Denver Women’s March – “Pussies Now With Extra Teeth” – Explanation of the Series

“Pussies Now With Extra Teeth” – This is a response to the wondrous remarks of our new president who seemed to enjoy grabbing women by their crotches. So one shouldn’t be surprised that there were a fair number of posters, banners, about women defending their vaginas, uteri (is that the plural of uterus) and boobs – just responding to the president in kind so to speak. There were also a flood of people, mostly women but some men as well, wearing what now are called “pussyhats.” At first we (Nancy and I) wondered, hmmm, how is it that so many people are wearing these pink hats that look like cats. The “pussy theme’ was rather prominent, pervasive.

This is the beginning of a photo series with brief explanations of photos taken at yesterday’s “historic” – and that it was – Women’s March (and demonstration) in Denver. Denver’s Women’s march was in concert with demonstrations all over the country and the world. These marches were a vivid indication that people in the United States and elsewhere oppose the Trump Agenda to cut social programs, gut regulatory agencies and feed corporate wealth and the Pentagon, both already bloated beyond belief.

One article yesterday gave the figure of people in the streets of the U.S. of A yesterday at 2.9 million. This included some 750,000 in Los Angeles, 120,000 in Seattle. There were different figures thrown around for the Denver participation. 45,000 were expected, but police told me that they thought the crowd was more than 100,000. Some sources put the figure at 200,000. I have no idea of the Denver numbers, other than it was a huge turn out, so large that the organizers had some difficulties with such a large and unwieldy, but completely peaceful group.

Like my good friend Barbara Millman, although I brought my camera, I had no intention of taking pictures…but took more than 200 of them, most of which didn’t turn out too bad. It all started on our way down to the capitol. We left our car (for those of you familiar with Denver streets) at 32 and Umatilla St., with the intention of crossing the three bridges, over I-25, the Platte River and the train tracks near central train session. Once downtown we would hop on the free 16 St. shuttle to take us over to Broadway within a few blocks of the capitol and demonstration.

I thought it rather a clever way to avoid downtown traffic and congestion.

Turns out I was not the only one who thought along those lines. As we crossed the final bridge over the railroad tracks leading to downtown, we immediately joined a flood of people, hundreds (Nancy thought), thousands I thought, heading towards the capitol. The shuttle was packed and we gave up trying to get on it immediately and simply walked the mile or so to the capitol, joining the throng.

I cannot put into words – although I will try – what came over me walking among that flow of people. The sense that the two of us were “a part of something bigger, much bigger,” that “we were not alone,” one of those moments, fewer in number these days when we understood that our politics and values are not isolated nor margin, but in many ways, a part of the mainstream, what so many Americans, so many Denverites think and feel. I would add here, although it was a relaxed affair for the most part, and as my friend David Nefzger pointed out, overwhelmingly white in make up, it was a determined crowd, reasserting their politics and values, knowing full well that despite the size and spirited nature of this enormous show of political force, that this demonstration is only the beginning. We protested, now comes the hard part, the long-term organizing.

Concerning the photos I will post in the days that come… mine and those of others. They were taken with a rather simple camera, a Panasonic-Lumix with an excellent lens. I concentrated both because of our position in the march with the sun behind us most of the time on the posters, the message if you like, or messages, because there were many. Some militant, many, many of these focusing on the situation, values and politics of women, as should be for a “Woman’s March.” They were wonderful original, funny, appropriately cutting of the new president who repeatedly took it on the chin. Others were clichéd, gentle, about the need “to be kind, be nice” whatever. I just snapped like a mad man trying to get the flavor of it all through the signs.

I could post them all, I have edited them (slightly), a few have been cropped, images “adjusted” in Photoshop especially to highlight the text of posters which doesn’t always show up well in photos, but in the end, most of them are essentially what was captured at the time of taking. As there will be many, many photos posted during the next period, and people can, in general, take just so much of it, I hope to post one a day, with a short explanation. I will post as many as possible…the creative and the more cliched…taken together they represent a challenge to what Canadian scholar-activist Naomi Klein referred to as “a corporate coup” veiled as a presidential election.

Cheers, Don’t Kvetch, Organize…or, OK, Kvetch but try to get over it and…organize!

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