Photos by Aayushi Chaudhary and Julia Steiner
Emma Miller and Malia Battafarano, Lance Photo Editor and Lance Managing Editor
A sea of people crowded downtown Omaha on Jan. 20. Men decked themselves out in every shade of pink; women chanted at the top of their lungs; children brandished political signs above their heads. And together, they marched.
According to the Omaha World-Herald, about 8,000 people gathered for the 2018 Omaha Women’s March, “March on the Polls,” similar to others across the nation that weekend that focused on empowering women and encouraging political action. According to EliteDaily.com, it was one of 486 marches participated in by 1.5 million people. The event in Omaha was run by Andrea Talbot, who also works at the Women’s Center for Advancement as a victim advocate. To encourage community involvement after the march, Talbot invited protesters to local businesses for talks on various political issues, including sexual assault. Talbot did not organize the march last year, but she said recent events and prejudice have encouraged her to take more political action.
“[Biased systems have] just become such a pressing issue, and then with the 2016 election and the year that we had last year in 2017, it’s just more apparent to me than ever that I can’t stand idly by and let things like that happen,” Talbot said.
According to Talbot, the march was an overall success.
“We had a lot of really positive feedback [about the march] and we’re starting to build momentum for next year already,” Talbot said.
Sophomore Lily Castellan was sick this year and could not attend the march, but she went last year and said she was inspired by the diversity of the people that rallied together.
“It was really powerful to see people of all genders and ages, colors, religions, come together to support the cause,” Castellan said.
Castellan said that the speeches made at the march last year also had a great impact on her.
“Some of [the speeches] made me cry,” Castellan said. “It just makes you feel [strongly] about the cause, more than you already do.”
The Women’s March is one of many current movements aimed at empowering women. These include “Time’s Up” and #MeToo, which was founded by Tarana Burke. According to its website, #MeToo is a movement focused on allowing people to speak out and have a platform to tell their stories of sexual assault and/or harassment. The movement is aimed at changing the stigma surrounding sexual assault and victim shaming and is getting attention throughout the U.S. Similarly, the Time’s Up Movement has been pushing for an end to harassment and assault, especially in the workplace, according to the Time’s Up Now website. The movements have been amplified due to celebrities wearing specific attire to several award shows, such as black to the Oscars and white roses to the Grammys.
“I think #MeToo is really critical,” Talbot said. “It empowered a lot of victims to speak out, some for the very first time and say, ‘You know, you’re not alone. It happened to me too.’ There’s a lot of power in community, and when so many people are willing to speak up and say it’s a problem, we can’t just ignore it. It’s a real problem. Believe women and believe, you know it’s not just women, believe victims.”
Talbot said she has seen an increase in reports of sexual assault in her work since #Me Too became more publicized throughout the media. She said she has seen a particular uptick in cases where it is unclear if the situation could be classified as sexual assault. This is similar to the “Grace” story published by the website Babe.net concerning actor, comedian and filmmaker Aziz Ansari. Ultimately, she said the movement is forcing us to define what sexual assault truly is.
“[The #MeToo Movement is] fundamentally changing our concept of what sexual assault means,” Talbot said. “It isn’t a stranger in the bushes who jumps out and attacks you. I mean, that’s a thing, but the vast majority of sexual assault and sexual violence occurs in the context of a lot of inherent sexism, a lot of internalized patriarchy and things like that that people have come to expect of women and what women have been trained to expect in situations … where they don’t feel like they have the power to do anything or they’re not even sure if it was wrong, even though it felt wrong.”
Talbot said she thinks that society’s outlook on sexual assault is evolving with the movement as well, giving more respect to victims.
“I think we’re starting to lose a lot of the stigma and the shame that were inappropriately assigned to the victim,” Talbot said. “Society isn’t saying, ‘Oh, well you shouldn’t have been wearing that,’ or, ‘You shouldn’t have had that beer,’ or, ‘You shouldn’t have been out at night,’ and I think we’re really recognizing [that] from a legal standpoint. I work with the police a lot at my position at work and I see the police treating victims with respect and recognizing that it doesn’t matter if they were drinking. No means no, yes means yes, and there’s really no equivocation there.”
Talbot said she hopes that in the future, the current push to empower women will pay off and people will not have to face the same barriers they do today.
“I have daughters, I have sons and I’m really interested in them having a good world to grow up in and countries that respect others and respect people’s human rights and treat everyone equally,” Talbot said.
Although she said she thinks it might be hard for kids to handle the current climate around sexual assault, junior Lizzy Watkins said she also thinks that it will bring about necessary change.
“I think it would be kind of difficult to grow up in a society where there is so much heat surrounding [sexual assault],” Watkins said. “But I also think that if we can raise girls to understand that it’s not acceptable, then maybe we can start to eradicate the problem.”
Social studies instructor Amy Studts agreed that the culture around sexual assault is changing for the better.
“I think this is a great time for girls to grow up in society,” Studts said. “You have females running for president and that never really happened in the past. I have two young daughters that are six and seven years old, and I want them to feel empowered as women growing up and not feel like they have to stay silent, like they can do anything. And if something were to ever occur, [I hope] that they’d be able to stand up for themselves and speak up and say something without fear or retribution.”
Senior Taylar Galvin said the current movements have made her hopeful for the future.
“[Women and men are] both capable of so many things,” Galvin said. “Motivation is what can bring us to be equal … I think [it would be] so awesome if we could come together and be able to share what life is like from another perspective.”
Talbot said that people are ready for this change to come about.
“People are tired,” Talbot said. “Women are tired. We’re tired of not being listened to. We’re tired of being dismissed as if feminism is a dirty word, and it’s not. Feminism stands for true equality between everyone of all race[s], all gender[s], all sexual orientation[s], all ethnicit[ies], all immigration status[es] and it really is [all those things]. It advocates for everyone.”
