By Laura

I hate pink or I used too. I referenced last week I’m not a girlie girl, which to me includes a baptism of pink. If you have a baby girl, chances are you will be overwhelmed with blankets, onesies, socks, hats, bags and rags in pink. My response is WTF is wrong with green or yellow or blue – why does gender get to claim a color?

Well Saturday changed that. Under a rock? A Women’s March took place AROUND THE WORLD. And while it has a heavy tinge of a boycott of him, as an eternal optimist, I prefer to see it as a march for basic rights and for the positive.

I don’t consider myself a feminist, but maybe I am? My father has three daughters. My grandfathers (on both sides) had granddaughters and each only had one grandson. In both halves, the boy was never, and is not now, a Scion. The men in my family expected these girls to do everything the boys did – not better, not worse, but the same (a la equality!).

In discussion with my family about this event, I got a response “Crazy Women” and “Marching for What?” from 2 women! I was bothered by these responses and festered on why they didn’t see an issue. Now, they are absolutely entitled to their opinions, but I don’t see either response as an opinion and it’s because I know these women. I believe they see ‘Feminist’ as an evil word and /or as none of the issues noted in the march have never affected them directly, so it’s a non-starter for them.

For me, it is and I’d like to thank my friends for this. You see, my family has a contained circle of people who look pretty much like them. Me, I have a rainbow of friends that can check so many boxes in the ‘does this affect you directly’ questionnaire.  I cannot change someone else’s mind, they need to be woke themselves, BUT I can introduce them to my rainbow. (And please note, I’m not trying to congratulate myself on my circle. I didn’t plan on it, didn’t seek them out, it just happened.)

And while I don’t like pink, it’s part of the rainbow and therefore I will embrace it like I hope they can embrace millions standing up for themselves or for others who cannot.