Pink,Brown,and Read All Over: Representation at the 2017 Women’s March on Washington

Abstract

In this dual-autoethnographic narrative, we examine the Women’s March on Washington in relation to critical approaches to activism. We draw upon our own unique experiences at the March, coupled with a chronology of the event’s origins, its approaches to diversity and inclusion, and media coverage of the movement. We contend that despite initial critiques of whitewashing feminism, the Women’s March thoughtfully addresses issues of solidarity and intersectionality from a point of transnational resistance and encourages demonstrators to unite in new formations of protest. Tracing the lineage of feminist scholarship from Gloria Anzaldúa and Audre Lorde to Leela Fernandes and Sara Ahmed, we fold theory into praxis and advocate for reimagined understandings of collective resistance efforts that attend to the postmodern, global contexts of Trumpian politics. We rely on Hardt and Negri’s conception of “commoning” within the multitude to explore how the March enters into a larger conversation of intersectional justice, both within and beyond academia.