Apparently feminists have now decided the “pink pussy hats”—the pink knit hats with cat ears, worn during the anti-Trump “Women’s March” last January—are offensive.
The reason? They’re unfair to transgender women, who may not have female genitalia, and minority women, whose genitalia may not be pink.
“I personally won’t wear one because if it hurts even a few people’s feelings, then I don’t feel like it’s unifying,” said Phoebe Hopps, founder of the Women’s March Michigan, who is organizing “anniversary protests” on January 21. “I care more about mobilizing people to the polls than wearing one hat one day of the year.”
Hopps explained how the pink hats had gone from a proud icon of feminism to being seen as offensive: “It doesn’t sit well with a group of people that feel that the pink pussyhats are either vulgar or they are upset that they might not include trans women or nonbinary women or maybe women whose (genitals) are not pink.”
As a result, groups have tried “to move away from the pussyhats for several months now, and are not making it the cornerstone of our messaging because… there’s a few things wrong with the message.”
The Women’s March chapter in Pensacola, Florida, seemed to agree—taking to Facebook to discourage marchers from wearing the hats to this year’s marches.
“The Pink P*ssy Hat reinforces the notion that woman = vagina and vagina = woman, and both of these are incorrect,” they wrote. “Additionally, the Pink P*ssy Hat is white-focused and Eurocentric in that it assumes that all vaginas are pink; this is also an incorrect assertion.”
“”The Pensacola Women’s March organizers understand that this idea was a knee-jerk reaction to the heinous, sexist, misogynistic Trump administration, but it is also just that: a knee-jerk reaction, not fully thought out,” they claimed.
“Therefore, we ask that march goers refrain from wearing this hat and instead, pick an alternative headwear that focuses on collective women’s liberation for ALL women: transgender women, multinational women, disabled women, queer women — the most marginalized. It is only through the centering and leadership of these groups that women will be liberated — not through exclusionary white feminism, which the Pink P*ssy Hat is indicative of,” they added.