@warriorgrrl vBlog ep 05 – million women rise :::
On Saturday I attended my first protest march: Million Women Rise. I was nervous about going not because I doubted my commitment to the cause – to end male violence against women – but because I have had so many negative experiences of women in the past.
It dates back to school days, of course, when being the new girl all the time (my family moved a lot), having blonde hair, being a bookworm, playing musical instruments and enjoying crafty pursuits all combined to make me a constant target for gangs of girl bullies. In the years since then, problematic relationships with so-called “best friends” and some painful experiences with female musicians didn’t exactly make me more comfortable with people of my own sex. Where was the loyalty, the empathy, the intimate friendships based on shared experiences, shared pain?
I’ve got used to being the only woman in every band I’ve ever played in and usually the only female musician on the bill at gigs, but I’ve never wanted to be one of the boys. I’d rather be the token outspoken feminist in a situation than bite my lip to keep the peace, so meeting similarly opinionated and – shock horror – friendly women over the last three years has been a massive relief and Saturday’s march felt like the pinnacle of that experience. I can’t adequately describe in words the feeling of being part of that mass of females: from bumps to babies to little kids to old ladies we’re different in a million ways but at the same time deeply connected – not only by our physiology but by our frequently uncomfortable position in society.
In this country most of us have it pretty easy. I was humbled by the messages sent to us from women around the world, living in societies where rape is used as a weapon by the military, where foetuses are aborted against the mother’s will and where daughters are kidnapped never to be seen again. As an example, on Saturday women from all over Afghanistan ignored the very real threat of violence to gather in groups and pray, wearing blue scarves to show their solidarity. Marching through London was the very least I could do.
Talking to these vocal, vibrant women about their groups and getting their thoughts on the importance of marches like Million Women Rise on camera made me yearn to be more of a part of the rich feminist fabric in this country and I’m determined to get involved. This video of Saturday’s march is just the start:
Thank you to everyone who spoke on camera and special thanks to Jess McCabe for all her help on the day – see her excellent photos here.
Further reading:
The F Word
Million Women Rise
Reclaim The Night
London Feminist Network
FemAcadem
Birmingham Fems
excellent video. i feel like i was able to attend the protest with you through it.
I know what you mean Laura. I mean as much as I can do without actually being you – I have also spent most of my life being disappointed by my interactions with other women/girls, and I also was bullied in a similar way (only I had brown hair, and was instead referred to as a ‘greebo’ because I liked alternative music). I tended to gravitate towards groups of men generally and for a long time my social circle contained very few women, usually the girlfriends of male friends and I didn’t talk to them very much. In the last few years though, since realising I’m a feminist rather than a freak I have managed to find other women who feel the same way and who don’t abandon me for having ‘outrageous’ opinions. Feminism is comforting in that sense for me. It’s also quite scary and challenging at times though isn’t it?!
The video isn’t working at the moment but I will try again later and will get our photos put up on the Bruminist site.
Okay the video works now, just Vimeo having a mare! Such a great video and great cutting. Great to see Cat and Clare of Birmingham Fems talking on camera, someone normally collars me! Stay tuned re: the art project- perhaps you can get involved/film it?
@tapps Lovely lady, I wish you could have been here! Next year, yeah?
@katieinthehat Thanks for reading and commenting – it’s nice to know I’m not alone! I remember the word ‘greebo’ well, my sister got called that a lot. I was just the usual awful names and even got voted weirdest person in the sixth form in an official awards thing at the May Ball – how that got past the teachers I don’t know!
What an amazing video! I didn’t attend the march this year so thanks for the recording, it gives you a great idea of the atmosphere on the day. It’s so important that we document UK feminist herstory (which 5,000 women marching through central London certainly is) so it’s great to see stuff like this. Thank you.
Wow! Watching this brought me back to the day itself! You definitely captured the atmosphere of the day, it gave me goosebumps watching it! Hope you enjoyed yourself, MWR 08 was my first march, amazing
Even though I am male, I’ll have to agree with you – throughout history, women had even worse fate than now and this feels on today’s situation too. Therefore the protest march is absolutely righteous.
And so I suspect that there will always be controversy between men and women (or women and men:)) But, because this is today and in the past women got the worst of it, now You deserve the better side.
I learnt somewhere back in school that in and before the stone age, there was a matriarchal (women-centralized) community amongst cavepeople, and the reason males turned out to be the “leader” sex is because they had more physical abilities to do for example hunt and that was much more of a sight than women gathering berries.
In my opinion, even though we say both sexes are equal, they cannot be, they are different!
OH, and I am Hungarian, so if you didn’t understand some of my words it’s because of my bad english:(
András, a fan