Day for Feminism 2022

Thinking in feminist utopias?

March 8 is over. But my feminist will to fight was strengthened again today, as it is every year on March 8.
Today I was at the protest for the feminist fight day in Bochum.
While at the beginning of the demonstration was announced:

We are happy to go on the streets with you and finally knock down the patriarchy.

my thoughts wandered to March 8, 2020..
That was the last big protest for me before Corona. Back then everything was different.
Society was already just as broken, but the problems were still hiding behind high walls that were only torn down by the Covid 19 crisis.
In 2021, I sorely missed a feminist fight day demonstration.

But today it is finally happening again!

Under the slogan Fighting for Feminist Utopias, I stand in the street with so many other feminists and feminists*.
Finally I can shout out my rage against the patriarchy.
This day gives me a lot of strength. It is so important to me.
But how are the colorful people around me?
What are they thinking when we shout:

“However I dress, whereever I go, yes means yes and no means no!” or “My body, my choice!“

What do they feel?

The experiences and feelings, the pain and anger, the hopes and demands can be felt in every slogan, every scream and every banner.
Speeches talk about feminist solidarity with those affected by war and sexual violence.
Sometimes I have to close my ears to the daily oppression of patriarchy.
From the suffering, the structural oppression and the femicides.
They demand:

Not equal rights for men and women, but overcoming patriarchal structures.

I am privileged. I myself have little to no experience of sexual harassment. But one sentence continues to echo through my head all evening:

There is no safe country of origin for FLINTA*.

That frightens me and awakens this indescribable rage in me once again. We are living in 2022, why do people still have to live in everyday fear of the patriarchy?
But something else has especially stayed in my heart today:
The feminist utopia is too beautiful not to fight for. That is why it is so important not to give up thinking in utopias and to fight for a better world believing in a good life for all.
Let’s think together in feminist utopias!

(Comment by Ylva)

05.03.2022 Düsseldorf – First protest for the Feminist Fight Day

On March 05, a demonstration took place in Düsseldorf from 15:00 for the upcoming international feminist fight day.
The protest was organized by the Alliance Feminist Fight Day Düsseldorf.
In their call, the alliance emphasized that “especially queer people and Black, Indigenous and FLINTA* of color” experience intersectional discrimination.
That is why they also published a broad list of demands that comprehensively refers to the oppression by the patriarchy.

Demands related to unpaid unrecognized care work (“[We advocate] for a world where all work is valued.”) stand alongside demands to overcome structural oppression and not promote war, displacement, and foreclosure.
The demonstration starts with a speech near the Rhine. People of many different backgrounds come together. After a few speeches, the demonstration of more than 500 participants* starts. In front Kurds dressed in purple walk and dance to music.
Behind them comes a colorful block of FLINTA* of all ages. At the end, especially many people in solidarity follow.
In addition to the well-known slogans such as “Marriage, Kitchen, Fatherland: our answer resistance!”, there are shouts in Kurdish: “Jin, Jiyad, Azadi!” (Women, Life, Freedom)

08.03.2022 Bochum – Fighting for feminist utopias

With a demonstration on Tuesday, March 08, Bochum started into the feminist action weeks, which offer a program until April 30.
The demonstration was organized by the feminist collective Furore Bochum. Under the motto fight for Feminist utopias , speeches were told of the desires of various people suffering under the patriarchy: “To walk around alone outside at any time of day or night without being afraid.“

We need utopias in order not to fall into unconsciousness […],to connect our fights in shared visions of the future [and] to remind ourselves that there are alternatives!

But in addition to speeches that evoked longing and hope for a good life for all, the event drew attention to those affected by wars and sexual violence.
While the demonstration procession with over 1000 participants* moves through the city center, through residential areas and across main roads, people shout:
“trans, inter, non-binary: no more two genders!”. In recent years, the traditional Women’s* Fight Day has become more and more colorful due to queer-feminist diversity, and the demands for overcoming binary gender thinking have become louder. That’s why people are increasingly talking about “feminist fight day.”
As it goes along pubs and bars in the city center, participants* shout angrily:

Mackers (German: unreflected, toxic guys) are in every city, forms gangs makes them flat.

Sometimes outsiders look frightened at the loud protest, but mostly people applaud from the roadside or from their homes and encourage everyone to become part of the feminist fight.
After two speeches in-between, the demonstration arrives at the theater in Bochum.
Before the final speech is hold, a large crowd spontaneously starts dancing around the speaker-van.
In the final speeches attention is drawn to the people who cannot go out on the streets due to for example oppression, fear and femicide.

But one area on the otherwise so full square remains empty.

(You want to read more about queer-feminist topics? Here you find our articles!)