Despite a little multibillion dollar hiccup, Donald Trump’s Big Boy Gets Big Claps From Bad People speech is all set to go next month, and congresswomen plan to wear white as a “respectful message of solidarity.”
According to CNN, the bipartisan initiative is spearheaded by the House Democratic Working Women’s Group. It recalls the Women’s Suffrage movement, in which women were invited to wear white to marches calling for their right to vote. “Wearing suffragette white is a respectful message of solidarity with women across the country, and a declaration that we will not go back on our hard-earned rights,” group chair Rep. Lois Frankel told the network.
In January, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez wore white to her swearing in, also as a nod to the women who came before her. (“I wore all-white today to honor the women who paved the path before me, and for all the women yet to come,” she tweeted at the time. “From suffragettes to Shirley Chisholm, I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for the mothers of the movement.”) Hillary Clinton wore white when she accepted the Democratic nomination for president, Geraldine Ferraro wore white when she accepted the Democratic vice presidential nomination in 1984, and Shirley Chisholm wore white when she was elected to Congress in 1969.
Last year, women in Congress were invited to wear black to the State of the Union, in honor of Me Too and Time’s Up. It did not make Trump’s speech any less deeply horrifying and racist, but solidarity is always appreciated, I guess.