What it Means for Womankind
I won’t pretend that I am especially politically active. During my University days I was a member of the Swedish Christian party but mostly because I fancied one of the guys who was active within the party. I eagerly followed politics so I would know what I was talking about in the slim hope it would impress said guy.
Since moving to the Britain, I had not considered it my place to get involved in political conversations. In all honestly, I felt I should know more than simply the prime minister’s name to qualify as a valid voter, and as someone new to the country, I did not feel as it was my right to have much of an opinion.
I never felt like an “immigrant” when I moved to the UK. Immigrants – to me – were people escaping war or searching for a better life in a more diverse country.
I simply moved from a middle class country to make a future with my boyfriend in a new country. I wasn’t from Iraq or Syria, so I certainly was not an immigrant.
Yet, I am.
It doesn’t matter how great my English is, or that I happily eat haggis with my Scottish husband. Just like my Polish and African neighbours, I am an immigrant.
When Brexit happened I tried to speak to friends about my fears, about my life, the changes and what impact the decision to leave the EU was going to have on my family.
But despite voicing my concerns, I felt alone in a bubble surrounded by people who were safe. They would never be asked to move. They would never be asked to leave what they call home. I found myself seeking support in my foreign friends, as they did in me. We had something in common, the feeling of being unwelcome in a place we had started relating to as “home”.
As many know, calling somewhere home doesn’t necessarily mean you will get to stay, especially not in this new world where a privileged white man with bad hair is suddenly sitting in one of the most powerful offices in the world.
Anyone who has not been living under a rock for the last few years will know more than a few things about Donald Trump.
Among a litany of other things, he thinks it is suitable to ridicule those with disabilities, he thinks female genitalia can be used as a handle and he wants to build a massive wall to keep those who were not born with a silver spoon in their mouths out of his “Great America”.
When I woke that fateful morning to the revelation that Trump had won the election, I tried to go back to sleep again. It’s something I do when I have had a bad dream, close my eyes and try to find another dream. It very rarely works but that morning I really hoped it would. We are now living with the reality that this man is the president of The United States of America.
Really? Who wants a president who indicates that some are worth more then others? A guy who thinks that a nice big wall would be great as it would keep out diversity in a country which is built by diversity.
Trump is standing on land belonging to other people, taken from them, stating he is building a wall to keep immigrants out, seemingly forgetting that he is an immigrant too.
I am finding myself wondering what is happening with the world.
I adore my children; they are my life. But was it selfish to bring them in to a world where hate is spreading like butter on a hot slice of toast?
Trump states that he loves women. He loves us so much that he degrades us, parades us and ridicules us.
It is not enough that he has taken it upon himself to not only claim ownership of our external genitalia, no, now he wants to control our ovaries and our uterus.
Not only that, he wants to punish those who are going to advise deprived women on these matters. He is doing so by withholding funding they heavily rely on.
He has no consideration for people living in poverty, no empathy for the women who live under the constant threat of rape and abuse, those who benefit from the support offered by USA.
You love women, President Trump? I am not sure you understand what the meaning of love is.
I can wholeheartedly confirm that nothing makes you feel less loved, ignored and disrespected then a room of men signing away the right to your own bodily autonomy.
What kind of world are you hoping to create? One where women are disposable?
It is time we stop fooling ourselves that we are making a change, that we are gaining equality and that our rights as women are actually validated.
Nothing has changed and if it had, voting for Donald Trump has swiftly put us back to square one.
