Why three Seattle women are going to the The Women’s March in Washington DC
Jan 20, 2017, 6:10 AM | Updated: 6:22 am
(Photo by Greg Palmer, CC Images)
(Photo by Greg Palmer, CC Images)
Hundreds of thousands of people are going to The Women’s March on Washington in Washington DC Saturday, including a number of Seattleites. I spoke to three of them.
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“Truthfully, when I made the decision to go, I didn’t know there was going to be a Seattle rally,” said Seattle’s Genevieve Haas, communications director at the University of Washington. “But it was just this moment of anxiety and needing to do something, needing to make a statement. So when I heard about the women’s march in DC, I didn’t think too hard about it. I just booked my ticket.”
Ruby Thaylor, who also works at the UW, had a similar reaction.
“It was the week of the election,” Thaylor said. “I’d spent the whole week kind of in shock and not knowing what to do with myself. And then the event popped up and I was like, I’m going to that. I have to go to that. I called up my mother and said, ‘If I fly out to New York, will you come down with me?’ And she said yes. It’s me and my mom and her two sisters, we’re all going to go down. It’s going to be great.”
Angela Stowell, CEO of Ethan Stowell Restaurants, had a week long trip to DC planned. She and her husband were involved with the Hilary Clinton campaign and booked their tickets to DC in September, confident they’d be attending Clinton’s inauguration. Now, she’s attending the march instead with a group of female Seattle chefs and restaurant owners.
“I think it’s really important to go out in solidarity with other mothers, other women, and men, who will say this is not okay,” Stowell said. “And to the Republican congress, we’re watching. President Trump might not care that there are 200,000 people. But hopefully, there will be people from all parts of the country that can let their senators and representatives know that, hey, we don’t agree with what you’re doing and we’re watching.”
I asked Haas what she felt she was going to get done by attending the march.
“I’ve been asking myself that question and in terms of things I want to get done, it’s not something you can do in a day. What I want to get done is going to happen over the next years and months. The reason I want to be there is that this is a really important moment. I think we elected a terrible person. I think the way he talked about women and minorities and immigrants is disgraceful. I want to be there to say that with my presence.”
Like the other women, Thaylor is attending out of solidarity, to have an outlet to release her anxieties, fear and anger and…
“We live in a democracy and if you’re not participating then you’re not doing your job,” Thaylor said. “It’s part of your job to participate and to tell the people who you’ve elected what you want them to do with their position because they’re supposed to speak for you. They’re not currently speaking for at least half of the country and that’s terrifying. I also need to be with the women in my life and to have solidarity with the people who are most at risk for the next, hopefully not more than, four years.”
All three women will be wearing pink knit hats, being called p*ssy hats.
“It’s a weird thing that we’ve reclaimed that word!” Stowell said. “It’s kind of uncomfortable sometimes, but I think it’s actually an interesting thing that we’re reclaiming that. But I have one, I have one for a friend as well. She made our signs last weekend. My sign says, ‘I will hot normalize the behavior of this president.’ And hers is actually really great. Hers says, ‘Keep your oligarchy out of my vagina.'”
“I’ve been thinking about a sign, I always see great signs,” Haas mused. “The sign that always sticks with me is right after the election, people were marching, and I saw a guy walking around with a sign that says, ‘Not really a sign guy, but geez!'”
No matter what will get done, or not get done, at this march, it’s providing some personal fulfillment for Haas.
“Maybe me going to DC is meaningless in the grand scheme. But I think a bunch of people doing this is not meaningless. What I’ve really found is that it’s pulled together aspects of my personal community that I didn’t expect. From the woman who volunteered to make me a hat to my friend in DC who said, hey, you’ve got a place to stay. Bring as many friends as you’d like. To my friend here in Seattle who said, ‘You’re going, I’m going.’ And he’s getting on the same plane I’m getting on. To feel supported like that is the most hopeful thing that I’ve actually felt since the election. So maybe that alone is worth it.”
