Fed-up women in 18 U.S. cities walked out on their jobs Monday, refused to spend money and took to the streets to express their outrage over the election of Donald Trump.
The only problem?
Nobody appeared to even notice their strike.
The protest was organized by the group Women & Allies, which was formed by social-justice activist Ann Massaro. Massaro insists Americans “elected a sexual predator to the White House.”
Her group issued the following strike announcement:
“On December 12, 2016, women/self-identified women and their allies will gather together in solidarity in cities across the United States to protest the normalization of sexual assault, racism, sexism, homophobia, xenophobia, unconstitutional behavior, cronyism, and hate. We [I] urge everyone to rally together to protect the inalienable rights for all and fight against the tyranny we’re facing as a result of the 2016 presidential election.”
Women & Allies accuses Trump of having demonstrated “overt contempt for women and a troubling sexual misogyny.”
The group’s Facebook page listed the following cities participating in the strike: Los Angeles, Oakland, Santa Barbara and San Francisco, California; Denver, Colorado; New Haven, Connecticut; Ft. Lauderdale, Florida; Boston, Massachusetts; New York City and Sag Harbor, New York; Portsmouth, New Hampshire; Columbus, Ohio; Portland, Oregon; Lehigh Valley/Bethlehem, Pennsylvania; Bastrop County, Dallas and Houston, Texas; and Seattle, Washington.
The effort received almost no media coverage, with the exception of promotional articles from New York Magazine and mentions from a handful of blogs.
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At the strike, which was held a week before the Electoral College meets, organizers collected signatures for a petition urging electors to vote for Hillary Clinton instead of Trump.
The feminist Bust Magazine announced it would be closing its offices to strike against Trump. The publication posted an image of its employees holding a yellow flag similar to the Gadsden flag but featuring a rattlesnake and the words, “War on Women: Don’t Grab My P—y.”
But the magazine’s Twitter announcement elicited several humorous responses, including the following:
- SNORT. Whatever shall we read in the meantime?
- It’s like non-stop @TheOnion, thank you for the continual parody.
- This like the falling tree no one is around to hear in the forest?
- So it was a bust?
- That’s adorable. A gaggle of angry women marching against NOTHING REAL & no one cares. Awww!!
- Nice protest, now go make me a sammich
- Did you? Bet it made a lot of difference. Trump will likely just give up now.
Jessica Machado at the Daily Dot wrote a web post headlined, “Why I’m walking out of work today.” She explained:
When I woke up the morning of Nov. 9, like many women and people often pushed to the margins, I was crushed. Not casual-bummer crushed, but heart-sunk, scrape-me-off-the-floor, head-spinning-from-processing-every-last-detail-that-could-have-led-us-to-this-point type of crushed. While my male journalism colleagues began to strategize how we will tackle Trump’s surprise win, I wanted to surrender to the hollow weight that flooded my body. I wanted to fold unto myself and let out deep, guttural sobs, because what I had known all along but hoped wasn’t true had been confirmed: We are, at best, a country that cares very little to understand each other. At worst, we are one that will do everything in its power to ensure people like me are never afforded equality.
In those first few days after the election, there was the anxiety, fear, and dread over how and if we will able to protect Muslims, immigrants, people of color, the LGBTQ community, and many more in Trump’s America. And then there was the depression—that reminder in the form of the most powerful man in the world that there is a hierarchy of people’s needs and that hierarchy has never changed in America’s long, violent history. Even though I have spent much of my life and career aware of the very sexism and racism that undermines our nation, I still thought it was ready to elect, by every measurable standard, a more qualified president, a woman president. If anything, I thought it wouldn’t elect a man who was accused of sexually assaulting or harassing over a dozen women. And I was so wrong.
Machado said she is also protesting “the gender pay gap; a woman’s right to make decisions over her own body; a culture that protects and rewards sexual abusers; every single standard to which women are held that differs from men; the discriminatory policies and historical prejudices keeping the poor and marginalized from the same opportunities as the rich, white, and male.”
She concluded, “I know that going to one protest won’t change the status of who our president is or with whom he’ll fill his cabinet, but protests make people take notice.”
But Machado didn’t explain what happens if people don’t take notice.
In her response to the strike, Twitchy’s Sam Janney apparently couldn’t contain her enthusiasm: “Sounds like a real party, right? Yeah, come hang out with a bunch of angry women who just want to yell at you all day … BYOB.
“You know these gals are real downers at birthday parties and other social get-togethers, ‘Happy Birthday! Oh yeah, well no birthdays will be happy with that evil white male oppressor Donald f’ing Trump in the White House!’ Sigh.”
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