‘Why I Resist’ Meme Is Proof the Women’s March Is About Rich White Girl Problems

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Susan L.M. Goldberg:

This conversation isn’t new. For years the feminist movement has been criticized for its lack of ethnic and economic diversity. The Women’s March was supposed to solve all of that by re-working feminism in the image of a Hispanic woman, an African American woman and a Muslim woman in a hijab. The latest meme published through their Twitter account, however, still reeks of the upper-class white woman syndrome the pussyhats (most of whom are upper-class white women) were hoping to leave behind.

Titled #WhyIResist, the meme lists a series of criticisms received by an average woman, including:

  • You just haven’t found the right man
  • She’s hormonal
  • You’re too fat to wear that
  • Bitchy

Below the complaints the picture reads: “Nevertheless she persisted,” a shout-out to Senator Elizabeth Warren, who was recently silenced on the Senate floor for “impugning a peer” (not for lying about her Native American ancestry, or lack thereof). The concept of the picture is clear: These criticisms sum up the battle women fight on a daily basis in America. The problem is that it makes American women, and the feminist movement at large, once again look like a bunch of over-privileged chicks obsessing over essentially meaningless microagressions.

To put the meme into historical context, the original feminists fought for the right to divorce abusive husbands, retain custody of their children in said divorces, and for the right to vote. Today, feminists around the globe fight against female genital mutilation, child marriage, sex slavery and sex-selective abortion. The Women’s March, on the other hand, is fighting against catcalls and being called fat.

Girl, please.

Statements like “calm down” and “relax,” which these women most likely hear fairly often, more due to the absurd nature of their complaints than the vitriol with which they are delivered, are listed as reasons to “persist” and “resist.”

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