A-Marching We Will Go

Tomorrow is the big March For Women's Lives in Washington, D.C. So at the ungodly hour of 5:00 a.m. tomorrow, I'll be piling into a car with some friends and heading down to join an estimated half a million other women to make some noise in support of women's reproductive rights. Having never really marched for anything in the U.S., except in the NYC Dyke March (most of my activist marching has been in Canada), I'm quite curious to see how the whole event will unfold. I've never been to Washington before either, and I guess pilgrimmages to Washington to agitate for some sort of rights or other are something of an American tradition.

One interesting thing about this event (and note no such women's march has taken place for about 12 years now) is the change in terminology. The issue of reproductive rights and the legal protection thereof used to be couched mostly in the language of "choice," which in turn really reduced to the question of abortion availability and legality. But the language of "reproductive rights" and their connection to "womens's lives" is much more broad. It includes agitation for adequate sex education, for emergency contraception availability, for proper support for women who choose to have children as well as for those who choose not to have children. I have to say, I'm very impressed with this change in the feminist landscape as well as with how diverse the leaders in third-wave feminism are. It's not just white middle-class women marching for economic liberal values anymore (not that there's anything wrong with that). But my sense is that the current movement is more racially diverse, more class inclusive, and that instead of declining in power, feminism has a great deal of energy and the statements of its goals are reflecting a very LIVE movement.