The Fourth Wave Of Feminism: Meet The Pink Pussy Hat

And this leads me to the last important part of the PINK PUSSY HAT as a symbol of the new wave of feminism: the hat itself. Hats are very practical. They provide warmth in the cold and a shield in the heat. The PINK PUSSY HAT was designed to provide warmth to the masses of women who took to the streets in the cold January weather, and they were beautiful. Most were made lovingly by hand — many in small groups of women gathering together to create.  Knitting, crocheting and the #MeToo movement are central to the new wave of feminism. Women are re-claiming their feminine voice and ways: nurturing, caring, love, relationships, birth, breastfeeding, sewing, cooking, and homemaking, are all becoming important again to women and humanity. WE are creating a world where feminine values and ways are not seen as weak or to be dismissed. The feminine is in fact strong and a force for change and healing in a world desperately in need of all we represent.


Today, January 20, from the podium at the 2018 Women’s March in Los Angeles, Rob Reiner loudly proclaimed to a sea of PINK PUSSY HATS, “We were all here a year ago for many different reasons, but one of the unifying reasons was we were scared. We were scared of who was going to enter the White House. A year has gone by, and he has corroborated every one of our fears. And we cannot white wash this anymore. We have a racist in the White House. We have a sexist in the White House. We have a pathological liar in the White House. And he is tearing away at the fabric of our democracy. And when we all came together last time, we had the power. And it’s the women; the women have given us the power. And the women continue to give us the power.”

Make no mistake, the women are back and they are wearing the symbol of their POWER on their heads.

Could the PINK PUSSY HAT be the symbol of the next wave of Feminism? In 2013, the Guardian proclaimed that “the women’s movement may have been in hiding, but the women have come back with a vengeance; introducing the new feminists taking the struggle to the web – and the streets.” The National Organization for Women, who spearheaded second wave feminism, celebrated its 50th anniversary in the summer of 2016, commemorating five decades of grassroots activism. But to what end? What does the future of feminism look like fifty years later? The 2017 and 2018 Women’s Marches were great example of new waves energy and power, and the wave looked like a sea of PINK PUSSY HATS across America and the world.

According to the organizers, the planned protest of the Women’s March on Washington was meant to “send a bold message to our new administration on their first day in office and to the world that women’s rights are human rights”. The Washington March drew 440,000 to 500,000 people. Between 3,267,134 and 5,246,670 people participated in the Women’s March in the United States. In total, worldwide participation has been estimated at over five million. At least 408 marches were reported to have been planned in the U.S. and 168 in 81 other countries.

After the marches, officials who organized them reported that 673 marches took place worldwide, on all seven continents, including 29 in Canada, 20 in Mexico, and one in Antarctica. In Washington, D.C., alone, the march was the largest single political demonstration since the anti–Vietnam War protests in the 1960s and 1970s.The Women’s March crowds were peaceful, and no arrests were made in Washington, D.C., Chicago, Los Angeles, New York City, and Seattle, where an estimated combined total of two million people marched. The energy and power of this march was felt around the world.

Jennifer Lawless, co-author of the book, Women on the Run: Gender, Media, and Political Campaigns in a Polarized Era, said the Women’s March helped generate “widespread activism to push back against Donald Trump’s agenda. And it made women who ordinarily wouldn’t participate in politics, or do much more than vote during a general election, become politically activated.” And they all wore PINK PUSSY HATS, some made by their daughters, grandmothers, and sister, some sold on Etsy. They were handmade and in every shade of PINK.  These hates represented something universally feminine and POWERFUL.

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Why is the PINK PUSSY HAT so powerful?  First let’s look at the color PINK.  The meaning of the color pink is unconditional love and nurturing.  A combination of red and white, pink contains the need for action of red, helping it to achieve the potential for success and insight offered by white. It is the passion and power of red softened with the purity, openness and completeness of white. The deeper the pink, the more passion and energy it exhibits. Pink is feminine and romantic, affectionate and intimate, thoughtful and caring. It tones down the physical passion of red replacing it with a gentle loving energy. The energy of the feminine, nurturing, encouraging, caring and compassionate, all qualities missing from our dominate, competitive, and brutal culture. These are the qualities the feminine brings and the exact qualities missing in human society now.

However, some misguided people feel that PINK is somehow wimpy and not to be taken seriously. I actually received this comment on my Facebook from someone who didn’t think the hats were a good idea. “Psychological studies confirm pink is associated with female, weakness, silliness and shallowness. To miss the subliminal message is to deny reality. Like pink if you choose, but its poor messaging if you wish to be taken seriously.” REALLY!!! I think reality is the best judges of what is… and trust me, in 2017 WOMEN were taken more seriously than ever.  In fact, the Washington Post proclaimed 2017: “The Unexpected (and inspiring) Year of the Woman”. The Huffington Post, posed the question “Why 2017 Will Be The Year Of Women”? And by the end of 2017, a seismic change in American culture began toppling dozens of sexual predators in the #MeToo movement.

So this leads us to the next part of the POWERFUL, “PINK PUSSY HAT”… the pussy.  Just what does it mean when women choose to put the symbol of their sexuality, their very identity as women on their heads?  Prompted by the nasty comment of our new president who was quoted in 2005 saying, “I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait. And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”  In response to this outlandish display of disrespect for women “the pussy hat” was created as a symbol of our pride and ownership of our own anatomy.

FEMALES are not weak; show me one MAN who can create LIFE in his body! EVERYTHING about a woman is STRONG. I for one am not willing to give away my power to emulate MEN.  I think we lost it when we all identified with the oppressor and put on pant suits to try to compete!  TRUE feminism is the celebration of ALL things FEMININE and what is more feminine than our sexual anatomy? In fact it is exactly what differentiates us from men. UNITED WE STAND, or Margaret Mead’s so eloquently said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

PINK+PUSSY=POWER… stand firm in your beauty and power as WOMEN.

Yes, you can buy your own pink, pussy hat online!

However, some people have a different feeling about the power of the pussy.  I had this posted on my Facebook in defiance of the power of the PINK PUSSY HAT, “The Pink P*ssy Hat reinforces the notion that woman = vagina and vagina = woman, and both of these are incorrect.  Really, vagina=women is incorrect?  Then what does a woman equal?

HER ability to create human life is one of HER greatest powers differentiating HER from all MEN who cannot.  If women really understood and owned the tremendous power of the PUSSY they would be able to step into their rightful place as creators of humanity and the mother of ALL men.  This is real POWER.

The Pensacola Women’s March organizers actually went so far as to suggest that, “the Pink P*ssy Hat is white-focused and Eurocentric in that it assumes that all vaginas are pink; this is also an incorrect assertion.” Wow… I am a midwife of 40 years and I can tell you absolutely that ALL vaginas are PINK.  And most labia’s are PINK too… even Black, Latina, and Asian pussy is PINK.

This group went on to suggest that, “this idea (the PINK PUSSY HAT) was a knee-jerk reaction to the heinous, sexist, misogynistic Trump administration, but it is also just that: a knee-jerk reaction, not fully thought out. Therefore, we ask that march goers refrain from wearing this hat and instead, pick an alternative headwear that focuses on collective women’s liberation for ALL women: transgender women, multinational women, disabled women, queer women — the most marginalized. It is only through the centering and leadership of these groups that women will be liberated — not through exclusionary white feminism, which the Pink P*ssy Hat is indicative of.” Thankfully most march goes did not heed this misguided notion and 2018 saw another sea of Pink Pussy Hats.

As most women know, the struggle for personhood, equality and respect has been long and hard. Even before the notion of feminism was born, women had been fighting to have the rights of personhood, to own property and to have a voice and a will in a world dominated by men. What has become known as the first-wave campaign secured the votes for women, which reached its height 100 years ago. The second wave women’s liberation movement that blazed through the 1970s and 80s, focused on sexual and economic equality. The third wave, declared by Rebecca Walker, Alice Walker’s daughter, and others in the early 1990s, brought a shift from second to third wave took many important forms, but often felt broadly generational, with women defining their work as distinct from their mothers.

What’s happening now feels like something new again. It’s defined by technology: tools that are allowing women to build a strong, popular, reactive movement online. The fourth wave feminism is defined by pragmatism, inclusion and humor. It is really down-to-earth, really open; it’s very much about people saying, “Here is something that doesn’t make sense to me. I thought women were equal. I’m going to do something about it.”

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PINK is very POWERFUL…. own it…. I for one refuse to agree that the FEMININE is not powerful…all things feminine are powerful… Including  OUR SEX, OUR ability to CREATE ALL LIFE… OUR nurturing ways, our unity, our gentleness, and our BEAUTY.

And this leads me to the last important part of the PINK PUSSY HAT as a symbol of the new wave of feminism: the hat itself. Hats are very practical. They provide warmth in the cold and a shield in the heat. The PINK PUSSY HAT was designed to provide warmth to the masses of women who took to the streets in the cold January weather, and they were beautiful. Most were made lovingly by hand — many in small groups of women gathering together to create.  Knitting, crocheting and the #MeToo movement are central to the new wave of feminism. Women are re-claiming their feminine voice and ways: nurturing, caring, love, relationships, birth, breastfeeding, sewing, cooking, and homemaking, are all becoming important again to women and humanity. WE are creating a world where feminine values and ways are not seen as weak or to be dismissed. The feminine is in fact strong and a force for change and healing in a world desperately in need of all we represent.

In conclusion, the noted anthropologist Margret Mead, after a lifetime of observing very diverse cultures around the world, observed, “Being allowed to live life in an atmosphere of religious freedom, having a voice in the government you support with your taxes, living free of lifelong enslavement by another person. These beliefs about how life should and must be lived were once considered outlandish by many. But these beliefs were fervently held by visionaries whose steadfast work brought about changed minds and attitudes. Now these beliefs are commonly shared across U.S. society.”

As Rob Reiner said at this year’s Women’s March, “ it’s the women; the women who have given us the power. And the women continue to give us the power.”

Remember to “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.”

PINK+PUSSY=POWER… stand firm in your beauty and power as WOMEN.

Welcome to the new feminism.

 

Featured march photo Shutterstock

Graphic photo Shutterstock/studiostock’s

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