#freepurvi

This week is going to be tough one - full of Trump foolishness, nominations nonsense, and who knows what else. To inspire you in the face of all this, here are some of the throwback moments I’m holding close from the last year. It’s easy to look back on 2016 with a pessimism: after all, the reality of Donald Trump as our next President has shaken many of us to our core. But we cannot let that erase the fact that in many ways, 2016 was a year of women kicking butt all over the place, whether it was with athletic prowess, astrophysics, policy, or musical brilliance:

10. Women shine at the Olympics.

It may seem like a long time ago now, but 2016 was the year of the Woman Olympian. They broke records: Simone Biles’ feats of gymnastic excellence made her the most decorated U.S. gymnast ever in a single Olympics, while Katie Ledecky brought in four golds and a silver medal as she broke not one but TWO world records. They also broke barriers: Ibtihaj Muhammad became the first American athlete to compete in the Olympics while wearing a hijab. She also won a bronze medal in fencing. As Muhammad said to US Magazine, “A lot of people don’t believe that Muslim women have voices or that we participate in sport…I want to break cultural norms.”

From gymnastics, to swimming, to fencing, women Olympians inspired us all.

GIF credit: https://giphy.com/gifs/gymnastics-women-usa-PzCQrX9zzGLx6

9. Beyoncé’s Lemonade changes the game.

What do we say about King Bey’s Lemonade that hasn’t already been said in a million think pieces and tribute gifs? First came the surprise “Formation” video. Then the explosive Super Bowl performance. Then the transformative Lemonade. THEN, she capped it all off with that defiant and joyful performance of “Daddy Lessons” with the Dixie Chicks at the damn COUNTRY MUSIC AWARDS.

Whatever else we say about 2016, it will go down as the year Beyoncé slayed. And slayed. And slayed. OK.

GIF credit: https://giphy.com/gifs/formation-black-power-section-12-6WbZfpAkmosgg

8.  Latina Scientists discover Einstein’s gravitational waves.

This year, Argentina-born Dr. Gabriela Gonzalez and Mexican-American Dr. France A. Cordova accomplished the impressive feat of detecting gravitational waves from two black holes colliding, a discovery that confirms many of Albert Einstein’s theories about the universe. This discovery by these Latina scientists is one for the history books!

Image Credit: girabsas.com

7. Purvi Patel is released from jail.

In 2013, Purvi Patel was imprisoned and sentenced to 20 years for feticide and the neglect of a dependent—all because she ended a pregnancy on her own. The story is shocking – after all, no woman should fear arrest or jail for ending a pregnancy, losing a pregnancy, or seeking medical help. A small measure of justice was won for Purvi when she was released from prison in September. This case also creates an important precedent that strikes back against disturbingly widespread state laws that criminalize a woman for ending her pregnancy.

Image credit: SisterSong Women of Color Reproductive Justice Collective

6. Survivors shine light on sexual assault.

A major highlight from this year’s Oscars was Lady Gaga’s performance of her Oscar-nominated song, “Til It Happens To You.” She was introduced by Vice President Joe Biden and ultimately joined onstage by survivors of sexual assault. This was an important moment of visibility for survivors of sexual assault, who also made headlines later in the year when the #NotOkay hashtag moved women from around the world to share their stories of sexual assault and rape.

GIF credit: https://giphy.com/gifs/lady-gaga-till-it-happens-to-you-the-hunting-ground-SKIVBph41yAOk

5. Women bare it all at the RNC.

Back when it was just sinking in that Trump would be the Republican nominee, 100 women posed nude while holding mirrors as part of an art installation protesting the Republican National Convention in Cleveland, Ohio. While their motives and politics were reportedly very diverse, there’s no question that the women’s agency over their bodies carried extra resonance this election season. Whatever their reasons, it was a powerful moment and brave demonstration.

Photo credit: Lindsey Byrnes.

4. Women strike against abortion ban in Poland.

This year saw women across the planet declaring their human rights and resisting schemes to take those rights away. Polish women organized a massive strike to protest an abortion ban. It was incredible to watch – and is a tactic we may need to learn from if Trump, Pence, and their cronies in Congress have their way.

Image Credit: The Guardian.

3. The Supreme Court declares that abortion must be accessible in real life.

Think back to late June: people gathered on the steps of the Supreme Court to hear the happy news – in a 5:3 decision, SCOTUS struck down Texas’ clinic shutdown law, HB 2. This landmark decision affirmed that a woman should be able to get an abortion with dignity, respect, and WITHOUT politicians standing in the way. In the wake of that decision, several other clinic shutdown laws fell. While there is still a lot to be done, this was a huge moment.

Photo credit: All* Above All (Flickr)

2. “This is not normal.” Michelle Obama responds to Trump’s videotaped admission and history of sexual violence.

When Michelle Obama took the stage in New Hampshire shortly after the video surfaced of our now President-elect bragging about sexually assaulting women, she articulated beautifully and painfully what so many of us had been feeling. It’s worth quoting at length:

“It's that feeling of terror and violation that too many women have felt when someone has grabbed them, or forced himself on them and they've said no but he didn't listen — something that we know happens on college campuses and countless other places every single day. It reminds us of stories we heard from our mothers and grandmothers about how, back in their day, the boss could say and do whatever he pleased to the women in the office, and even though they worked so hard, jumped over every hurdle to prove themselves, it was never enough.

We thought all of that was ancient history, didn't we? And so many have worked for so many years to end this kind of violence and abuse and disrespect, but here we are in 2016 and we're hearing these exact same things every day on the campaign trail. We are drowning in it…

This is not normal.”

With this speech, Michelle gave us the mantra we’ll need to get through the next four years, and face down the regressive policies Trump has promised. This. Is. Not. Normal.

Image Credit: The Nation.

1. A major party presidential candidate spoke out against the Hyde Amendment!

Even as we grieve, and cry, and even fear for our safety and the lives and well-being of those we love, we must remember this: More than 64 million Americans voted for a future where women are treated as human, and where the amount of money you have doesn’t determine whether you can get an abortion. Sixty-four million Americans voted to move forward, not backward, for love instead of hate, compassion instead of division. By a margin of more than 2 million, Americans voted for Secretary Hillary Clinton, the candidate who supported women’s health and rights and spoke out against the Hyde Amendment. While we won’t get to welcome her into the White House, we’ll always remember when she said:

“Any right that requires you to take extraordinary measures to access it is no right at all… [N]ot as long as we have laws on the book like the Hyde Amendment making it harder for low-income women to exercise their full rights.”

Here’s what I’ve learned from this year: women are STRONG AS HELL. We can do anything. We are resilient, we are talented, we are driven, and we resist. And that’s exactly what we’ll need to do to hold onto what we’ve won and keep fighting forward for as long as we have to.

Where do we get our ideas about how people should act/respond to lived experiences? Entertainment provided by movies, TV, books.

So we live in a world where every character who has had an abortion ends up with a sobbing confession. Every character who has had a miscarriage experiences a paralyzing depression. Every character who has been raped or sexually assaulted is traumatized. And these images settle into brains and make people think, yes that is the appropriate way to react. People become skeptical of the ability to react to this stimuli in any other way. People become suspicious of anyone who deviates from the script we’ve been force-fed. 

We need our entertainment to start exploring the wide, wide variety of lived experiences. This is why diversity matters, why representation matters, why we cannot continue to shrug our shoulders at the fact that Hollywood remains overwhelmingly white and male. 

Because we’re not just ignoring stories anymore. We’re basing reality on a singular slice of culture, a sliver of lived experiences. We’re using a singular point of view as the touchstone for how all should behave. We’re creating expectations with tunnel-vision view.

And we are punishing (in court!) those who find themselves living outside these rigid expectations. Not conforming to the only norms we’ve been shown is being used as evidence (in court!) against someone.