What rights have been taken away during Trump’s first 24 hours in office?
The ACA is presently being dismantled, meaning millions of Americans will be deprived of health insurance. Of this number, women are uniquely affected. As explained in The New York Times:
Until now, it has been perfectly legal in most states for companies selling individual health policies — for people who do not have group coverage through employers — to engage in “gender rating,” that is, charging women more than men for the same coverage, even for policies that do not include maternity care.
As deeply flawed a system as the ACA is, outright elimination will result in a sudden and fundamentally arbitrary penalization of women on the basis of their sex. The added cost will be especially detrimental to women in or near poverty (besides sucking for everyone in general).
So this is about Obamacare?
Not necessarily. The dismantling of the ACA is merely one of the many issues being protested by the millions of women marching in the US and around the world. Points include (but are not limited to):
- Gay Rights – As the vice president has openly stated that gay marriage signal “societal collapse“, and has actively legislated the exclusion of gays from the military and a number of other civil rights issues.
- Public Services – Which have been threatened with reduced funding, if not complete elimination, by high ranking members of the administration.
- Defense of Racial and Religious Minorities – particularly people of color and Muslims, who have received ample disparagement and hostility from almost everyone within the administration.
- Environmental Issues – The very existence of which Trump has denied, claiming global warming to be a hoax perpetrated by the Chinese.
- And easily a dozen more…
Bah! These protesters should be grateful for how easy they have it. Now women living in the third world, they experience real oppression. Why isn’t anyone speaking up for them?
You can be upset by two things at the same time, you dingbat. Hell, there are women in the third world protesting misogyny in America.
The suffering of Syrian refugees or Indonesian sweatshop laborers does not discount the injustices perpetrated here. Obviously.
Of course, that’s not entirely wrong. You do have champagne liberals (like Women’s March speaker Scarlett Johansson) who spout rhetoric about equality while supporting viciously repressive policies (like ScarJo’s whitewashing of Japanese characters or support for the occupation of Palestine).
For real though, Scarlett Johannson’s a ****ing ****, and if it was just her marching, you’d probably have a point.
And speaking of the downtrodden and the huddled masses yearning to be free- what the **** have you done for ’em recently? Kinda seems that the only time folks bring up their plight is when they want to make a half-assed attempt at discrediting Western feminists. And similarly…
How dare these protesters dress up as suffragettes! Don’t they know how much easier they have it than those women back then?
Similar things were doubtlessly said to the suffragettes when they marched, but that’s besides the point.
While I have only seen one (widely circulated) picture of three women dressed up as suffragettes, the fundamental point stands. Trump has repeatedly disparaged women fundamentally for being women, as well as boasting about groping them. While I don’t know the decision-making process behind those outfits, my guess would be that they’re arguing that the struggle for dignity and respect continues- and that the people who think it’s OK to grab women “by the pussy” are the same kind of people who thought it was OK to deny them the vote.
Can’t these Democrats be gracious losers?
Shut the **** up.
While many- perhaps in a majority- of those marching are members of the Democratic party or self-described liberals, this march comprised of millions of individuals from a wide and varied political background. There are pro-life protesters:
In the interest of full disclosure, there were pro-life groups “blocked” from attending, though they showed up anyways.
Gay protesters:
Socialists:
Anarchists:
Localists:
Members of the Galactic Alliance:
You get the point.
There’s a lot of folks with a lot of different views.
But some of the protesters are mean! And dumb!
I read that the argument here is that razors are tax-free and tampons aren’t. I don’t recall if I paid taxes on my last razor purchase, and as ridiculous as it is that tampons should be taxed, this could all probably have been written better. It makes it sound like I get free razors, which I totally don’t.
That’s true. Some of the protesters are mean. Some of their signs are dumb. But that doesn’t reflect the nature of each and every one of the 500,000+ women protesting in DC alone. Nobody decided to call off Gandhi’s salt march protest because Indrajit kept stepping on the backs of people’s shoes.
How is marching around going to change anything?
See next question.
How is smashing windows and setting fires going to change anything?
So it’s back to marching then?
Trust me- if you think a few burnt trash cans and some smashed windows constitutes a “riot”, you got another thing coming…
All images retrieved via Tumblr, WordPress, Imgur, Fightbacknews.org, YouTube, and Christianity Today, fair use.
Culture War Reporters 