Over the weekend, hundreds of thousands of women all over the world marched in protest of Donald Trump's presidency, due to his morals, his anti-woman policies, and the many longstanding allegations against him of both sexual misconduct and mistreatment of women.
While I steadfastly agree with these sentiments, I struggle to identify with the Women's March, specifically because of its exclusionary nature. Until a Women's March is for all women, and prioritises minority groups - who suffer the most at the hands of a government such as Trump's - underneath the umbrella term 'women', it is not truly a feminist march, and I will struggle to find any sense of community or camaraderie there.
While I watch cisgender, white, straight women make signs that read cis-centric slogans like 'NO UTERUS, NO OPINION' and knit the pink hats that came to be known as 'pussy hats', I don't feel invigorated, or like I'm part of a progressive movement.
I'm a cisgender queer woman, but I have never, and will never, be silent about this kind of exclusionary feminism. It's a hangover of the second-wave, and it makes me angry watching women call themselves feminists while marginalising other women.
All I can think about is the many transgender women and gender non-conforming femmes, particularly those who have dedicated so much of their energy throughout their lives to activism - yet are still alienated from 'mainstream' protests like this because of their cis-centric narratives.
Uterus = woman.
Vagina = woman.
Bleeding = woman.
Fallopian tubes = woman.
If you believed the signs at the Women's Marches all around the Western world, you'd be inclined to think that the things listed above are fundamental to being a woman. Hell, plenty of cisgender women don't have a uterus or menstruate either, and yet these signs still scream, without a pussy and the ability to procreate, are you really a woman?
Frontwoman of Against Me! and transgender icon Laura Jane Grace published this image while the enormous Women's March occurred in Washington D.C., which shows an image of a Trans-Exclusionary Radical Feminist (TERF) woman holding a sign saying 'TRANS WOMEN ARE MEN'.
Grace's post is just one of many from trans women who have spoken out about how excluded they feel from events like the Women's March, due to being surrounded by insistent messaging of 'vagina/uterus/menstruation = woman'.
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Creators of the Women's Marches in particular areas have attempted to ease the concern of these women by speaking out against exclusive messaging. Founder and president of Women’s March Michigan Phoebe Hopps told the Detroit Free Press that being inclusive was far more important than the tokenistic 'pussy' hat: “I personally won’t wear one because if it hurts even a few people’s feelings, then I don’t feel like it’s unifying".
But while Hopps' sentiment was a positive one, it didn't stop thousands of women knitting pussy hats and excitedly posting photos of Fallopian tube-themed march placards to Instagram. Sadly, the message is still yet to permeate through the masses.
I've been a hardworking and vocal feminist for my adult life, but larger-scale 'protests' like this always make me feel out-of-touch with the common sentiment of feminism. Despite the enormous amount of time, energy, resources and money I've spent on Modern Feminist Causes™, I'm always left reeling that in 2018, so many women's feminism still isn't intersectional.
It favours white women, straight women, cis women - while Women of Colour, trans women and GNC femmes are, as usual, left out of the mainstream narrative.
These marches shouldn't follow the pattern of history, of prioritising those who need not be prioritised, of alienating and delegitimising the existence and incredible, valuable work (both historical and modern) of trans women, GNC femmes, and Women of Colour.
These marches should be about celebrating the diversity and wealth of experience and knowledge that women have, and lifting up those whose voices have been systematically ignored throughout history - not just by men, but by feminism itself.
"My feminism will be intersectional, or it will be bullshit," . A clichéd quote now, but apt all the same.
Cis women - put the pussy hat and ovary-related sign away, and make sure we're fighting for everyone's rights - not just our own.
