at 10:12 AM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

I was (and am) strongly opposed to the pussy narrative and won't wear the hat and I'm super irritated by pink BUT the visual of all that pink and the obvious recycling of non-specific media by the White House at least got me to buy a pink bandanna to wear. Which then, because of my enormous noggin, formed its own ears. I didn't notice until I looked at my selfies later out of the sun. I will figure something else out for next time, and that something else will have a brim because I was sorely in need of some face shade.

The LA march was amazing and worth the many hours I spent dealing with our completely overwhelmed adorable little subway system.
posted by Lyn Never at 10:25 AM on January 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

I'm proud of everyone of you who participated in this, and grateful. I can't say enough.
posted by nangar at 10:26 AM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Two of my favorite signs in Seattle -- unfortunately I didn't get good photos of them -- "My irrational childhood fear of Oompa Loompas has been justified," and "Keep your filthy laws of my silky drawers."
posted by The corpse in the library at 10:28 AM on January 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

I was oddly touched by the number of Princess Leia/Carrie Fisher-inspired signs, with slogans like "A woman's place is in the resistance."
posted by praemunire at 10:31 AM on January 22, 2017 [65 favorites]

Thanks for the link to that spreadsheet, bile and syntax.

It's been cool to see just how much the larger the number of marchers was than predicted. e.g. for Seattle--on Friday they thought there would be maybe 50k people, but 120-170k people marched. So 100,000 people just appeared out of nowhere!

Seattle was packed. My group arrived a little later than planned, before the official start of the march but way too late to have any chance of finding the org we were planning on marching with. We spent ~half of the "march" just trying to get out of the park that was the starting point (& the nearby residential streets that it spilled over into). By the time we got to the end point it was so full of people that we just kind of...bounced off.

My 60 year old mom, who is not the marching type, went to her local march (in Canada, no less)
posted by quaking fajita at 10:33 AM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

We went to the march here in sleepy little St. Augustine, Florida expecting a few dozen people at best and were completely blown away by the massive, energized turnout. Well over a thousand people streaming over the Bridge of Lions, every age and color, shape and size. It was such a relief to see so many people so deeply committed to feminism and progressive ideals here in a red county in a red-ish state. I'm proud of my town in a way I honestly didn't think I could ever be again after November.

My daughter June thought the march was "super boring" but really enjoyed making her sign (the full sign read "I don't like Trump... I like thunderstorms.").
posted by saladin at 10:33 AM on January 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

I was oddly touched by the number of Princess Leia/Carrie Fisher-inspired signs

Oh, then you need to see this photo!
posted by hippybear at 10:36 AM on January 22, 2017 [38 favorites]

My husband and I took our toddler to the march in Philadelphia. On the train from NJ to Philly, I started crying because the entire train was full of people in hats, carrying signs, wearing political t-shirts, and it was so great to surrounded by people saying that this isn't okay, that we will not sit down for this bullshit.

Hilariously, though we brought a carrier to put him in, my son INSISTED on marching. He held both of our hands and CHARGED ahead. It was a good day.
posted by Aquifer at 10:38 AM on January 22, 2017 [42 favorites]

The tweet's text is a bit mocking, but I love how these parents let their child make their own sign rather than handing them one.
posted by hippybear at 10:40 AM on January 22, 2017 [33 favorites]

Largest march ever in San Jose's history. Apparently we weren't alone in that. Seems like the whole world turned out. It was a really inspiring thing. Lots of families with children, all super positive. I heard it may have been 40,000 people here, but it's hard to gauge.

On the topic of favorite signs, this woman received many high-fives as the crowd passed.
posted by Phobos the Space Potato at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

The photos are wonderful.
posted by Dip Flash at 10:49 AM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

So, so proud of everyone all over the globe who participated, either in person or in spirit—all support is essential. And the presence of so many men made my heart swell like crazy.

I feel so much less alone/ignored/excluded/simply tolerated. Thanks to all from the bottom of my formerly wounded heart.
posted by heyho at 10:53 AM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

The DC march was amazing. Such masses of people and no chaos. Even in the tightest crushes of people, we were warning each other "careful, there's a step down here," and when we couldn't hear the speakers we gathered around the phones that could connect to the number (which other people had helpfully written on their signs!), cups were found to amplify so more of us could hear.

I almost didn't go. I'm so happy that I went. And I am ready for what's next.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 10:58 AM on January 22, 2017 [28 favorites]

I sadly had to sit inside with a broken nose for my local march, because fate isn't on my side(donations to PP were made though!). But I was so happy scrolling through my facebook feed and seeing friends and family members in different places showing what their local march looked like. My favorite was from a friend in Costa Rica who took pictures of pink and rainbowclad protesters chanting and dancing up the dense and winding roads of their hometown(which is on/around a mountain).
posted by InkDrinker at 10:59 AM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

I'm the bit of olive green coat in the right-hand side of the photo from Fairbanks, AK. We had a lot of people! Estimates are about 2000. Which, given that the borough (like a county) has at most 100,000 people, over an area a bit smaller than New Jersey (or Slovenia), is not too bad. Did I mention it was about -15F/-25C?

We weren't the farthest north march, though.
posted by leahwrenn at 11:04 AM on January 22, 2017 [34 favorites]

So on Thursday night at the L.A. Rally to Save Roe, I talked to an old friend who is a major leader of a big women's group. I said something about there being 300,000 people in L.A. She looked like she had been hit by a truck. "where did you hear that number?" she asked. I told her that's just my estimate, based on what I was hearing from the people participating. She countered. "We're not prepared for that. I think it's going to be more like 80,000." I told her she better start planning for more. We ended up at 750,000. There were people waiting for subways for 4 hours. There were people on every parallel street. There were entire families of 4 generations. I might have led a chant of "This pussy grabs back" in the line at the historic Philippe's which was completely overtaken by marchers.

I also posted a note on my FB page to all of my trans friends acknowledging that the centering on vaginas was likely making them angry or uncomfortable or some other feeling and that I see them and am open to hearing whatever they have to share with me. I have no excuses for it and it needs to not continue.
posted by Sophie1 at 11:04 AM on January 22, 2017 [40 favorites]

The pink hats were genius.
posted by Artw at 11:09 AM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

The pink hats were genius.

Yeah. I reflexively dislike the "pinking" of women's issues (plus it doesn't look good on me!) but all those bright pink hats and shirts makes a fantastic visual.
posted by basalganglia at 11:22 AM on January 22, 2017 [15 favorites]

I think I'm the blue cluster of dots next to the pink and orange clusters in the lower right (don't even try) of this picture of Asheville's march. We had somewhere between 7,000 & 10,000, which was I think over double what the organizers expected.
posted by achrise at 11:24 AM on January 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

I was overwhelmed by the turnout here in Boston. Expectations were that it would be between 75,000 - 90,000. Current estimates are closer to 175,000. It was incredibly personally gratifying because even here in my reliably blue liberal state, the Trump incursion was disturbing. So, I can't express how amazing it was to stand with so many women, men and children of like mind. Then I came home and started seeing all of my sisters and brothers who went out and marched in their red states and red cities, and I have to say that I wept. It's easy for me to protest -- I don't fear recriminations here. But the courage that it took to do that in Kentucky? Or Idaho? Or Alabama? I'm in awe.
posted by B_Pithy at 11:25 AM on January 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

My shop was near the parade route in Oakland and the foot traffic was insane, tons of awesome signs and the energy was really good. Estimate was something like 60,000.
The weather held off till 5 or so so even better.
posted by boilermonster at 11:29 AM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Best moment post Austin march; woman in suffragette costume accompanied by a friend brassily belting "Sister Suffragette" sing from Mary Poppins.
posted by emjaybee at 11:31 AM on January 22, 2017 [18 favorites]

For those who absolutely hate pink, I spotted a black cat hat and a purple cat hat on 2 out of 3 ASL translators at the Washington march. But....yeah, even if you hate pink, it's making a good statement right now.

On a sort of related note, in one of the political threads someone wanted a shirt of Princess Leia and "Here Comes The General." I found several here. I ordered one. (And I'm still working on that Princess Leia memorial cross stitch.)

I went to a small town protest yesterday. It wasn't covered by media (their newspaper editor apparently went to Sonoma instead and all their Internet presence can talk about is some highway over and over and over) so it'll never make the count, but I counted at least over 60 people before I lost the ability to spot every head in the park. I'd guess somewhere between 80-100? It was lovely. We had three cops (some PoC) standing respectfully far away during the speeches and then they graciously helped out with traffic during the downtown march.
posted by jenfullmoon at 11:32 AM on January 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

Trump no doubt thinks these crowds are gathering FOR HIM. You just wait and see.
posted by Foci for Analysis at 9:13 AM on January 22 [+] [!]

One of the protestors somewhere had a sign-
" You're so vain, you probably think this march is about you"
posted by get off of my cloud at 11:37 AM on January 22, 2017 [51 favorites]

Here are a few photos of a rally in Victoria BC: http://imgur.com/gallery/f7pvo
posted by My Dad at 11:41 AM on January 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

There was a toddler in DC with a sign that said "I hate naps but I AM WOKE"
posted by workerant at 11:42 AM on January 22, 2017 [37 favorites]

The organizers of the march in St Pete, FL had been told ahead of time the would have to do their entire march on sidewalks. They had initially hoped for a few hundred and were planning for around 5k. 20k people showed up, and the SPPD ultimately shut some streets for us!
posted by ThePinkSuperhero at 11:51 AM on January 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

The Actual Supergirl Warns Donald Trump About Grabbing Her…
posted by Etrigan at 11:51 AM on January 22, 2017 [19 favorites]

Yeah. I reflexively dislike the "pinking" of women's issues (plus it doesn't look good on me!) but all those bright pink hats and shirts makes a fantastic visual.

If I squinted at Twitter it looked like a bunch of cake with sprinkles.
posted by Artw at 11:52 AM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Teen Vogue has a nice set of photos.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:55 AM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Aw, jeez.

From Fairbanks, Alaska, where it must be pretty cold.

I survived cancer. Trump made me uninsurable.

Brave young lady, you inspire us all.
posted by adept256 at 11:56 AM on January 22, 2017 [26 favorites]

Another fun sign.
posted by bile and syntax at 11:57 AM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

This is amazing! I don't know which is more impressive, the mega-marches in DC and LA, or the tiny clumps of marchers in far-flung places like Bogota and Accra, or the stalwarts in deep-red towns in the USA, where reprisals seem ... not entirely impossible. I also kind of side-eyed the whole "women = pink" thing, but it really did make for striking visuals. Hats are especially visible in aerial photos (and are pretty quick to make), so it was an excellent strategic move.

The march in San Francisco was great. A few MeFites walked together as a low-key contingent (there were a bunch of other MeFites present, but they marched with other groups.) It started pouring right when the march began, so it's good that the news photographers got some shots of the assembly area - we loved how City Hall was illuminated with pink lights! Some of the marchers' signs were very clever, but my favorite one was from NYC in a tweet shared by a fellow MeFite: So bad, even introverts are here.

I also liked how the SF march was a katamari ball that rolled up all sorts of liberal/progressive causes. Even though it wasn't perfectly inclusive, it still collected a pretty good range of voices. There were signs and T-shirts from Black Lives Matter, LGBTQ groups, disability advocates, and my personal favorite, a group of lab-coated nerds standing up for science. High five!
posted by Quietgal at 11:59 AM on January 22, 2017 [31 favorites]

Yeah, I'm pretty sure I haven't worn pink in 30 years, but it's ok, I did it yesterday for the movement. That said, a friend of mine requested a light brownish pussy hat for hers. So, that's what she got!
posted by Sophie1 at 12:01 PM on January 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

I've got to say I can't have a favourite sign because there's gotta be what - tens of thousands? - that would be the short list for best of the best.
posted by mandolin conspiracy at 12:03 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Here is red state North Dakota there was a march at the state capital grounds in Bismarck. We couldn't make it but a family member and another friend did. I am shocked that our normally right-leaning local media had nothing but positive coverage of it. Those that went texted us that the energy was incredible.

We need to keep this energy up!
posted by Ber at 12:12 PM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

I had a great time in DC just sitting outside the Air and Space Museum and yelling at all the great signs and shirts passing by. Pink isn't really my color but the revolution isn't about fashion. I grabbed the first hat I was offered and I intend to wear it all winter. Thanks, knitting lady on the train!
posted by irisclara at 12:16 PM on January 22, 2017 [15 favorites]

The tweet's text is a bit mocking, but I love how these parents let their child make their own sign rather than handing them one.

I saw a five- or six-year-old girl with a cardboard sign she had obviously made herself, with little letters, saying "Respect is what I Need, not a pinch!" [heart sign]

For cute. And I tell you what, if there was one thing I hated when I was her age, it was getting pinched, which happened a lot, let me tell you, and from grownups too. I am glad to see that she has identified her core issue. I wanted to take a picture, but when I saw her she was sitting on her sister's lap and making her pretend to be Santa. (It was a long set of speeches.) I decided not to bother her.
posted by Countess Elena at 12:19 PM on January 22, 2017 [21 favorites]

Great photos! There's no way to pull out a "best of" list from all those amazing signs!

The DC march was fantastic. I got there around 11 because of crowded metro trains, and then I couldn't get anywhere close to the stage. So I hung around near the Capitol and on the Mall as close as I could get, and after 1pm "marched" (i.e. walked veeerrry slowly) with everyone else in the general area of the march route until we got stuck on 14th street and everything ground to a halt. I had to extricate myself when I got too anxious from being in the crowd, but it was mostly a really positive experience.

The amount of positivity and joy in the crowd was palpable. Everyone was helpful and looking out for others, and everyone seemed so happy to be there. There were little groups of people singing or chanting the same things in certain areas, so it was like a bunch of tiny protests seamlessly joining the whole. Really inspirational.

"Show me what democracy looks like!?" "This is what democracy looks like!"
posted by gemmy at 12:23 PM on January 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

hippybear, a kid at my neighborhood march in Milwaukee had a similar sign and I loved seeing it too! I thought it was a great way to give the kid autonomy over their own protest expression. I marched with an old roommate and current friend and was delighted to realize that she still had the pink cat-ear hat (the one from Stitch & Bitch) that I had made her about ten years ago, obviously in anticipation of this moment!
posted by augustimagination at 12:27 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

It's okay to like pink.
posted by The corpse in the library at 12:30 PM on January 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

My favorite signs were the ones left in front of the illegitimate one's hotel and White House.
posted by jeremias at 12:37 PM on January 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

So apparently there were marches in India also on Jan 21st by women, organized under the #IWillGoOut campaign. I'm not sure if the date was a coincidence or organized that way, but here's more context for those interested. And some video from one of the marches.
posted by peacheater at 12:38 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

I had a pretty similar experience as gemmy, although my reaction to 'this is what democracy looks like' was that democracy was a little disorganized and messy, but that's how it is.
So amazing and inspiring.
A big shoutout to D.C. Metro employees who were amazingly cool and upbeat on a day when the system was way over capacity.
posted by MtDewd at 12:38 PM on January 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

I marched for a few hours in New York, but it was an absolute standstill, so I eventually ditched out at Grand Central, and watched the rest from my couch. I especially enjoyed talking to the little girls at the march. I hope that someday they tell their own kids and nieces and nephews about what they remember they did.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:42 PM on January 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

This feels sort of like a reclamation of pink, to me. I liked it as a girl, then rejected it once I saw that it was so frequently used to separate us. Not yesterday. Yesterday it united us, and now I love it again.
posted by heyho at 12:47 PM on January 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

this man cut a mirror into the United States, and walked backwards! This is America
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 12:51 PM on January 22, 2017 [36 favorites]

I'M NOT CRYING YOU'RE CRYING
posted by neushoorn at 12:51 PM on January 22, 2017 [25 favorites]

I took a bit of time from a conference and marched for a while in Atlanta. It was a stream of mostly upbeat, determined people that just went on and on. I cried a little when I saw that some people had broken out their Silence = Death banner, but it was mostly good.
posted by GenjiandProust at 12:52 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

Here's a link to crowd size estimates for the marches, for anyone who wants to see the numbers.

Second line - Accident, MD - is a bus from St. Louis that broke down (a friend was on it). Evidently Accident is the reddest town in MD, but they went ahead and had their own little march waiting for a replacement bus.
posted by notsnot at 12:55 PM on January 22, 2017 [20 favorites]

In Longville, Minn., retired librarian prepares for solo women's march

Until very recently, Barton thought she'd be marching alone. She was fine with that, but a few days ago a total stranger saw her event on Facebook and said she'd stop by with her sister on their way through town.

But on Saturday, 66 people from Longville and nearby towns showed up to walk with Barton

Wow. Just wow.
posted by Talez at 12:57 PM on January 22, 2017 [99 favorites]

I ended up marching in front of a loosely organized group for a while; they had matching solidarity signs and a megaphone and always seemed to be starting the best chants. Like, I could tell these chants were historically approved: clever rhymes, strong call and responses, things that could get the crowd going. After a block or two I decided to check and see which group it was, just in case I was tacitly endorsing something I'm strongly against.

OH HAI SOCIALISTS
YOU FOLKS HAVE A LOT OF EXPERIENCE WITH THIS MARCHING THING, HUH?
posted by redsparkler at 12:57 PM on January 22, 2017 [47 favorites]

I did not march. I did not even know there were marches outside of the US. And now I'm sad because I missed it and I would have loved being a part of it.
I want to make myself a fleece pussy hat (purple, because ugh pink) as a sign of support for the issues the march was about, but I'm not sure that's okay because I did not go... and I don't want to look like I'm taking credit for something I did not do.
(Help!)
posted by Too-Ticky at 12:59 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

So, serious question: what is the best way for cis women terrified about legislative and literal attacks on our bodies speak to those issues without verging into TERF territory? I am not being snarky or defensive, I'm seriously asking. I want it honor and include transwomen, and I know that the challenges I am facing do not match the erasure and discrimination levied against them. Yet at the same time, I feel like the bodies of cis women are being specifically targeted in certain cases. What is the best way to discuss those cases without harming my trans sisters?
posted by a fiendish thingy at 1:01 PM on January 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

We were expecting maybe 2000 for the Portland Maine march, and ended up well over 10000. Our line of marchers was a mile long, and the route was just a mile and a half! It was amazing to be a part of, so kind and warm. At one point I half threw/half dropped my phone on the pavement in misdirected enthusiastic clumsiness. A collective gasp arose and a non-moving bubble of marchers surrounded the phone. I picked it up, shouted "it's ok!", and a cheer arose. Strangers cheering my not-broken phone: this is the world I want.
posted by donnagirl at 1:04 PM on January 22, 2017 [46 favorites]

Every city on the planet went through the same rough process: expected a large crowd, got an enormous one. Marches couldn't march for the simple reason that people were shoulder-to-shoulder from start to finish.

I went to the event at Grosvenor Square in London, and tried to hear speakers talk. A woman noticed her sign was between my face and the speaker, apologised, and lowered it.

"Don't worry about me!" I laughed, "Hold it high!"

I marched alone, and that left me free to just wander the crowd and observe. I sent photos back to Mrs. Hobo and child, enjoying the atmosphere. At one point a woman in one of the signature hats who was directing people through the confusing system of hedges around the square started talking with a co-organiser. From this I picked up that they'd only expected 20,000 and were over capacity already, and that the march started from the opposite corner.

So, I went to the opposite corner, where I saw the sign that touched me the most (and I will admit to a certain joy in getting a reply from Pullman himself!). I joined the march toward the front, certainly in the first thousand people or so. Despite being in the lead, Trafalgar Square was already rammed when I arrived, and I picked my way to a spot behind one of the fountains where I could see the jumbotron.

It wasn't until I saw the drone footage that I realised how far ahead I was, and how this made all the difference in my experience of the event. At first I was pleased with myself, but now I see that my experience was in many ways the less authentic one for it.

Yes, I marched up front, and was there in the crowd for the amazing speakers from the Women's Equality Party and the Green Party (both parties supported the march) as well as MPs from the LibDems and Labour (who supported the event as individuals). But the true magic of the march was in the crowds that spilled out over London's streets, nowhere near the tannoys and screens. Years from now, people will tell their children that they marched and it was so full they never even got close. This majority of attendees are the reason we count that day such a success.

By being up front I saw the stage, sure. But what I missed was the crowd 100,000 strong that spread out behind me. And that was the real event of 21 January, 2017.
posted by rum-soaked space hobo at 1:06 PM on January 22, 2017 [25 favorites]

a fiendish thingy, I try to mention that women's genitals and women's reproductive rights and women's healthcare are none of anyone's business but our own and our doctor's, and that this includes trans women and intersex people who ALSO have genitals and reproductive rights and health care needs that are of nobody's business but their own and their doctor's.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:06 PM on January 22, 2017 [36 favorites]

Reporting in from the city of angels, one tiny suffragette dot amid a giant sea of excellent people: it was amazing and it made me proud to be a part of this city and this state. Is it great to be marching to songs a century old, talking up protests with my mother, who marched a generation before me? Not so much! But we'll go marching, marching in the beauty of the day. Yesterday, tomorrow, forever.
posted by jetlagaddict at 1:06 PM on January 22, 2017 [7 favorites]

I think this is a total all-hands-on-deck moment and anyone who feels moved to express solidarity should do it in any way that feels good to them, Too-Ticky. You don't have to earn the right to wear a pussyhat!
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:11 PM on January 22, 2017 [24 favorites]

Trump wants to defund Planned Parenthood. Trump admits to grabbing women against their wishes. Trump makes nasty remarks about a number of women and their looks. And yet more white women voted for Trump than for Hillary. These marches, world wide, show the importance then, of diversity and sisterhood to bring change
posted by Postroad at 1:18 PM on January 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

a fiendish thingy: I feel like the bodies of cis women are being specifically targeted in certain cases. What is the best way to discuss those cases without harming my trans sisters?

Someone in our group had just gone to a protest training workshop (really!) and one of the exercises they had to do was choose from one of a half dozen very broad topics they'd make their primary focus (e.g. women's rights, healthcare, the environment, whatever). You had to choose one and then go stand by the sign for that one topic. People agonized over the choice, and the leader kept having to tell them, just pick one, just pick one. In the end after everybody had picked, the leader had everybody look around the room and see that while they'd all chosen something, every topic had people who'd chosen that one as their priority, and it was OK to pick one thing.

You choosing your one thing doesn't hurt others. Other people will choose that one issue to focus on.
posted by fedward at 1:22 PM on January 22, 2017 [31 favorites]

Seattle was a bit of a shit show, but then I thought: holy crap, there's 3-5x as many people here as they expected. There are 120,000 people here. We need more of these shit shows.

And then I need every last one of you to show up at the next BLM action.
posted by petrilli at 1:23 PM on January 22, 2017 [54 favorites]

Not a protest sign, but this is what Expo Line riders saw when they got off the train in Downtown L.A. (Self-link)

This feels sort of like a reclamation of pink, to me. I liked it as a girl, then rejected it once I saw that it was so frequently used to separate us. Not yesterday. Yesterday it united us, and now I love it again.

Yes yes yes! I want this country to be awash in pink. I said yesterday that I originally didn't want a pussy hat because 1) sweat and 2) LA weather but I was so bummed I didn't have one. This rainy morning I reached for my Jayne (Firefly) hat but decided that I can't overlook how gross Adam Baldwin is, so now I'm looking online for a pussy hat!
posted by Room 641-A at 1:24 PM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

Too-Ticky: I would say wear that hat with pride! And know that you are buoying so many people who see you wearing it. For me, it's not about the march. It's about the message.
posted by mcduff at 1:25 PM on January 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

I did not march. I did not even know there were marches outside of the US. And now I'm sad because I missed it and I would have loved being a part of it.
I want to make myself a fleece pussy hat (purple, because ugh pink) as a sign of support for the issues the march was about, but I'm not sure that's okay because I did not go... and I don't want to look like I'm taking credit for something I did not do.
(Help!)

Not everyone who wanted to march could. It's okay. I marched in spirit. You paid attention. It moved you. Did you find strength and inspiration from it? You did? Then you are part of it.
posted by Jalliah at 1:25 PM on January 22, 2017 [38 favorites]

GenjiandProust I took a bit of time from a conference and marched for a while in Atlanta

You totally just outed yourself as being awesome. Just FYI.

Too-Ticky I did not march. ... I want to make myself a fleece pussy hat ... I'm not sure that's okay because I did not go... and I don't want to look like I'm taking credit for something I did not do.
(Help!)

You have the encouragement of this random Internet attendee to adopt a symbol of a moment and wear it proudly as the symbol of a movement. Wear it proudly as a statement for the future. I want pussyhats to be as recognizable as the peace symbol and white pantsuits.
posted by TheNewWazoo at 1:26 PM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

> now I'm looking online for a pussy hat

They're super duper easy to knit, if that interests you in all. They're a rectangle folded in half. You don't even have to do the ribbing.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:27 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

I am now super inspired to design a Jayne-hat pussyhat, in different shades of pink, with cat ears. I should in no way be spending time doing that rather than all the other things I have to do, but I really, really wanna.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:29 PM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

Seconding the easiness of knitting a pussyhat. I'm a very beginning-level knitter and mine turned out fine. Knit it in a couple of hours while watching TV. Marched in Houston, though, and it was too hot to wear Saturday, but winter is making brief stopover tomorrow morning and I'm wearing it while I walk the dog then.
posted by not that mimi at 1:30 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

about cissexism, some thoughts from Tumblr:

seeing a lot of posts condemning “pussy grabs back” as cissexist and although i would agree that it is not the perfect “women’s march” slogan by any means i would urge you all to keep in mind that it is a direct response to trump’s violent statement and therefore makes sense as a phrase of political retaliation …..like obviously there should be many other myriad phrases and slogans for protesting that aren’t as exclusionary but i don’t think we should be shaming those who wielded “pussy grabs back” signs today since those signs are in active & necessary conversation with sexually violent remarks made by our president and the people wielding those signs are absolutely at liberty to respond directly in that way. anyways perhaps try to have some nuance in your thought today folks

>yes yes yes. we need to remember: not all women have vaginas, and not all people who have vaginas are women, but all vaginas are a probable site of violence, and as such they have a place in the conversation.

...

it is very very possible to discuss the ways in which vulvas, vaginas, etc are demeaned by society/the gov’t because of their association with femininity + womanhood without equating those body parts with womanhood itself.

not all women have vaginas; not all people with vaginas are women; “pussy power” =/= “girl power”; etc etc etc.

idk how much to say, as a transmasculine person but IMO:
- a march like this needs a symbol to unite it. If you want to unite women, then the symbol needs to be connected to womanhood.
- there's no way to pick a symbol of "womanhood" that isn't contentious
- both "pink" and "pussy" as symbols are contentious in different ways!
- some oppression is specifically about vaginas - e.g. the many failures and shortcomings of women's healthcare, which also impact trans men
- some oppression is about gender and gender expression
- genitals and gender are not the same thing
- pussy power is not the same thing as girl power
- trans women must be affirmatively included in these things because with no signs to the contrary, most will assume they won't be welcome
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 1:31 PM on January 22, 2017 [70 favorites]

I thought the energy in Seattle was electric. Gave me hope for the first time since the election.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 1:32 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

I made a stack of Pussyhats and gave them away, and now don't know what to do with myself when I watch TV. But this morning I saw something truly inspirational.... time to learn colorwork!
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:32 PM on January 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

Thank you kindly for helping me out. I shall use purple fleece (I can't knit but I can sew and I have purple fleece) and make not one but two purple pussyhats... and wear one, and give the other to whoever wants to wear it.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:35 PM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

I appreciate the encouragement but I'm not a knitter (or a sewer.) The fiber arts vex me :-) I'd probably have to waste an Ask to find out how to remove a knitting needle from my eye!
posted by Room 641-A at 1:36 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

An acquaintance, a woman who teaches Communication at the college where I'm a librarian, posted a rant on Facebook about the protesters. She argued that all the vile language on signs (was FOX News seeking out and sharing the most outrageous signs?) would just alienate American women who didn't agree with them even further. She says we need to find more effective ways of communicating.

I asked why those women who might be offended by some of our signs were not offended enough by Trump's foul mouth, or the many nasty things Trump and the right wing said about Obama and his family, to vote against Trump. She hasn't unfriended me yet.

This same woman had her students watch the inauguration in class on Friday. I sent her an email early Friday asking if she would mention the women's rallies and march I helped to organize. Got no response to that.

We had an amazing turnout in Savannah. It was supposed to rain, but the rain- actually endless massive thunderstorms- held off until we were done.
posted by mareli at 1:37 PM on January 22, 2017 [29 favorites]

You should learn colorwork because:

1. those hats are awesome

2. it is by far the funnest knitting technique

and

3. you will be able to knit these amazing mittens sometime after the pattern is released next week.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 1:38 PM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

Thanks, Rainbo Vagrant, this is something I've been swirling around in my head about.

Because people had so many different focuses on this march, I wondered if ovaries/genital focused signs were okay as a facet of the protests as long as their accompanying messaging didn't try and equate them 1:1 with womanhood.
posted by redsparkler at 1:38 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

My daughter leading chants in St. Louis, MO. I've never been prouder.
posted by EarBucket at 1:40 PM on January 22, 2017 [39 favorites]

Room 641-A, how would you feel about a purple fleece pussyhat?
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:40 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

I do think the pussyhat may be the liberty cap of our era.
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:45 PM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

I was not wearing a pink pussyhat (because pink? yuck!), but after seeing the cumulative effect I appreciate the feeling of solidarity and will wear one in the future. There was so much positivity at the DC march. I've never seen crowds so cooperative and considerate of others (especially on the Metro). It was really moving.
posted by jazzbaby at 1:45 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

... Oh, I see that you want a pink one. Never mind, then.
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:46 PM on January 22, 2017

I feel like the bodies of cis women are being specifically targeted in certain cases.

I doubt they're cool with trans men's abortions either.

Also, everything that Rainbo Vagrant said.
posted by AFABulous at 1:48 PM on January 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

So, today, back st the conference, I was chatting with a vendor who was sad censuses she hadn't been able to get free for the march, and she said "I don't know why everyone is so surprised at the size of the crowds; don't they know that women have had to organize everything since forever?"
posted by GenjiandProust at 1:48 PM on January 22, 2017 [68 favorites]

Early in the morning we saw people walking towards downtown with signs from as far as Catholic U. We met our friends at Eastern Market, where every place that sold coffee had lines out the door. At 2nd and Independence SE we were directed to Constitution Ave, although we ended up following the crowd on East Capitol and ended up on the Mall next to the National Museum of the American Indian. We couldn't see or hear anything. There was a jumbotron, but from where we stood it was behind a tree strategically placed to make it impossible to identify any of the speakers we couldn't hear. There was the mirage of cellular service but it didn't work at all. NOBODY COMPLAINED. It was amazing. The spirit in that crowd was magical.

I saw several middle-aged women with signs saying "I can't believe we still have to protest this shit." Also a woman carrying a crocheted vagina. Also Mike Hot Pence.

I was greatly amused that we'd heeded all the warnings about bags (I went as far as wearing cargo shorts over leggings so I could have more pockets) and then we never encountered any security at all. It was good I had the extra stuff I carried in those pockets, though. I was able to share my USB battery pack with somebody in our group I'd never met, and then with a stranger on the Metro whose low battery warning popped up while our train was stuck.

My wife had to leave our group early on because she had a scheduled rehearsal (which, in fact, had been canceled before she left us, but she hadn't gotten the text). She skirted the edges and tried to avoid particularly heavy crowds, and she said it still took her a half hour to get from the Constitution Ave side of the National Portrait Gallery to the Mall side. She said around 7 PM a huge crowd came marching up 14th St at P St (about a mile from the White House), still chanting and cheering.

I'm curious how all the bars and restaurants in town did. Metro had set a weekend ridership record by 4PM and that couldn't possibly account for everybody trying to get home.
posted by fedward at 1:51 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Serious question, what's behind the backlash against the color pink? It seems like more than just personal preference. We'd call men who won't wear pink "fragile" and "insecure" in their own masculinity. Is "too feminine" considered a bad thing among women too? It's a women's march, after all.
posted by AFABulous at 1:51 PM on January 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

I was so proud to be part of the DC march and the many different constituencies that were represented. Did I agree with everyone there? No. Did it bother me? Not much. That's what it is to accept plurality and diversity. I found some of the signage amusing, some of it delightful, some of it mildly offensive, some of it inappropriate, because I'm a person with individual opinions and sensibilities. I don't like name-calling or insults based on dick size, and I don't like insulting a candidate's pathetic wife or underage child. I do like the endless word-play and creativity that were exhibited, and though I was not a huge fan of pink pussy-cat hats per se, I was very impressed by the variety of pink pussy-cat hats that were exhibited.

I went with my mid-30s daughter, and we realized that the last time we went on a march together (we've been on plenty of marches separately since), she was in a stroller and was wearing an ERA t-shirt. This time, she was there to protect me, with my bad knees and my poor balance, from being shoved by oblivious people trying to get from one point to the other or from being walked into the ground by friends who don't remember that it's hard for me.

My brother marched in LA. My over-80-year-old father told me he was proud of me. My niece in New Zealand was posting, and my quadriplegic friend in Alabama.

Now we have to get into action. I've been through political movements too many times. Please please please take action. Donate, work for political change, volunteer, make a difference.
posted by Peach at 1:51 PM on January 22, 2017 [26 favorites]

AFABulous, I don't mind pink, but I think there's a perfectly righteous backlash with the idea that women have to automatically like wearing pink. Or that we should buy pink merchandise to "support" people with breast cancer. Or that we need to buy razors that are more expensive, and pink, because they are labelled "women's."
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:55 PM on January 22, 2017 [25 favorites]

We took our kids to march in Seattle. We've always been clear about leading by example and not telling them what to think. We told them mommy and daddy were going because we believe very strongly in X, Y, and Z and are marching to be counted and show support. We told them they were coming because we thought it would be an historic day that they would want to witness, but they shouldn't chant or protest or make signs unless it was something they really believed in. My son made this on his own.

We had opera tickets last night (that's how we coastal liberal elite protesters roll) so on the way home from the march, we stopped at the clinic where I fashioned myself a spiffy new lapel pin.

And just because I was proud to march with and for her, here is the my beautiful, strong, brilliant mother, wife, and partner in my life.

All you fascists are bound to lose.
posted by Slarty Bartfast at 1:56 PM on January 22, 2017 [36 favorites]

Notable Leia sign from the Seattle march.

I have never marched for anything but I met up with a friend and we had an amazing day. So much pink and so many smiles! I met a neighbor I've never spoken with, gave some cash to a food bank along the route, and I am now feeling strangely hopeful.
posted by esoterrica at 1:57 PM on January 22, 2017 [9 favorites]

AFABulous, Barbara Ehrenreich articulated some of the feelings against pink, far more eloquently than I could.

[On preview, what roomthreeseventeen said!]
posted by basalganglia at 1:58 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

AFABulous: Serious question, what's behind the backlash against the color pink? It seems like more than just personal preference.

I can only speak for myself here... I've never liked it, not even when I was little. That might be because it was pushed on me as a thing that I should like, or it might simply be a preference... by now, I can't possibly tell. I don't like orange either. But I do like purple, red and yellow. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
posted by Too-Ticky at 1:58 PM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

It's okay to like pink.

It's worth remembering that people's feelings about pink are varied and multilayered and informed by different influences, including age. I grew up as a girl in the 1970s, when there was much less gender-coding of kids stuff. Given my experience, I've chafed at the increasingly dominant message over the decades since then that pink=girl and girl=pink. My dislike of enforced pinkdom is a dislike of enforced roles and expectations, not a dislike of pink itself or of people who like pink.

For years I've personally rejected pink. I recognized long ago that I fail at being a girly-girl and don't have much interest in trying. It's interesting that as I've come to realize that I'm not cisgender, I've been feeling more open to pink. If pink comes to be associated with political activism for intersectional justice, reproductive rights, protections for trans and gender nonconforming people, disability rights, and all the other causes people were marching for, I can get down with incorporating it into my wardrobe a bit more. Especially if it's a vibrant hot pink.
posted by Lexica at 2:03 PM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

I for one would be pretty happy to see the color pink become associated with loud, obnoxious protest, rather than cheap gendered commercialism, over the next few years.
posted by daisystomper at 2:04 PM on January 22, 2017 [104 favorites]

Rainbo Vagrant, get your own pussy hat. Wear it with pride. I saw plenty of men wearing them. Some may have been trans.

Much like the Occupy movement, I think that all of us who want positive change need to set aside our differences and become part of something larger. That is not to say that you can't or shouldn't advocate locally or use the greater movement to lobby for your cause. I just think that we're bailing a sinking ship right now and a national movement will need to focus on big issues like Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security, and fighting racist, sexist, anti-immigrant, religious based laws. Meanwhile, any meeting that puts trans people in a room with a bunch of other liberal organizations will provide networking opportunity and a stage to present your case.

Yeah, I'm totally intending on making my own pussy hat! I was so depressed about the inauguration that I didn't even think about attending a women's march, and I was blown away by all the pictures. In Antarctica! In Kenya!! I feel like yesterday just added five years to my life.

With the cissexism, I can't say it's all a-ok and not cissexist, and I don't want anyone thinking I've absolved them of their problematic sins. I think there just is no clear and righteous path that avoids all problematicness. All paths are rocky and we have to stick together. I'm really really glad people are talking about it and considering it, I really am.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 2:04 PM on January 22, 2017 [15 favorites]

RE General Organa and the march, Mark Hamill said this on Twitter.

I've been mulling over this for a few months actually, using the Rebel Alliance as a symbol of our own resistance. It sounds silly, but it's a cultural touchstone for so many people, and one that's fairly neutral and without (too much) baggage. I think it's a useful symbol to use, and we could unite a lot of people under it.

Also, who wouldn't want to make General Organa proud?
posted by gc at 2:07 PM on January 22, 2017 [24 favorites]

I like pink a lot and wear it all the time, but a lot of women associate pink with a kind of compulsory femininity that can feel a bit oppressive. Like, often they'll be a men's version of something, which comes in a neutral color, and a nearly-identical women's version, which is inevitably pink. Tools for women are pink. Tricycles for girls are pink. So I think that some of the pushback comes from uniting women around a color that already feels a little forced on women and girls sometimes.

Having said that, I think it looked great in photos, and the fact that not everyone wore pink didn't detract from that effect at all, so I think it was a good thing to do, even though it's really important to me that people felt supported if they chose not to wear pink.
posted by ArbitraryAndCapricious at 2:10 PM on January 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

It feels weird taking the Rebel Alliance to be our symbol, given how few women there seem to be in it. But hey, if it makes people happy, why not. And the signs are great.
posted by The corpse in the library at 2:10 PM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

This is Erin, 11, on the 6 train headed to the march.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 2:11 PM on January 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

I want a pussy hat sewn in cotton because it is always too hot for knit hats in Texas.
posted by emjaybee at 2:13 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

emjaybee, someone out there from the women's march has got to jump on making baseball hats or something with a brim and some clever slogan , but summer is a coming and we'll all need the sun protection when marching.
posted by not that mimi at 2:16 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

EarBucket: Your daughter leading chants made me cry. Thank you for sharing. And tell her thank you from this stranger all the way across the country.
posted by mcduff at 2:17 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

My kids and I went to the Philly march, and it was great—for all of us. They were so fired up by the energy and the chants and the speakers, and it made them visibly less anxious about what's happening. We didn't have signs or hats, but my 14yo son was stopped for a ton of pics due to his favorite shirt ("sushi rolls, not gender roles"), and my daughter took some amazing photos. One of my favorite signs from the march was this hilarious one, and one of my favorite photos taken by my daughter was this one. You can see more of her photos from the march here. Yesterday was probably the first time since the election that I felt okay.
posted by mothershock at 2:18 PM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

I like Ehrenreich's phrase "infantilizing trope" for pink. And it existed when I was a kid in the 50's too.
posted by Peach at 2:18 PM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Thanks, mcduff. That made her proud to hear.
posted by EarBucket at 2:25 PM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Oh, I see that you want a pink one. Never mind, then.

Well I was talking more about reclaiming the color of pens and tools "for her" but if you're asking if I would like a purple pussy hat then YES! Memail me! As a Lakers fan I'd love to fly my team colors in the form of a pussy hat. 😼

I grew up as a girl in the 1970s, when there was much less gender-coding of kids stuff. Given my experience, I've chafed at the increasingly dominant message over the decades since then that pink=girl and girl=pink.

This is my experience, too. Growing up, purple was actually the color of choice for girls in my neck of the woods, and I hated purple.
posted by Room 641-A at 2:28 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

I for one would be pretty happy to see the color pink become associated with loud, obnoxious protest, rather than cheap gendered commercialism, over the next few years.

Yes! This is an excellent tactical strategy. Pink is the perfect symbolic colour for this movement with its history of being the color of power. By appropriating it as a power color it can engage all genders and reframe the whole 'pink for girls' commercial code. I love it.
posted by Thella at 2:35 PM on January 22, 2017 [22 favorites]

I want a pussy hat sewn in cotton because it is always too hot for knit hats in Texas.

Oh, hell, if someone can get me the yarn... I forgot how soothing I find the repetitive motion of knitting. I have enough yarn for at least seven (acrylic) hats but I only have three done now. I figure there will be plenty of opportunities to march in the future; if someone wants one to signal how they feel to anyone watching, I might as well keep turning that spare yarn into hats. Worst case scenario, I can ask if anyone homeless this winter wants one. Best case scenario, maybe visible signs of resistance get that little bit more normalized, or someone feels a bit loved having a hat made by a marcher for a marcher, and feels braver standing up for someone else.
posted by sciatrix at 2:48 PM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

These are the people who are going to Make America Good Again.
posted by delfin at 2:50 PM on January 22, 2017 [13 favorites]

I feel so much less alone/ignored/excluded/simply tolerated. Thanks to all from the bottom of my formerly wounded heart.

This is one of the main reasons I marched. I want people of all races, genders, and nationalities to know how much opposition there is to the policies of hate and exclusion Trump is pushing. Im near tears when I see the photos of these massive marches around the world. Turns out I could use the reassurance myself and I thank all of you who came out.

I don't like the color pink, because I've always seen it as part of the whole, "This-is-how-to-be-a-woman-package (must love pink, must want kids, must long for a huge overblown wedding, must not like bugs or snakes or getting dirty...) but I wore it proudly yesterday because yesterday it meant something entirely different.
posted by WalkerWestridge at 3:00 PM on January 22, 2017 [17 favorites]

... Ummm to clarify I didn't mean that its bad to love pink or want kids etc etc, just that there are infinate ways to be a woman...
posted by WalkerWestridge at 3:04 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

I 100% DON’T GIVE A SHIT TOM
posted by srboisvert at 3:05 PM on January 22, 2017 [68 favorites]

Looking at the NYT photos, there's a pic of women in Tbilisi, Georgia. Their signs have white symbols (boxes and hearts), divided into quarters with red paint, and each of the quarters has a cross on it. Is this a known symbol that means something? Curious.
posted by bunderful at 3:09 PM on January 22, 2017

bunderful, that's the Georgian flag.
posted by quaking fajita at 3:12 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Yesterday was one of the most exhilarating days of my life!!!!!!!!!! And a life-changing moment for my lovely guy friends who excitedly and proudly marched beside me.
posted by sallybrown at 3:12 PM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

I am kicking myself so hard today. Wanted to attend the march yesterday here in Portland but was already committed to a volunteer thing. I should have just rescheduled it, I really wish I could have been a part of this in person.

Everybody that marched, wherever you are, thank you. Everybody that supported marchers and made hats and signs and helped people get to events, thank you. Everybody that had to work but had the speeches streaming on their computers or in their break rooms or were supporting or signal boosting in whatever way you could, thank you. All of you folks who drove buses and ran packed metro trains or managed traffic or gave directions or kept things organized, thank you. This was the perfect response to Trump's inauguration and exactly the tonic so many of us needed. So many of us were feeling despondent on Friday and today we're energized again and ready to keep fighting.

Thank you.
posted by Two unicycles and some duct tape at 3:13 PM on January 22, 2017 [17 favorites]

EarBucket, your daughter, omg! That made me weepy, too - how awesome is she?

Silly fun sign I saw on Twitter - it's damning stuff!

I had a great day yesterday in Boston with some nasty women friends. It started early - I ran to Wegman's to buy some protest snacks and told the woman cashier why I was buying them. She came from behind the register & hugged and thanked me and told other cashiers who came out and hugged me too. Then after the march my friends & I went to get a bite at Legal Seafood and seemingly every waitperson came to than us for marching. Very humbling, I did so little! The hard working folks that will get screwed by Trump are the real heroes, I will march for them any day - as a self-employed older white cis female, I am relatively privileged.

I couldn't see her, but hearing Elizabeth Warren was inspirational. The crowd was awesome, fun & friendly. I have a few pics of the Boston march on my flickr although I didn't do a great job, was too in the moment and the crowds were too dense to do a good job. It was a terrific and empowering day. Coming home and flipping through all the photos on social media and news stations was overwhelming and made me cry. Hearing all your stories and posts - deep thank to you my fellow mefites. Thanks to everyone who couldn't march but was there in spirit. And a special thank you to global people everywhere who extended your support despite the fact that we elected an asshole who hates you all. I'm grateful for your generosity and wisdom in not confusing us with him.

Yesterday was such an antidote to the demoralizing inauguration. It's gonna suck but if we stick together and don't let up, I feel we will get through this horrible time. Here's one practical step you can take to reclaim the house: register with Swing Left to find the closest swing district near you and learn how to help swing it blue or keep it blue.

Lawrence O'Donnell posted this hopeful message on Twitter: "History made today: biggest Inauguration protest in history. Last big one was Nixon. He resigned the next year."
posted by madamjujujive at 3:17 PM on January 22, 2017 [27 favorites]

So bummed I couldn't make it to DC for the March, but I was there for my hometown rally. It was much better attended than expected, but nothing compared to other cities. I just loved looking through all the photos on the NYT website this morning. It's just glorious! I hope we can keep the momentum going. Sadly, non of my sisters or nieces seemed to be interested at all. One sister was offended by Madonna and Ashley Judd remarks. My sister is the type who would rather tolerate injustice than ruffle feathers. She is going to be so pissed when the day finally arrives that I have an opportunity to kick a neo-nazi in the balls and I take it.
posted by pjsky at 3:23 PM on January 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

EarBucket, your daughter, omg! That made me weepy, too - how awesome is she?

She makes me feel like I'm doing something right.
posted by EarBucket at 3:26 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

a fiendish thingy, I've been thinking about similar things and really like the idea of intentionally supporting original authors (trying to avoid things like this!). Maybe you could search for some trans people to follow in your reading and support/spread the messages that resonate with you?
posted by monkeys with typewriters at 3:35 PM on January 22, 2017

Thanks for the link Madamjujujive. I live in NYC, but just bought a weekend place in a very red district in upstate NY. I just registered with Swing Left to volunteer for that district.
posted by newpotato at 3:36 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Yesterday was the best day in a long time. I'm not really the marching type but seeing all those people in my city united against fascism, seeing how intelligent, beautiful, diverse, calm, awesome They were, it blew my mind and inspired me.
posted by chaz at 3:36 PM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

As always the DNC is clueless.

DNC Chair Hopefuls Skip Women’s March for David Brock Donor Retreat
posted by srboisvert at 3:40 PM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

I wasn't able to knit hats in preparation for the marches due to health issues, but I'm in fine knitting form now and my needles are at the ready if anyone would like a hat. I have a few shades of pink in my yarn stash, including a particularly nice dark pink with sparkles. MeMail me if you're interested!
posted by atropos at 3:47 PM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

The Women's March website will be posting followup actions every 10 days for the next 100 days. Keep the momentum going!
posted by Blue Jello Elf at 3:48 PM on January 22, 2017 [36 favorites]

My mother and sister came down for the march in San Antonio with me, my partner, and our son. We all wore our pink pussy hats. The local paper estimated turnout at around 1,500. Since Austin is just 1.5 hours down the road, that's pretty dang good.

We rallied, we marched, and the cops were quite civil and helped direct traffic around us despite the march organizers not applying for a parade permit (apparently out of principle rather than lack of planning, I think I disagree with that but I wasn't in on the decision).

All told it was awesome, I'm delighted to have been involved in proving to Trump that he sucks and the American people hate him.
posted by sotonohito at 4:26 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Hey, I'm super curious: has anyone else's conservative family and friends gone super silent on Facebook since yesterday morning? Because between waking up and showering, my aunt on the east coast deleted a post about how "while liberals were rioting and breaking stuff all across America [on inauguration night, sic], this brave police officer was KILLED ON THE JOB!!!11!" Since she deleted it, I wasn't able to respond and tell her "look for me and my friends on the news in Denver - you might have to change the channel though!" like I'd planned. And since then, she and my MIL, who are the only two underinformed, oversharing conservatives I still am connected to on FB, have both gone eerily quiet. Which is great, except I'm totally sitting on all these pictures and videos of adorable children and protestors high-fiving pink-hatted law enforcement officers I was planning on tagging them in.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:27 PM on January 22, 2017 [15 favorites]

Facebook is for gaming and foster cats. Nothing else. Following this guideline will make your life better.
posted by delfin at 4:34 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

I decided to go to the march in Denver the day before, so I used fabric paint and freezer paper stencils to make a shirt saying "2,864,974" and stayed up most of the knit kniting up a pussyhat, finishing the last seam on the bus in to Denver. Should have used thicker yarn (or started earlier…), but I'm really glad I made it and went to the march. I was able to meet up and march with my mother, and ran into some friends after the march. 100,000–200,000 people showed up, more than expected, but things stayed organized, peaceful, and enthusiastic. So many different signs, touching and clever, that people had put effort into coming up with, a sea of pink hats in all different shades and patterns, so many people… With the exception of 3 drunk guys we passed on the way to the march who were seig-heil-ing at everyone (trolling assholes out for a reaction, rather than neo-nazis, I think), the bystanders and police were all supportive.
posted by JiBB at 4:42 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Eh, my Facebook is currently for many many March pictures and local organization post-March, plus a dash of light-hearted countertrolling. It's where I report to several thousand people on which of my senator's district offices have full voicemails or not, and where others organize meet-ups at their local representative's office or getting a bunch of people to the local congressman's town hall. It's also a huge force for normalization of "protest is patriotic" this weekend. I'd prefer to not use Facebook as much as I do, and I understand people who are more anti FB than I am, but I go where the resistance is.
posted by deludingmyself at 4:43 PM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Facebook is where all my left-leaning friends and family members shared their inspiring march stories yesterday; everyone's community is a little different.
posted by Peach at 4:44 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

I planned to take my first solo train trip in to Chicago because I did not want to miss out on this thing. If not for the inspiration of Chicago MeFites (whose meetups I have been following for a few years now and never attended), I probably would have stayed home.

However, I did not meet MeFites this time, either. I was adopted as a lost stray in the Evanston red line parking garage, by a group of five excellent people (including two ex Girl Scout leaders who found and wore their old GS jackets covered it patches), and stayed with them the whole day, including lunch and the train ride back. I had read turnout was expected at 20k, but as we have all heard, it was closer to a quarter million. We got into Grant Park but nowhere near the speeches. The weather was crazy unseasonably warm. It was the best. Also, I will be going to a meetup soon. :)
posted by Glinn at 4:47 PM on January 22, 2017 [15 favorites]

Marched in Oakland with Mr Pocahontas, who is an Introvert Nonpareil, but felt it was morally important to show up - he made me so proud! We caught the bus instead of taking BART to downtown Oakland, and boy were we glad we did! The best memory (of oh so many) was dancing-walking-samba'ing to the various drumming groups making such perfect-for-a-parade party/fun beats. Everyone in the crowd was kind & patient & joyful, truly a once-in-a-lifetime event. As we left the march and looked at that enormous crowd, slowly moving like a glacier, I cried so many tears of joy, grief resolution, validation, and LOVE.
posted by Pocahontas at 4:49 PM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

Yeah, my Facebook feed is awesome. But I use filters well, went to a liberal high school, and don't have any asshole relatives.
posted by The corpse in the library at 4:49 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

My Facebook feed is inspiring and wonderful. I've been unfollowing people who complain about seeing pictures of protests, though.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 4:53 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

I think I shall also continue making pussy hats.

"I've been mulling over this for a few months actually, using the Rebel Alliance as a symbol of our own resistance. It sounds silly, but it's a cultural touchstone for so many people, and one that's fairly neutral and without (too much) baggage. I think it's a useful symbol to use, and we could unite a lot of people under it.
Also, who wouldn't want to make General Organa proud?"

I've been thinking this myself. We can certainly add more women to the Rebel Alliance.
posted by jenfullmoon at 4:55 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Facebook is where all my left-leaning friends and family members shared their inspiring march stories yesterday

My Facebook experience today is like 80% that, and 20% my hard-left friends shitting on everyone who went to the "bullshit" marches on Saturday instead of going out and smashing shit the night before like "real" leftists.
posted by dersins at 4:56 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

Being part of 500k+ spirited, respectful, passionate, funny people (having never done this before, I did not expect so many marchers to be so goddamn arch and hilarious - to give just one example, "We want a leader, not a creepy tweeter" and "Hands too small, can't build a wall" were just a few of the choice chants we sang), united in calling for peace, justice, equality, and human dignity, was unlike anything I've ever experienced. After so many weeks of feeling demoralized and cynical, participating in the Women's March in DC gave me a sense of solidarity that I'm not alone, and energy to try to change things.

Also, mad props to the adorable young woman with a huge penis sign. I regret that I didn't have the chance to read what she had written on it - something colorful and spurting and related to women's rights? - but it was a very large, very pink penis, complete with balls. This becomes important in a moment. As we walked by a group of creepy anti-abortion folk in black suits waving signs and asking us to consider "the rights and health of pre-born women," a bunch of us chanted right back "our bodies, our choice" in the loudest voice possible, and this young superhero saw the commotion, darted up to the Men in Black, and valiantly thrust her penis sign right into the fray. A MiB tried to cover her huge shaft with his little black and white sign, like the tiniest, most ineffectual merkin, but it was no match for the righteous phallus of feminism, and the jaunty young woman holding it.

This is what democracy looks like!
posted by the thought-fox at 5:05 PM on January 22, 2017 [43 favorites]

You know, it just occurred to me to wonder who was behind the original march and the continuing organization and calls for action, particularly in light of some of the questionable things that happened with Pantsuit Nation.

But the Women's March National Committee looks totally amazing.
posted by Glinn at 5:15 PM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Thank you for posting this link! I looked at it yesterday but there are so many more photos now. It's incredible and wonderful to see so many people protesting in so many places.

Also, this sign from the LAist link someone posted above gave me chills.
posted by insectosaurus at 5:16 PM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

I was bummed about the downpour yesterday in Portland, but all those colorful umbrella (many with slogans written on them) look really great in the photos.
posted by vespabelle at 5:21 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

Every five minutes I find a new sign that is my favorite, but for right now... this is my favorite. It's from Boston.

In case you don't want to click...

Goodnight Obama
Goodnight moon
Goodnight unrestricted womb

Goodnight Science
Goodnight facts
Goodnight corporate income tax

Goodnight stars
Goodnight air
Goodnight equal rites everywhere
posted by JustKeepSwimming at 5:35 PM on January 22, 2017 [35 favorites]

Three friends and I piled into a tiny car and drove 10 hours from Boston to DC to march (it should only take 6-7 hours, but traffic was bananas Friday). That was an incredible experience. There were a couple of times being stuck in a huge press of people that twigged me into a mild panic, because people just kept crowding forward when no one in the front was moving, and no one knew what was going on, but the moment when police let us move forward from 7th St to Pennsylvania Ave was pretty spectacular.

Looking at the pictures from all the marches is so inspiring. And mentally adding in people who wanted to walk but couldn't is even better (shout out to my husband for staying home with the kid so I could march). My first grader's class has a little morning meeting to start each school day, where his class goes around and the kids share whatever their "good news" is for the day. I was moved to tears when I found out that me going to the march was my son's good news Friday morning.
posted by banjo_and_the_pork at 5:47 PM on January 22, 2017 [8 favorites]

Colorado Springs was another of those places that had way bigger crowds than expected. The sound system they had set up for the pre-march rally speakers and performers was entirely inadequate to the task and my kids kept telling me they could neither see nor hear. I picked my 9 year old up to my eye level to share with him that I couldn't see either and he doesn't think I'm funny. So we looked at the backs of people's heads and shoulders and at their signs and we cheered when the people in the first few rows cheered. We moved to join some friends from my UU church and I got separated from my husband because although he is a big dude, he is totally unwilling to use it to push through a crowd because people give him looks and he feels bad and there were, as mentioned, way more people at Acacia Park than even the march organizers expected. The last estimate I heard was that 7K people showed up. The Springs march was organized after the Denver march, and I have at least a dozen local friends who had already made plans to attend the march in Denver.

We marched out of the park and into downtown Colorado Springs and the crowd of marchers covered several blocks and lots of drivers were held up for a while as the marchers passed. Most of those drivers were in good spirits and waved and honked and cheered and it was really amazing to be with and surrounded by people who were energized but chill. Lots of kids and families and dogs and amazing signs. I didn't talk anyone into making a pussy hat for me and I have zero ability to knit or crochet, so I wore a handmade rainbow-striped knit hat that I shamelessly begged for in my size when a friend made one for a new baby in our group. I feel like it fit the mood.

Pics here. The local media also interviewed the half dozen or so counter-protesters/Trump supporters who showed up, I guess so they could be "balanced" but they were a ridiculously small group and one of them had a pink sock monkey on his shoulder for reasons that weren't explained. KKTV segment.

I'm really proud of Colorado Springs, for all the people who showed up and I hope that we keep showing up and speaking up. It's inspiring to know that we were among so many others all over the planet.
posted by danielleh at 5:51 PM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

Too-Ticky, PLEASE! Make the hat. Wear the hat. We're going to need ALL the hats for the next four years.
posted by BlueHorse at 5:57 PM on January 22, 2017 [12 favorites]

Whoa, this picture from L.A. Mayor Eric Garcetti.
posted by Room 641-A at 6:07 PM on January 22, 2017 [19 favorites]

I regret that I didn't have the chance to read what she had written on it - something colorful and spurting and related to women's rights? - but it was a very large, very pink penis, complete with balls.

It was something like "only a DICK is afraid of a nasty woman" but I don't remember exactly what came after "afraid of."
posted by fedward at 6:08 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

1. Let's get to work on a Tax Day Protest in DC and at local IRS offices around the country to demand that Trump release his returns..
posted by Artw at 6:11 PM on January 22, 2017 [28 favorites]

I've been crying tears of joy since yesterday. I wasn't able to march, but seeing all these photos and reports makes me feel less sad about not being able to participate. For all who marched, thank you so much! I keep rereading/rewatching all the news coverage because if this isn't a strong message of hope, then I don't know what is.
posted by theappleonatree at 6:17 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Speaking of Swing Left, NJ-7 is on that list now specifically because of the incredible hard work and devotion of last year's campaign, and I'm so proud of them. In 2014 Leonard Lance won with 60% of the vote; this year we cut it down to 55%, and it was entirely with volunteer power, no ad buys. Everyone worked so hard, and the Indian American community in Union turned out in a big way.
posted by Rainbo Vagrant at 6:46 PM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Asheville was amazing! I'm sad we don't seem to have made the NYT link because we had around 10,000 people, all squeezed into Pack Sqare and then marching around the city - it got a little confusing, there were marchers everywhere! Here's a short shaky phone video I took of the very beginning - the singer is wonderful. I marched with my daughter and one of my closest friends and it was so inspiring, so hopeful, just so fantastic in every way. I took the bus from my West Asheville neighborhood and it was packed with fellow marchers. I wore my bumper sticker that says I Can't Believe I'm Still Protesting This Crap safety pinned to my shirt. Lots of people laughed and commented, the crowd was so friendly and energized. It was so great seeing such a huge range of people, every age and skin tone, infants in arms to grandmothers. I met a woman wearing a paper crane necklace that was made by Hiroshima survivors for the big no nukes rally in 1982. We had some great signs too - these are all my phone pics. Lots of hats! I was skeptical before but now I think I will make one!

I really wanted to go to D.C. and when that didn't work out I was bummed but I'm so, so glad now that I got to be a part of it in my own hometown. I'm so proud of my city and newly inspired to keep this energy going.
posted by mygothlaundry at 6:46 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Too-Ticky.

I did not march either. Better half just released from hospital with congestive heart failure.

BUT. As soon as I get my mitts on a pink p hat I will wear it everywhere I go for as long as he is in office or until I die. (or until the south Florida summer heat gets the best of me)
posted by notreally at 6:53 PM on January 22, 2017 [4 favorites]

I also wasn't able to march due to chronic illness, but I did send hats to a random internet stranger I met on Twitter. I also ran out of the colour I was using on her hats, and I went to the local Michael's. They were almost entirely out of pink yarn. Like, there were maybe 2-3 skeins left of a few pink-ish colours. Usually there are hundreds. That should have been a sign that this was bigger than I anticipated.

I still have yarn, and I have the time, and I will brave the post office again if any mefite wants a hat. Memail me!
posted by guster4lovers at 6:55 PM on January 22, 2017 [18 favorites]

A retirement home here in Portland had a march of their own.
posted by vespabelle at 7:09 PM on January 22, 2017 [26 favorites]

Pink is not my color and hats are not my thing and the word pussy irritates me, and when the dear partner of one of my choir-mates heard all of this, he said, "...but maybe she'd like a warm knitted headband instead!" Which is when I stfu and accepted with humility the gift I wore with pride. It's actually a lovely deep fuchsia, and when somebody learns to knit purely so that they can make fuzzy protest gear for their friends, I don't think one has a good reason to turn it down.

In DC, and I suspect elsewhere, one of the best things was looking around and seeing other marchers look around and be surprised and delighted to see people they apparently didn't expect to see walking there in solidarity with them. Everyone who showed up made a difference just by being there, and those who couldn't go helped give us a reason to be there. This was the sweet gentle wading-in-at-the-shallow-end type of protest for people new to activism, a resting and celebrating place on a long continuing uphill climb for those who have been fighting for years. There will be more. There were many reasons things went well, but part of it was an extension of the protection of privilege that many marchers brought with them, and a strong argument in favor of using whatever you have on behalf of those who have less.

For anyone who feels inclined to do a good thing: the National Museum of the American Indian was surrounded by some of the thickest crowds, and their landscaping (including traditional food crops and other native plants) suffered trampling. Donations support programs like the Out of Many multicultural festival they hosted this weekend, plus exhibits and outreach.
posted by notquitemaryann at 7:30 PM on January 22, 2017 [25 favorites]

Oops yeah, I was one of the people who accidentally self-kettled at the NMAI (once you were in there it was pretty much impossible to get out until everyone started marching). I will send a donation forthwith.
posted by soren_lorensen at 7:37 PM on January 22, 2017 [5 favorites]

Here is a panoramic photo of everyone gathering at Queen's Park for the march in Toronto.
posted by Multicellular Exothermic at 7:49 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

Let's get to work on a Tax Day Protest in DC and at local IRS offices around the country to demand that Trump release his returns..

Here'a a fun fact about the IRS building in DC: it's on the same block as Trump's hotel.
posted by everybody had matching towels at 7:55 PM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

This was so gratifying to be in a sea of like minded people speaking truth to power. DC was an amazing experience and I'm wrestling with how to bring that energy to my little upstate NY town in a county (like them all except Tompkins County - go Ithaca!) that went >65% Trump. I am super excited about what' s next. THANK YOU ALL who marched, who didn't march but supported the marchers, who believe in a fair and just world for all.

I was also super excited to have heard some amazing future leaders of the Democratic party - I'm looking at you Kirstin Gillibrand, Tammy Duckworth and Kamala Harris!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!and oh Gloria Steinem, thank you for all you've done and continue to do.
posted by bluesky43 at 8:06 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

OK, we need to keep the momentum going. Anybody want a pussyhat? My knitting machine is locked and loaded.
posted by Quietgal at 8:20 PM on January 22, 2017 [14 favorites]

wonders if law enforcement would have been quite so benign if the crowd had been less white

You can be assured not. This was a march of a large group of middle class, middle aged white ladies + a small group of everyone else. If those numbers had been reversed, there would have been a very different outcome.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:25 PM on January 22, 2017 [21 favorites]

New favorite from the sign department.
posted by deludingmyself at 8:31 PM on January 22, 2017 [10 favorites]

Panorama of the crowd in Juneau, Alaska
posted by timelord at 8:37 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Let's get to work on a Tax Day Protest in DC and at local IRS offices around the country to demand that Trump release his returns..

Yes, but maybe don't make IRS offices the focal point. The IRS serves a vital social function, already gets way too much shit from too many directions, and can't and shouldn't release any person's documents due to social pressure. Making it so that employees can't get to their offices on the busiest day of the year would be counterproductive. Focus on your congresspeople, or Trump-branded properties, or companies that help the megarich dodge taxes.
posted by Tsuga at 8:37 PM on January 22, 2017 [28 favorites]

Yeah, it's not on the IRS to solve the problem of the release.

Honestly, pressure on your local reps (EARLY AND OFTEN, FOLKS) is probably the prime vector here. And your strategy there is going to depend on their alignment, but get together with other constituents and figure out ways to do it.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:41 PM on January 22, 2017 [2 favorites]

It feels weird taking the Rebel Alliance to be our symbol, given how few women there seem to be in it. But hey, if it makes people happy, why not. And the signs are great.

I think it's appropriate reclamation. This is partly due to how Marcia Lucas played a significant role in making Star Wars into a hit, and how she was mostly written out of the history of the franchise.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:51 PM on January 22, 2017 [6 favorites]

Looking at overhead footage of the pink hats was oddly reminiscent of watching footage of the orange helmets in Ukraine. I think a key part of any modern protest movement, especially in the age of drone cameras, will be distinguishing headgear.

Vancouver's march was quite nice, we hopped in half way along the route, marched to the end and then hustled over a couple blocks to join the tail of the march again.
posted by ethansr at 8:52 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

I went to DC with my 67yo mom and her friend. From beginning to end, a great experience. On arrival we gradually realized there was no hope of getting into, or even hearing, the rally; we were in the general area where folks were asking Tree Gal and Tree Guy what was going on. We spent a long time on 7th turning forward, then back, then forward, as people attempted to determine which way we were going to march. There was simply no way to figure out where to march, because the streets were just fully packed with people - nowhere to march TO. In the end, we joined the long slow shuffle down Constitution, onto 14th, past the MNAAHC and around the corner to PA ave. 1.5 mile march took 3 hours. Only later, did I realize, with the aerial shots, that there was an equally sized march on all the parallel streets.

IT was incredibly inspiring and heartwarming to see our fellow marchers. The remarkable thing, to me, about this march was that it was the widest, friendliest, most inclusive march possible - friendly to elders, suburbanites, political neophytes - while also being unequivocally foregrounding of POC, gender-nonconforming, LGBT, immigrant, black, brown, disabled, etc. women and allies. This is what a coalition looks like.

So many memorable moments. One of them was cutting from Constitution up to 14th to make the right turn, and passing through a little corner with a couple of trees. Under the branches was a canvas rug laid out, and three Muslim men were taking turns bowing in prayer as we passed quietly. They had a sign next to them that said "Thank you for standing up for Muslims." I was very moved by that. Then, we found ourselves right behind a street brass band with great drums and horns. That kept us going through the hours-long shuffle down a couple blocks til we hit Pennsylvania.

Arriving at the White House is something I'll never forget. We looked across at the colonnade and windows, and it is really something to see hundreds of thousands of people standing on the White House lawn shouting at the top of their lungs. As my husband said looking at the photos, "you could have done a coup. You could have stormed the building." Sure, that would have been insane. What we did was to keep our pledge for a dignified, civilized, "go high", arrest-free, accident-free march that showed: we have untold strength, and we will now be using it.

I walked a way with a sense of our incredible, unstoppable power, if only we can learn to work together.
posted by Miko at 9:12 PM on January 22, 2017 [36 favorites]

Correcting my earlier comment: she said it still took her a half hour to get from the Constitution Ave side of the National Portrait Gallery to the Mall side. Um. National Gallery of Art West Building, not National Portrait Gallery, which is several blocks north. I regret the error. I'm gonna blame it on account of I was tired.
posted by fedward at 9:21 PM on January 22, 2017 [1 favorite]

Don't think this has been posted:
Steve Buscemi poses with man with sign quoting The Big Lebowski.
posted by Pink Frost at 9:44 PM on January 22, 2017 [16 favorites]

After Saturday’s march, 500 women learn how to run for office

This article has:

Truly inspiring quotes from attendees at the EMILY's List training
Maybe my new favorite sign
This will sound weird but hear me out until you read the quote - a great depiction of Trump inspiring people: After the training — during which they chanted "Fired up! Ready to run!" one of former President Barack Obama's campaign slogans — many women said Trump's election had energized them to pursue leadership positions. "This election taught me that you really don't have to have a long resume to run and to win," said Whitney Logan of Kansas City. "It'd be nice to have voices in Congress and in state legislatures and on school boards and on city councils that represent their constituents, and aren't insecure because their resume isn't six law degrees from Georgetown."

...oh shit, Donnie. Not quite the way you wanted to inspire, is it?
posted by jason_steakums at 9:54 PM on January 22, 2017 [29 favorites]

I (dual citizen) went to the march in Toronto and it was wonderful. Here's a collection of photos and my favourite signs (I wish I'd gotten better pictures of the Patriarchy full-sized coffin, the giant coat hanger, and "This Is My Resting March Face"), including "Females Are Strong As Hell," "Going Back In Time Is Fine For Bill and Ted, Dr. Who and the Delorean...That's It," "Chin Up, Tits Out, Onward," "Not My Species" (held by an old white man) and "We The Pussy" (our basketball team's slogan is "We The North").

My friends and I went with "The Future Is Female (Not Fascist)" and "Tiny Hands Can't Hold Us Down." On the other side, my friend wrote "Trump is Hydra," which delighted many of the young boys in the crowd (including a seven year old who liked it...because he was into Greek mythology). Our cheer, to the tune of Yellow Submarine:

Tiny hands can't hold us down
Even when they're on a clown
Tiny hands can't hold us down
Even when they're on a clown
We won't be grabbed by your tiny hands, by your tiny hands, by your tiny hands
We won't be grabbed by your tiny hands, by your tiny hands, by your tiny hands

I know 60,000 isn't quite the turnout of other cities, but it's pretty good for outside the US. The march was filled with people like me who have the option to live in the States but are grateful to have chosen Canada (and who realize we still have plenty to protest here). I like no longer having to explain why I'm living here, but not why. The day the ACA passed, I turned to my husband and said, "we might be able to live in America again someday!" I was losing that hope, but I have a little of it back now.
posted by ilana at 9:54 PM on January 22, 2017 [11 favorites]

I was at the march in DC and now feel the most hopeful I've felt since the election. It was amazing to be part of such a huge demonstration and the attendance and breadth of the protests across the world was mindblowing and beyond anyone's expectations.

I was supposed to be hanging with the group of women scientists, but unfortunately entered the Metro at Shady Grove and between the wait for the train and getting off at Union Station I spent 4-5 hours trying to get to my group. I missed hearing or seeing the bulk of the rally since I was so far back most of the time, but I managed to get with my friends at the very end and march with them. Still, it was a fun experience!

However, in all the hustle and bustle I never actually got a picture of myself or my sign (and like so many others, I dismantled it and left it tucked into a fence). It was a big white one with a chemical structure on it, and it spelled out "FUCK TRUMP" in amino acids on one side and said "OPINIONS ARE NOT FACTS" on the other. I was wearing a white lab coat. I was stopped a LOT by people who wanted pictures, so I know they're out there, just nowhere I can find them. I have found this one picture but no others. If anyone got pictures or knows someone who got pictures, would you mind sending them to me? If you MeMail me we can exchange emails.
posted by Anonymous at 10:07 PM on January 22, 2017

I had a fantastic experience in Montpelier. It occurred to me to wonder yesterday, though: where were the Obamas? I don't ask that in an accusatory way - wherever they were, they were busy, I know. Possibly it was a purely logistical matter; it can't be easy to bring a former president or First Lady anywhere. But I think it would have sent a strong message to the world that America had not changed overnight. Of course, that message went out loud and clear in any case.
posted by Countess Elena at 9:50 AM on January 22
[2 favorites −] Favorite added! [!]

The Obamas went to Palm Springs for some well -earned down-time. Probably this was wise of them.
You must have seen Bernie's speech! :)
Secretary Clinton was also conspicuous by her absence. I am not faulting her or the Obamas for that.
posted by Katjusa Roquette at 10:12 PM on January 22, 2017 [3 favorites]

I mentioned this in the thread on the Green, but have a look at Swing Left. It locates the nearest swing district to you and helps you to help flip it. It's like 3 days old and already has 10s of thousands of signups.
posted by professor plum with a rope at 1:43 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I was so proud of my city--LA. But the most encouraging numbers were from smaller cities in red states. We've a movement!
posted by professor plum with a rope at 1:51 AM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

Not everything has been sunshine and lollipops.

A hateful media organization let their cameras run for a very long time, provoked some innocent bystander, then cut the video down to a few seconds to make them look like a bad guy. They're now harassing him offline by doxxing. This media organization is ran by someone who was so crooked that he had his license to practice law revoked (you have to be REALLY crooked for that to happen)

God I hate Edmonton sometimes.
posted by Yowser at 2:20 AM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

Beautiful moments from Seattle:

* A mother and daughter strutting along in matching viking helmets and shell pink feather boas.

* A window washer about a dozen stories up who was wearing a hot pink t-shirt and waving like mad. The crowd roared with joy and waved back.

* A family of three, all with identical pussy hats, who were walking a corgi with a matching, knitted gorget. To this gorget, they had attached one of those lacy, Ruth Bader Ginsburg collars. The effect was devastating.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:44 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

Nick Offerman is a nasty girl.
posted by Buntix at 3:08 AM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

I'm so late to this but I marched in Paris with a few thousand other people, it was great! So many clever signs.
posted by ellieBOA at 3:56 AM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

My friends and I marched in Osaka with just around 100 people. Tokyo was bigger.
posted by emmling at 4:39 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I marched in Macau. We didn't have a permit, so we dispersed early to avoid messing up the "no arrest" statistics, but it was still great. Nice to see one of our pictures made the NYTimes!
posted by frumiousb at 4:56 AM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Some important thoughts from Obama White House staffer Jen Psaki on the importance of the march being a beginning of sustained action.
posted by Miko at 5:13 AM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Miko's post from the Obama staffer voices my fears completely. Indivisible is helping a lot to provide directions for channeling the march on DC for me, but we all need sustained action. The other link in this thread to Swing Left is an excellent link too - learn what district near you is close to swinging Dem and organize.
posted by bluesky43 at 6:17 AM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I went to the march in Trenton (some photos here), the state capital of NJ, where ~2,000 people had RSVP'd to the event. They'd planned to meet at 10 am inside Patriots Theater at the War Memorial, which seats 2,000. By 9:30, the theater was full, as was the overflow room inside. My friends and I were part of the many that stood outside the theater for two hours while an impressive list of speakers rallied the crowd.

Somewhere between 6,000 and 7,500 people showed. We walked together through Trenton's streets to the state house, the 3rd oldest building still in continuous legislative use in the country (built in 1790!)

I was overwhelmed by the turnout. And then I went home and started seeing photos of the marches in different cities, throughout the country and the world. I had friends marching in LA, DC, NYC, Philly, Doylestown PA, CT, Portland, Denver, Chicago, Sydney Australia, Hawaii, and Paris. I saw photos popping up non-stop in Pantsuit Nation of people all over the world, marching, and I cried.

So many incredible people supporting the rights of women in this country and women everywhere.

I hope for continued action and constant vigilance and I am more than ready to fight for my rights, and the rights of my family and friends, but especially for those that are less privileged or cannot act in the same ways I can.
posted by rachaelfaith at 6:30 AM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

I and four friends drove down to march in DC. Everyone in my department from work in the US marched in DC as well. Most of us live on the East coast; my boss, for example, lives in VA, and one colleague works in MD, so it was easy enough for them to travel there. 2 colleagues drove down from CT, and two (including me) from NYC. One flew in from San Francisco with her daughter! I'll have to find out if my colleagues from other countries where my company has offices also went in their cities. I'm sure a lot of them did.

There was just a undulating ocean of pink hats as far as the eye could see up and down the mall, and down the many streets that abut the mall in both directions. My group only got as far as a corner of The Ellipse and then turned back. If the count is more like 600,000, it damn sure felt like a million. To see so many people all converging for the purpose of sustaining our rights was heartening, but we discussed amongst ourselves how utterly fed up we are with having to do this repeatedly.

I also am fed up with the authoritarian types who want to control everyone's behavior and thought process, and then have the nerve to ask, "Why are these women marching for rights they already have?" It's this ground-level repetition of one of the big lies, and i think, You have to know you're lying, I mean, don't you? Do you realize you're telling a lie?! How dumb do they think we are? They're just going to bark their order to disperse and expect to shame us into being quiet and we're supposed to obey? ARE THEY SERIOUS? Who do they think they're dealing with here? Every time I read some disparaging comment from a Trumpista, I just think to myself, Do you know any actual liberals or are you going by the bogey-liberal created in your head by Alex Jones and his ilk? Because there is obviously a major disconnect between who these folks think we are and who we actually are.

The best was seeing people protest in the parts of the US where Trump thinks 100% of the populace loves him. Go, BOISE!! But I'm alarmed that the US Border Patrol kept Canadians from coming into the country when they said where they were going. It felt like the first salvo in closing the country up, where people won't be able to come or go, and um...
posted by droplet at 6:39 AM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

But I'm alarmed that the US Border Patrol kept Canadians from coming into the country when they said where they were going.

I've thought about this a bit, and I've decided I don't find this alarming. Disappointing? Yes. Predictable? Yes. But not particularly worrisome.

I mean, I utterly, 100%, disagree with the decision not to let such folks into the country, but I at least understand the decision.

If you're going to have border controls at all, it's not crazy fascism to have as a policy "Your purpose in entering our country should be something other than 'Hi I'm here to demonstrate my dislike for your government.' "
posted by dersins at 6:51 AM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

To Christy on Facebook, who doesn’t need the Women’s March
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 7:48 AM on January 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

I marched in Boise with my equally introverted friend, in a heavy snowstorm, and the paper is reporting that we had at least 5,000 marchers. When you live in a state where you know that most of your neighbors are Republicans, you naturally develop a bit of a bunker mentality. You also just tend to assume that the stranger standing next to you probably doesn't share your views. So it was SO HEARTENING to stand in broad daylight surrounded by likeminded people as far as the eye could see.

I think the march was important if for no other reason than to embolden us by giving us visual proof of our numbers. It's one thing to read that Trump lost by almost 3 million votes; quite another to actually see what even a portion of that number looks like, especially here.
posted by HotToddy at 7:48 AM on January 23, 2017 [17 favorites]

I was in DC and thought it was crowded. Got home last night, and saw a video on my wife's Facebook feed (do not have a link) that showed Independence Ave.
I was astonished. We could not get to Independence, or even see it.
It looks like the bulk of the crowd was on Independence, and not the mall, which is what the inauguration pictures were compared to.
posted by MtDewd at 7:51 AM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

It was awesome. I think the estimates are low. I was at the 2009 inauguration and this felt bigger.

The best part was it got so huge people started marching in every direction. We busted out of the route and just took over city streets. Cops just watched and posed for selfies.
posted by Ironmouth at 7:53 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

So, the Los Angeles metro is pretty underused...most of the time. I have never seen anything like it in Los Angeles. At the Del Mar train station, someone in the apartments that are above it was playing R-E-S-P-E-C-T and I'm every woman out of their window. There were probably 600 people in the courtyard screaming!!
posted by Sophie1 at 7:57 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

It looks like the bulk of the crowd was on Independence, and not the mall, which is what the inauguration pictures were compared to.

The cloud cover was too low for ariel photos, and those would have been the only way to capture the size of the whole crowd, because the gathering was kind of bifurcated by the Smithsonian museums. I took a little video around 1:30 of multiple marches spontaneously forming all around me. One down the Mall, one down Constitution, and then meeting up with another coming from the direction of Independence down 7th, and we all merged and went towards Pennsylvania. The vast majority of people did not hear the announcement from the stage that the march route was too full to march and everyone should make their way to the Ellipse independently--it just happened because it seemed like the thing to do that made the most sense. I only found out that was the official word much later when I got back to my hotel and looked at the news.

I also think the estimates are low. The metro ridership numbers indicate a half million, but thousands of people walked in from RFK, where the buses were parking up.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:00 AM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

I went to the DC march. I don't know. I'm glad I participated, but the whiteness of it was really offputting to me. Wild cheers for Amy Schumer but not so much for Angela Davis. I'm glad that many women are realizing that they need to be more vocal and stand up for their beliefs/rights. But the march highlighted to me how far we still have to go and how resistant many cis white women are to the basic principles of intersectional feminism.

Some thoughts from others:

A Poem About the Women's March by Johnetta Elzie [Teen Vogue]

An Unpopular Opinion on the Women’s March on Washington by Chi Nguyen [Medium]

Thread from @sydnerain on her perspective as an indigenous woman participating in the march [Twitter]
posted by melissasaurus at 8:10 AM on January 23, 2017 [9 favorites]

While I 100% agree that we need to center women of color, the pushback against white women for showing up bothers me. There are ways to educate without making people feel as though their efforts aren't appreciated.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:12 AM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

I don't think "pushback" is a fair description. Most of the criticism has been along the lines of "where the fuck were you when our kids were dying in the streets?" Which is, you know, a really fair criticism.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:23 AM on January 23, 2017 [21 favorites]

Whoa. And now The Great Pink Yarn Shortage of 2017.
posted by h0p3y at 8:26 AM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Woman's March in Utqiagvik (formerly Barrow), Alaska, in -20F blowing snow

As proud as I am of my city, as I saw the dispatches from various cities pour in I remembered that not everyone was marching on a cool, clear day. I'd like to think I'd have gone in the cold or the rain or even the snow, but will I when its 98F? I hope so. I'm not so sure. (I don't do well in the heat, but who the heck does well in -20F?)
posted by Room 641-A at 8:26 AM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Roomthreeseventeen, I felt like that in the leadup to this march, but after seeing the umpteenth white woman flounce off the march's Facebook discussion because "everything was so much better before this group started talking about race!", I lost a lot of my patience for handholding. These are folks who just weren't taking the time to stop and listen to what the organizers and other members were asking for. Despite that, I was enheartened by the number of women who took the time to pay attention, assess themselves, and realize where their actions had fallen short.

"True peace is not merely the absence of tension: it is the presence of justice." -MLK
posted by redsparkler at 8:29 AM on January 23, 2017 [16 favorites]

Which is, you know, a really fair criticism.

100%. It is fair. Shaming women is not fair, though.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 8:30 AM on January 23, 2017

Eh. I think it's a good first lesson for white women in listening to the voices of women of color and feeling some real uncomfortable feelings and maybe just hushing up for a bit to respectfully consider that they might be right. The Unity Principles were many women's first experience with the notion of intersectional feminism and now they have to put that into practice in their own lives.

It's hard to hear "That thing you just did that made you feel really good about yourself? It did not make me feel good about you." But if you're going to be a white person working in intersectional spaces, you have to get used to hearing that and sitting quietly with the uncomfy feelings. There are no training wheels. I mean, I don't love hearing it either, just on a visceral emotional level, but it's not about me.
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:30 AM on January 23, 2017 [28 favorites]

Yeah, I think that Kat Blaque's photo summarizes a lot of the discrepancies in experiences that white women had on the march versus WOC who've been protesting for a good long while now... I'm super pleased at the turnout of all of the marches, but I think it's important to recognize that many, many women of color felt deeply ambivalent about the march, and some had bad experiences while participating in this one--not just distinctly different enthusiasm levels for Angela Davis vs Madonna or Amy Shumer (whose views on race have been, let's just say, problematic), but also reports of feeling poorly treated by white women when trying to move in the crowd themselves.
posted by TwoStride at 8:39 AM on January 23, 2017 [10 favorites]

Shaming women for being women is unfair. Shaming women for behaving shamefully is fair.
posted by tobascodagama at 8:42 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

It is possible to feel the sting of "but *I* mean well!" - which is a legitimate feeling! it will happen a lot if you do mean well! - without saying anything about it. Or engaging in tone policing.

It is an ugly lump to swallow. It will be necessary to swallow lots of it in the coming days. It gets easier, and it becomes fuel.
posted by Lyn Never at 8:44 AM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

But I'm alarmed that the US Border Patrol kept Canadians from coming into the country when they said where they were going. It felt like the first salvo in closing the country up, where people won't be able to come or go, and um...

To me, this speaks to the hiring practices of the US Border Patrol, as well as the personality types that apply for positions with the Border Patrol.
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:47 AM on January 23, 2017

Is there a good starting point for learning about intersectional feminism, and intersectional issues in general?
posted by ZeusHumms at 8:50 AM on January 23, 2017

From An Unpopular Opinion on the Women's March on Washington:

With 58% of white people voted for Trump, if you did not come to the Women’s March to listen and learn from people of color, what did you come here for?

Aside from the fact the either the writer or the editor should have caught that this isn't really a sentence, the obvious answer is that this was a march centered on pushback against an illegitimate president who was not elected by the American people and who does not believe women are human beings in the same way that he is. They were probably at the march because of that.

Also, the author's choice to title this article "An Unpopular Opinion" is exactly the same manipulative bullshit that (correctly) gets pushed back on in the earlier-linked To Christy on Facebook article:

That’s a clever opener to get a boost from the girlfriends who might be on the edge of feeling the way you do, and were waiting for someone to say it so they could agree with you. It’s like saying, “I know I’m fat and ugly,” so your friends will rush to your side to reassure you that you’re not.

If I was a Trump/Russian plant trying to get the maximum number of people who showed up to the Women's Marches to NOT show up to the next thing, this is basically exactly the article I would write. "However, I know this much is true: when your feminism and liberation are not only rooted in but thrive on my oppression, you are not my sister and I do not stand with you." followed immediately by "Intersectional white feminists, come get your sisters." is making a pretty clear point, and it's not "But I do respect white feminists who understand the importance of intersectionality and who fight alongside people of color to aid them in their struggle for equality." She uses "you are not my sister" to declare racist (or merely ignorant and selfish) white feminists the enemy, and then immediately tells intersectional white feminists that they ARE the racist white feminists' sisters. The math on that isn't very complicated.
posted by IAmUnaware at 8:51 AM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

I marched in Phoenix with my 8 year old daughter, a group of our friends and 20,000 other awesome people.

We had 7 loud, inspired angry girls under 13. All of them will be too young for voting in the midterms and next general election but that didn't stop them from plotting alternative ways to make their voices heard. One of the girls noted how white the march was - especially compared to the MLK march last week, which prompted some great discussion about diversity and interesectionality. The adults surrounding them did not miss this opportunity to guide young minds. I have so much hope for the future if we get through the present.

My daughter's Leia resistance sign - her friends took turns holding her up so her sign could be seen.

The back

Me - representing for the Christian left
posted by Lapin at 8:56 AM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

(I will say that one thing I am most definitely not here for is white men mansplaining intersectional feminism to me. Not that any of the above linked articles are that, but whoa have I seen it. Like, some of them have latched on to a more-woke-than-thou reason to shit on women and they're all in on that because wheeeee!)
posted by soren_lorensen at 8:59 AM on January 23, 2017 [14 favorites]

You know, it's funny, but I actually had a lot of conversations with people of color as a result of marching - - but not so much at the march itself, because the marchers were so white. (Also, because let's be real, I was hanging out with mostly people I sort of knew already at the March, and I was spending a lot of the time I wasn't talking at people around me about how pissed I was at the folks who kept trying to get the crowd marching while the rally was on.)

No, the conversations I had with people of color as a direct result of marching were conversations with DC's cabbies and museum docents and that guy on the plane next to me on the way home and our waiter at dinner and the lady who drove the shuttle to our car and and and. Folks who played an integral role in supporting the march and the marchers (and we told them so!) but who couldn't get time off work to be there, a lot of the time, and who I think probably wouldn't have been talking to us at all if we hadn't been matching and wearing pink hats. We had a lot of good conversations about what is next and solidarity, and in particular we had a LOT of good conversations with men of color and immigrant men about what it means to have each other's backs.

I think that's one of the things I valued most about the march, aside from the speakers at the rally. Being present and visible as someone trying to be an ally, and having the folks I try to help trusting me enough to talk to me.
posted by sciatrix at 9:06 AM on January 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

I went to the Lincoln, NE march (here is some drone footage) and then went to Omaha and marched there as well. I had no idea what to expect for turnout in either, especially since Lincoln is fairly blue in many ways but is also small. Estimates are that there were three to four thousand people there, which seems incredible as there were only two thousand RSVPd on the Facebook page and I assumed that would be an overestimate. Apparently the frat guys who were being sort of low-key dickish when I walked past upped their game into actively offensive (no means yes chants, etc) and the chapter is now being investigated by the university and the parent organization.

The part at the end where we all sang "This little light of mine" was pretty awesome.

The friends I went with were concerned about overzealous Omaha police and more counter-protesters (I don't know the city very well despite living so close to it; they are lifelong residents) but police presence was very minimal and I saw precisely two counter-protesters. It was a long route to march and there were a lot of people waving from windows. The estimate is twelve thousand people in attendance.

Both rallies had a big mix of young and old, experienced protesters and newbies like me. Lincoln seemed to have more diversity, including some Black Lives Matter representation in signage and chants, and seemed to be more focused on standing with Planned Parenthood. We weren't able to stay for the speakers in Omaha.

It was probably one of the most positive things I've been involved with in a long time, and went a way towards easing some of the tight feeling in my chest that I've had ever since the election. There are times when fighting with my virulently Trump-supporting mom, or my Trump-supporting inlaws made me feel a little like I was surrounded by so much ugliness. At least now I can remember the day and realize I'm not alone. And it'll make it easier for me to pick the phone back up and keep calling my reps and getting more involved.
posted by PussKillian at 9:11 AM on January 23, 2017 [8 favorites]

The march in LA didn't feel so white to me, though I sure as hell noticed the comparative lack of police presence. Could it have had something to do with all the nice white ladies at the march?? Probably! I was at the march with one of those nice older white ladies, and she was very aware that the reason the police response to the march was mild to nonexistent was the big number of middle to upper class white women. There were plenty of WOC speakers at the LA march too.

One funny moment: as we were marching, there was a young black man starting a chant of "black lives matter! all lives matter! black lives matter!" that was joyfully repeated back to him, and he switched it up to "black power!" at one point only to have the chant collapse in confusion as the mixed white and POC crowd got confused about whether they could/should shout "black power!" The guy just shrugged and went "alright, worth a shot!"

I think the march in general was a pretty great introduction to protest and demonstration for a lot of people. I know it was the first big protest I'd ever taken part in, and it's made me more confident about attending future ones. Hopefully it will empower a lot of other women to participate in future demonstrations.
posted by yasaman at 9:59 AM on January 23, 2017 [13 favorites]

Another great sign (no photo tho):
Tinkle, tinkle, little czar, Putin put you where you are.
posted by Glinn at 10:11 AM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

Glinn, that's borrowed from George Takei.
posted by joyceanmachine at 10:28 AM on January 23, 2017 [5 favorites]

My local Action Together groups on Facebook are BLOWING UP today. People are fired up bigtime.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 10:57 AM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

Something that made me SO HAPPY was the collective news emphasis on WOMEN and WOMEN MARCHING and the message of unity, but today's news seems to be more about various celebrities who marched and honestly, I could give a fuck about that.

This was about ALL of us, not that so and so showed up here. Yes, it's a fun fact, but I would love to see the message remain focused on the millions of non-celebrities who marched without arrest and who mobilized and used their words and made change. As soon as I start reading about some minor TV person showing up in NYC, I feel like the powerful message is being diluted.

The day wasn't about celebrities. It was about all of us.
posted by yes I said yes I will Yes at 11:11 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

I was actually very pleased to see so many people of color in Austin's march, many signs in Spanish and chants too. Black women were out in large numbers. But it was mostly white, and yeah, no cop hassling at all happened where I saw it.

If we middleaged white ladies do in fact get more leeway from the cops, then clearly one role we need to have is to show up to BLM protests and others and be on the outside working that.

I know for me, a lot of my confusion is not about protesting with BLM or other PoC-focused groups, as not knowing where we can do the most good without looking like we're trying to take over/make it about us.

I wonder if the hats/pink/cute stuff is also useful here; it makes us look more harmless and seem less threatening, maybe?

If we can effectively deploy whiteness and cuteness for justice, then let's.
posted by emjaybee at 11:38 AM on January 23, 2017 [19 favorites]

Oh my god. So apparently, at least according to gossip from ladies who have to pee more frequently than myself, Trump locked up a bunch of the port-a-potties after inauguration. A friend of mine from Texas who was in the march but not traveling/marching with me says that she, like other small-bladdered marchers, therefore got stranded with no accessible restrooms for upwards of ten hours.

So when she got so desperate she couldn't hold it, she found a tiny stand of bushes in front of a federal building and had a quick piss. I feel like there's something just right about Trump locking women out of bathrooms and inadvertently forcing them to piss on his damn lawn in response. I mean, I know my friend really would rather not have been forced to do that (although she's also laughing her ass off about it), but at least there's that joyous silver lining out of it.

My spouse keeps trying to convince folks to hold piss-in protests, with folks turning up at the state capitol requesting to use the restroom and bringing jars of yellow liquid to dump into the toilets for all the folks who SB 6 would ban from public restrooms. I've been skeptical, but between this, Trump's little scandal with President Obama's bed, and the one scene from Hidden Figures--well, peeing has gotten surprisingly political lately.
posted by sciatrix at 11:42 AM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trump locked up a bunch of the port-a-potties after inauguration

I'm not sure it's such an easy thing to pin on Trump. The port-a-johns ordered for the inauguration were from a different company, and paid for by the government. The march ordered its own port-a-johns and paid for those. Different budgets, different schedules for removal, etc. I don't think there was a specific intent to remove bathrooms. The march actually seemed like the rare event, especially for women, that had enough port-a-potties. The setup along Constitution was fantastic - grouping them into little villages of a dozen with a single feeder line, creating much less stress and shorter waits.
posted by Miko at 11:50 AM on January 23, 2017 [7 favorites]

If we middleaged white ladies do in fact get more leeway from the cops, then clearly one role we need to have is to show up to BLM protests and others and be on the outside working that.

Yep, this. Very much this.
posted by soren_lorensen at 11:53 AM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

True. My phone was dead or I would have taken pics. There were dozens of port-a-potties lining the inaugural parade route and they were all padlocked.
posted by Kitty Stardust at 11:55 AM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

... but the whiteness of it was really offputting to me.
You mean the speakers, or the tone of the march organization in general?
Because in terms of attendance I thought it was pretty representative of the country, if not DC.
(Except for the male/female ratio. It looked to me like about a quarter male, or as the press said - 'even some men')

But, as I said, I didn't even make it to Independence Ave...
posted by MtDewd at 12:16 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

I was at the March in Boston, am not white, and I felt like I noticed plenty of POC. I do understand the importance of intersectional feminism, but I really really don't want this great energy to be frittered away on the usual left wing circular firing squad staff. We just can't afford that, and frankly, women of color in particular can't afford that. Let's take a moment to acknowledge that the March was not perfect, people's reactions were not perfect, and then keep moving on!
posted by peacheater at 12:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [27 favorites]

I noticed about halfway through the Lansing march that every African-American man I saw was wearing University of Michigan swag (and yes, it was different men). Interesting sort of signaling.
posted by Etrigan at 12:37 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

The Charleston SC rally was pretty diverse -- lots of white people yeah, but also lots of POC. I did notice that lots of the honking in support was black men, which I thought was interesting.
posted by rabbitrabbit at 1:10 PM on January 23, 2017

Let's take a moment to acknowledge that the March was not perfect, people's reactions were not perfect, and then keep moving on!

That was exactly my point. Re-litigating this over and over is going to be the death of this movement.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 1:43 PM on January 23, 2017 [6 favorites]

Apologies if this has been posted already, but Seattle from above. And, no, not a timelapse but filmed from above from starting point to finish. And not 130,000 strong but more like 175,000. The biggest march on which I have been and, by far, the one with the most children per capita.
posted by y2karl at 2:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [11 favorites]

Yeah, lots of kids. We were especially fond of a group of young girls that ran by several times chanting, "Hey, hey, ho, ho!!! Donald Trump has got to go!!!" We were very jealous of their energy.
posted by It's Raining Florence Henderson at 2:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [3 favorites]

y2karl - that is AMAZING. I'm gonna cry all over again. Yay Seattle! The biggest event I've ever attended was the 1993 March on Washington (LGB and I guess T, if we have to*). The estimate was 800k - 1 million and it sure felt like it. Every subway car was mobbed with queers. I was a teenager and it was awesome. Easily one of the best experiences of my life. There is so much power in numbers.

* This is sarcasm; I'm trans. The LGB community had a horrible track record of including the T at that time.
posted by AFABulous at 3:30 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Trending on Twitter: You Are Not Equal. I’m Sorry.
posted by roomthreeseventeen at 3:43 PM on January 23, 2017 [12 favorites]

y2karl, of all the images I've seen, that Seattle footage is the one which brought to mind one of my favorite photos ever, the snaking lines of people waiting to vote in South Africa's first free elections.
posted by Room 641-A at 4:14 PM on January 23, 2017 [2 favorites]

Serious question, because this is coming up on a number of the lists I belong to-- the question of middle class activism and intersectionality and commitment.

What is the best way to work through this? Because the truth is, to win in the ballots, we need the sunshine soldiers and the summer patriots as well. They won't do most of the work. They will be driven largely by symbolism but they will show up and vote and they will spend money and some of them will decide to do more. We need them. The tea party got this. Is it impossible to reconcile with the left?

I realise that for a lot of people who have been marching and fighting for their lives for a very long time, it is galling to see this happen and be talked about as though it is the most important thing ever. But how can we use it? And is there a way to make it less noxious? Can some of us work on this who aren't as bothered by it?

And, for the record, I am not asking this question to white men right now. The number of my white male so-called progressive friends who used this moment to rail against feminism as distracting from class struggle has made me really cranky.
posted by frumiousb at 4:27 PM on January 23, 2017 [4 favorites]

The last march on which I went was on February 15, 2003. It was a fifth the size of this one but had a special pleasure because it started at the Center and went downtown along 5th Avenue under the monorail tracks.

And every time the monorail passed overhead, the driver honked the horn, which was LOUD and very redolent of that of the alien tripods in the T. Cruise War of the Worlds.

And every time she or he honked, we roared back louder than anything I heard on Saturday. God, those were such uplifting experiences.
posted by y2karl at 4:33 PM on January 23, 2017

Great interview with the woman whose photo of the DC march (her sign said "white women voted for trump") went viral.
posted by TwoStride at 5:10 PM on January 23, 2017 [15 favorites]

That WAS great.
posted by Miko at 5:16 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

Also, because let's be real, I was hanging out with mostly people I sort of knew already at the March, and I was spending a lot of the time I wasn't talking at people around me about how pissed I was at the folks who kept trying to get the crowd marching while the rally was on.)

Oh, I have feelings about this. The rally was supposed to end by 1 pm. I was there in the epicenter until 3. We left after Express Yourself. On the one hand, I was genuinely distressed by the crowd I was in turning their backs on the speakers, but on the other, the march had already started, they told us the march had already started, and they told us where to go (by this point, they were telling us to get to Constitution). But right after giving us directions, they announced more people. I don't know, we'd move a few steps forward and stop, so I turned back to the stage during the stops.
posted by Ruki at 9:00 PM on January 23, 2017 [1 favorite]

So, I was positioned at all the worst places of the march--no visibility, couldn't hear anything. People were getting antsy about marching by 2:00 because by that time they'd been standing in the same place, not seeing or hearing anything for hours and were under the impression everything was supposed to start at 1:00. We were pressed in so tight anyone who wanted to get to the port-a-potties was out of luck, and at least a few people collapsed and required ambulances from the crowd crush. I think it is extremely shitty people were chanting "march, march" while the freakin' Mothers of the Movement were up there--but then again, we'd no idea who was on stage. There were old people and little kids trapped in back there. Nobody could call friends or family who were closer because nobody could get a cell signal (my texts arrived 1.5-2 hours after I sent them). I think the organizers maybe scheduled too many speakers, and you combine a rally that went hours extra with audio and visual equipment that couldn't reach the whole mass of people there and you got ugliness.
posted by Anonymous at 10:27 PM on January 23, 2017

From TwoStride's link:

"I would actually say to white women, if you want to be a part of a powerful movement that’s going to get something done, you need to get behind and trust black women, trust black femmes, trust black trans women. Because we are making this way out of no way. If you’re a white woman thinking, 'What’s next? Everything seems insurmountable,' welcome to the fucking party. Listen to a black woman."

The deep truth of this comes home to me more and more every single day.
posted by palmcorder_yajna at 2:12 AM on January 24, 2017 [16 favorites]

The rally was still happening at 3?! So many people had absolutely no idea what was happening on stage. I was nowhere near it, couldn't see or hear it, and yeah, 1:30 rolled around and we just took a stab in the dark that maybe we should start walking to the White House now, however we could. We didn't even hear the announcement to use Constitution, we just decided that since the march route was too crowded we'd try an alternative way to at least see what, if anything, was happening down at the Ellipse . Marches started forming spontaneously all around us as people who were in our same situation, unable to get any idea of what was happening "officially" just decided fuck it, let's at least go walk somewhere.
posted by soren_lorensen at 3:59 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

To be fair, we were pretty sure the rally went over time because the organizers had abruptly realized that there was no way to march the planned route, since they had gotten about five times as many people as expected. Like, that's a good problem to have and all, but it does mean that logistics are a bit of a clusterfuck. (The same point goes for the transit stuff someone else mentioned as a Thing To Do Better On.)

Our group marched when they told us to march, and I wasn't bothered by that. It was the people chanting to march already at 10am who made me mad.
posted by sciatrix at 4:39 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Just a followup from my comment way upthread regarding the St. Louisans in Accident, MD:
Here is an article on them in the local weekly.
posted by notsnot at 4:51 AM on January 24, 2017 [2 favorites]

Where I was, we couldn't hear anything but a few people could see the screen (I could sometimes, depending just where the packed-sardine crowd had shifted). A few people tried to start "Let's march now" chants from around 12:30 onward, but they didn't get much traction where I was standing. Mostly they got shouted down with "Black Lives Matter" and "this is what democracy looks like" chants instead. (Also, briefly, an "Isabelle's mom!" chant when a group near me found a little kid who'd been separated from her mom and we had to play telephone to try to find her in the crowd. I don't know how that ended up but I'm still worried about Isabelle, if someone happens to know she found her mom, tell me so I can stop worrying!)

I was annoyed, but would have been infinitely more annoyed if the chanting in my area had been tied in with when people of color were on screen. Since we couldn't see a thing, I have to assume it was garden-variety impatience vs. actual racism. Still annoying, especially when it started before the official march time had even come around.

By 1:30 or so there was definitely a lot of restlessness, and then right around - 2, maybe? some people started making their way toward us from the main area and said that the March had been cancelled because no one could get anywhere. The crowd in my area broke up pretty quickly after that. I was worried about whether it was by any chance a misinformation thing - accidental or malicious - so I hung around for a while longer to see if anything more official would come down. It definitely seemed like things broke up into various mini-marches at that point, and I was on the verge of a panic attack from being packed in that tightly for that long even with Ativan, so I ended up heading back to my hotel rather than joining one of the mini-Marches.
posted by Stacey at 6:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

Is there a good starting point for learning about intersectional feminism, and intersectional issues in general?

I just saw this on Facebook - How to survive in intersectional feminist spaces 101. I'm going to be looking for more resources because I want my feminism to be intersectional and I too am looking for ways to implement that.

Trending on Twitter: You Are Not Equal. I’m Sorry.

The comments on this are being brigaded big-time. I don't bring this up to send anyone over there to see, but just out of recognition that the racist right has a huge internet presence that they mobilize to shout down, undermine, and delegitimize anything they find threatening. Being a woman activist in physical and on-line spaces will probably get more and more uncomfortable/unsafe as we go forward.
posted by Squeak Attack at 6:44 AM on January 24, 2017 [7 favorites]

I had the same experience as schroedinger - people in my area were trying to pass the "march! march! march!" chant forwards and backwards because it was getting really scary-packed in our section of the crowd. At one point I tried to take my jacket off and I literally couldn't move enough to do so because I was so jammed in there. By early afternoon, we'd been standing there for hours with video but no audio (aside from the few cell phones that got service) and we literally didn't know what was going on.

We kind of knew it was insensitive to do but we had no other choice and no way to get out of there.
posted by R a c h e l at 8:19 AM on January 24, 2017 [4 favorites]

In my neck of the woods, after an hour of speeches when the MC said "Our next speaker ..." an audible groan rose up from the crowd. That's when the "March, March, March" chants started. Crowding panic started when the people in the back decided to push the issue and started moving forward before the people in the front could.
posted by achrise at 8:44 AM on January 24, 2017 [1 favorite]

Report: Jared Kushner’s brother visited White House after he ‘observed’ women’s march

Must have made for some awkward conversation. "So, Josh where'd you get the hat?"ˇ
posted by Joe in Australia at 9:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

The discussion above on the feeling of hopelessness well known to black women is extremely helpful to me and something I have to think more about. One of the things it made me realize is that although I was outraged by the killings of unarmed black men, it did not occur to me to get personally involved in the Black Lives Movement (I'm white obviously I guess but don't crucify me for this confession). But when I think about other successful movements, such as the civil rights movement, these became somewhat intersectional across race. I think this may be a critical insight for moving forward, at least for me.

And on the march, whatever the problems were I attribute to the massive size of the crowds. We were by the Full Frontal Bus (a shout out to Samantha Bee brought her to the window of the bus to say hi) and it was difficult to see and hear at times but the crowd was fantastic - we began chanting at 2 to begin the march but part of it was because people were starting to get faint (two within my vicinity).

I also had many conversations with hotel people, uber drivers, random people in lobbies and the support from DC residents was amazing. Except for the small business man whom I had a discussion with who 1) poo-pooed the impact of demonstrations. I pointed out the history of the US suggests otherwise and 2) complained that the cost of his self funded insurance for his employees was half that of what ACA cost. When I asked him about changes in coverage, it seemed like the ACA coverage was a lot better. Then he had to leave.
posted by bluesky43 at 9:03 AM on January 24, 2017 [3 favorites]

I had a similar experience in Seattle. I got to Judkins Park and couldn't hear any speakers, and didn't even know where they were. After an hour or so my friend and I turned and headed back the way we'd come (which was also the planned parade route). At the first intersection we stood, stuck, for 15 or 20 minutes, until we managed to worm our way out and sneak down an alley.

We would've waited -- it was fine, just kinda boring after a while -- but my friend was short and being in the crowd was unnerving for her, and we had somewhere we had to get to anyway.
posted by The corpse in the library at 9:31 AM on January 24, 2017

We were bottled up for a long time on 14th, and now I know what. It was somewhat comical, as people kept shouting to "turn around and march!" but then we would, and another wave of crowd instruction would come back to reverse direction again. We were packed in like sardines, and now that I have the bigger picture, I can tell it was because there was just as many people flooding into 14th toward the rally and filling up the entire parade route as there were behind us. The entire route was full, so there was just nowhere to march. I think now that we only started to make progress when people arrived at the Ellipse, hung out for a while, and then dispersed. A steady flow of people continued to pour into the ellipse for more than a couple of hours. Unbelievable.

I've never been in a protest situation where it was impossible to march because the entire route was filled with people. It was something else.
posted by Miko at 10:02 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

In the morning, we walked from the Capitol all the way to 14th St (mostly on Madison Dr., since Jefferson Dr. and the Mall seemed to be completely filled up with people) because we couldn't get south to Independence Ave. We tried at 4th St and again at 7th, but gave up. That's when we realized that the even the updated expected crowd of 500,000 was way too low.

14th was being kept open by marshals, so around 1230PM, we went to the corner of 14th and Independence, hoping to back track down towards the rally. We couldn't even get onto Independence, the crowd completely filled the street all the way from 14th to the rally stage. We were too far to see or hear anything on the Jumbotrons, so, at 1PM, everyone turned around and started marching north on 14th St. The street was filled curb to curb and it took us almost an hour and a half to get to the Ellipse, as people were streaming onto 14th St from the Mall, from Jefferson Dr. and from Madison Dr.

By the time we go to the Ellipse, it was filled with people and we sat for about 30 minutes watching tens of thousands of people come down Constitution Ave to join that crowd. We had no idea that the rally was still going on or that the march had not "officially" started. We then walked up towards the White House, but diverted to Freedom Plaza because of the number of people on 15th St.

The scene in Freedom Plaza at 330PM was unlike anything I've ever seen. It was completely full of people, some coming from the Ellipse, heading east towards Pennsylvania Ave., but then jamming up with an even larger contingent coming up Pennsylvania, headed west towards the White House. We could see people up 15th St and up 14th St to the North, heading away from Freedom Plaza/Pershing Park and see that 14th St, coming north from Independence, was completely filled with people.

I don't know how big the crowd was, but the only similar thing I've experienced was the 1.8 million people at the 2009 Inauguration.
posted by jindc at 10:23 AM on January 24, 2017 [6 favorites]

Well in the middle of my wallowing, I heard another lady squeaking down the hallway chanting something so I went out and joined her and we had put together signs that say "Freedom for All" and things like that and marched with our IV poles as well as some of the nurses.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:44 PM on January 24, 2017 [9 favorites]

I just found out that a friend of mine had no idea what a pussyhat or the Women's March was. I had to restrain myself from spurting out, "Where have you BEEN?"
posted by jenfullmoon at 8:19 PM on January 24, 2017 [5 favorites]

In the Shut Up And Sing department: Texas Radio Station Bans “Un-American” Madonna

General Manager of HITS 105, Terry Thomas, says “banning all Madonna songs at HITS 105 is not a matter of politics, it’s a matter of patriotism. It just feels wrong to us to be playing Madonna songs and paying her royalties when the artist has shown un-American sentiments. If all stations playing Madonna took their lead from us, that would send a powerful economic message to Madonna.”

Yes, Madge is living paycheck-to-paycheck these days. That'll teach her!
posted by delfin at 7:22 AM on January 25, 2017 [5 favorites]

Here's a picture of my Myrtle Beach UU church contingent who traveled down to the Charleston, SC rally. I even wore my MetaFilter shirt!
posted by rabbitrabbit at 8:11 AM on January 25, 2017 [4 favorites]

I was happy to find one of my favorite signs from DC, made with real Cheetos.
posted by MtDewd at 8:12 AM on January 25, 2017

Nearly 600,000 riders boarded Metro trains on the day of the Women’s March - That’s more than twice the number served on a typical Saturday

Metro initially expected just 75,000 marchers to travel Downtown, based on early estimates from march organizers.

Hugs to the organizers!
posted by Room 641-A at 11:30 AM on January 25, 2017 [3 favorites]

To be fair, we were pretty sure the rally went over time because the organizers had abruptly realized that there was no way to march the planned route, since they had gotten about five times as many people as expected.

Ooh, I wish they'd been able to get this message out sooner. By 1:00 the packed areas wanted to march just to get some space as much as actually march. People didn't go home because they didn't want to miss the march, but were desperate to have the rally wrap up so we'd get breathing room. We didn't hear anything about the march being canceled until 2:00-2:30, and the area of the crowd I was in was really mad because it was literally the only reason they were still there.
posted by Anonymous at 12:25 PM on January 25, 2017

They didn't really cancel the march, though, did they? I don't think that was a decision. In the end, I did get a march, from 14th and Constitution to the Ellipse.
posted by Miko at 2:36 PM on January 25, 2017 [1 favorite]

No, they didn't. In fact, by the time "they're cancelling the march!" got to us, it was only about ten minutes of "what?!?" before organizers announced that a march would go on.
posted by sciatrix at 2:38 PM on January 25, 2017

Yeah, between 1 and 2 it got very uncomfortably packed where we were on 12th and Independence in a little dead end (between a building and an overpass) and everyone really wanted to march. It seemed to get really crowded very suddenly. I felt bad when I realized that I had totally missed Say Her Name but I was basically fending off a panic attack! They even sent in a crew to take down a fence at one point. Thank god for the burner girl wearing a pink boa sitting in a tree who gave us all updates about where the crowd was going and told us where to walk.
posted by yarly at 8:06 PM on January 25, 2017

Samantha Bee's segment on the Women's March, including a live performance by Milck & the GW Choir of their song Quiet. Apologies in advance for any region blocking that I can't check for.

(Also, I guess there's a studio version of Quiet already available on iTunes, with an a cappella version coming soon, for those who want that.)
posted by hippybear at 1:54 AM on January 26, 2017 [1 favorite]

In case there is anyone lingering...

I ran across* this T-shirt fundraiser for ACLU. The design was inspired by the women's march. All funds raised will go directly to American Civil Liberties Union Inc. The design features signs from the march with the following messages:

Love Trumps Hate
RESIST
The future is FEMALE
I’m with HER
SCIENCE! SCIENCE! SCIENCE!
BLACK LIVES MATTER
United States of Kindness
#NoBanNoWall
I stand with STANDING ROCK
DIVERSITY makes AMERICA great!

*I am not associated with the design or sale of this T-shirt. I'm a sewer, and saw this on a fabric shop's Instagram (Imagine Gnats).

Thought some of you here might be interested.
posted by slipthought at 11:19 AM on February 2, 2017 [1 favorite]

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