Friday is a day I have been dreading since I woke up the morning after the election to find out that, against all odds, Donald Trump had managed to get himself elected president.
The man who, on a consistent basis, degraded women because they had “blood coming out of her wherever” or because they weren’t pretty enough dashed my dream, and the dream of millions of women across the country, to witness the first female president.
As Trump takes the Oath of Office, movements like the Jan. 21 Women’s March on Washington serve as a reminder that this misogynistic man plans to strip women of as many rights as possible during the next four years.
While maintaining its nonpartisanship, the Women’s March on Washington is gathering people from all corners of the country in our nation’s capital the day after Trump’s inauguration.
The movement’s goals include reasserting women’s right to their own bodies, protesting the misogyny plaguing Washington and the Trump administration and reminding the country that we, as women, are just as capable as men and deserve to be treated as such.
“It’s not a march about Trump, the man,” Terry O’Neill, the president of the National Organization for Women, said during an interview. “It’s a march about women’s rights that are very much imperiled by the policies President-elect Trump appears headed for.”
But it is not enough for just women to show up. It is not enough for women alone to recognize and react to Trump’s lewd comments.
The Women’s March needs the millions of men throughout America who disagree with and condemn the belittling stance the Trump administration has taken toward women to participate in the movement. Male participation will show not all men agree “grabbing women by the pussy” can or should be glossed over as normal “locker room talk,” as Trump has tried to do time and time again.
Women’s rights benefit society as a whole, and should be something both men and women strive for. We need men to show up as our allies on Jan. 21, and every day after to ensure an administration featuring a vice president who has a personal vendetta against Planned Parenthood and abortion, and a president who thinks sexual assault can be explained away by saying “boys will be boys” will not strip away our rights as women.
The issues the Women’s March plans to address have implications for the entirety of the country, not just for women. The more people the march can attract, of any gender, the louder the message will be that, as women, we deserve rights and we won’t give them up without a fight.
Aly Niehans ([email protected]) is a freshman majoring in international studies and intending to journalism.
