I’ve never been a political person. Politics has always been something that has seemed so far away from my everyday life, and I know I’m not the only one who thinks this way. I was never ignorant to the issues going on in the world; I just always feel so small in comparison to the people we vote for. They are our leaders, or are supposed to be anyway.
If you’ve ever picked up a history book, or have read the news in the last year, you can probably conclude that Donald Trump is an incredibly problematic human being. From expressing a desire to revoke basic human rights to believing that climate change is a hoax, him being the President of the United States of America feels like a twisted nightmare we are all waiting to wake up from. It’s unfortunate that some people are only now realizing Trump’s many many faults, and that some people have yet to see them.
On January 21st, I went to the Women’s March in downtown London, Ontario. I felt like I had been dropped into the ‘70s. I’d heard about protests and rallies, seen them depicted in movies and TV shows, but I never expected to find myself standing at one ever in my life. I never thought that there would be a reason to. I stood near the back of the crowd tentatively with my two friends. There were women, children, fathers and brothers standing in the crowd wearing pink hats with cat ears, carrying signs promoting love, acceptance, and advocacy for change. It was hard to hear the speakers because we were so far back, but what stuck with me was that every group was being included and supported. This march was about women, but it was also about so much more. It was about supporting women’s voices from all races, cultures and ages. It was about fighting for women to have the right to decide what to do with their own bodies. It was about women being represented in every level of the workforce and in politics. It was about empowering the little girls in the crowd, and everywhere, to keep reaching for what they want. It was about supporting our brothers, fathers and grandfathers too. For the time that I stood and listened, it was calm and well-articulated feminism: equality among both sexes.