“I’m a woman by birth and a feminist by choice!” yelled Boston resident and activist Tyena through a megaphone outside of Quincy Market on Sunday to a crowd.
“I am here to tell the church and State House: Get your hands off my body,” she said.
“Stop deciding the fate of my body. Sisters, allies – get up, speak up, be heard.”
Tyena, who did not give her last name while addressing the crowd, was one of the hundreds of women, men, children, veterans and activists who marched from Dewey Square through the Financial District, Chinatown and Faneuil Hall, as part of the Occupy Boston Women’s March from 12-4 p.m.
The march was organized by the Occupy Boston Women’s Caucus, which is “a forum for women-identified participants to discuss issues of gender, promote participation of those who identify as women in working groups and other leadership roles, maintain the safety of women who identify as women within the camp and movement and provide resources to improve the retention of participants who identify as women,” according to the event’s Facebook page.
Holding banners and signs that read phrases such as, “Women are the 99 percent” and “Sexism is a social disease,” marchers left Dewey Square at about 12:30 p.m.
Michelle Weiser, a College of Communication senior and co-founder of the Women’s Caucus, said the caucus gives women a “safe platform to talk about these issues.”
“There’s been a lot of mumblings and grumblings around camp – like that women aren’t safe at camp or there’s not a lot of women represented in facilitation…[so] we kind of decided impromptu that we’re going to start a women’s caucus and we got a whole bunch of women together,” she said in an interview.
The march was an effort to show how the current economic situation affects women and to “support the Occupy Movement and the safety of women within it,” according to the event’s Facebook page.
Weiser, who is also the PR coordinator of Boston University’s Center for Gender, Sexuality and Activism, said the caucus is also an opportunity for women who “don’t feel mentally or physically safe around men” to have a specific place at the Occupy Boston campground for themselves.
“The Occupy Movement is a feminist movement at its core – it is about oppressed minorities and we all stand together with our clear allies and all of the –isms,” she said. “We stand with everybody.”
Participants chanted slogans such as “Consent in the sheets dissent in the streets” and “Whose streets? Our streets! Whose bodies? Our bodies!”
A group of musicians blasted “Get Up, Stand Up” on their guitars throughout the march while another group of musicians played bongos and shakers to the beat of chants.
Many passersby showed signs of solidarity by holding up fists, cheering the group on, taking photo and video and even joining in on the march.
While mostly women led the movement, many men, children, veterans and other activists were also there as “allies” to support the march.
The group stopped outside of Quincy Market and invited participants to share why they chose to walk.
“My name is Karen,” one participant said through the megaphone, before Tyena spoke. “I have been working for reproductive rights since the 80s. I was telling my friends back in 1982, that if you’re not working for abortion rights today, birth control is on the list for tomorrow. It’s tomorrow.”
Women’s Caucus member and march leader Leah Filler, a student at Lesley University in Cambridge, said that she marched because she thinks more women should be part of the conversation about the future.
“So one day I asked the general assembly: Why am I the only woman here in this conversation? And somebody said to me: ‘Oh no there are women here, they are in the food tent. And they’re in the med tent.’ That is unacceptable,” she said.
“Because how can you talk about poverty without talking about reproductive rights? If there’s no access to affordable birth control, if there’s no adequate sex education, if there are no legal abortions – who do you think pays those expenses?” Filler asked the crowd. “Women do. Economic justice is a women’s issue and that is why I’m marching today.”
Boston resident Mindy Fried, who was handing out fliers with a list of chants to other participants, said the women’s march is really about education and awareness.
“It’s very satisfying to see younger women finding their voice, recognizing that there are a lot of inequities and gender biases that they are encountering through their lives and even though we’ve made a lot of improvements in terms of previous movements with women, there’s a long way to go,” she said in an interview.
Fried, who is a sociologist, said she was active in the women’s movement during the 1970’s and thinks its “critical” to have a movement like Occupy.
“We finally have a vehicle to speak out and pull the spectrum of the discussion more toward progressive perspectives,” she said. “We’re here and we’re loud and we’re saying what’s important.”
Nick Rehrig, of Boston, was dressed as a “knight in shining armor,” donning a white horse costume around his waist and holding a light saber like a sword, to be ironic.
“It’s symbolic for a variety of different reasons,” Rehrig, who calls himself a “feminist man,” said in an interview.
“[I’m here] to make sure women’s voices are heard in the movement,” he said.
Rehrig said though he hasn’t been super active in the Occupy movement, he has been participating since protesters met at the Boston Common in October.
Renee Randazzo, a Boston resident who recently moved from Augusta, Maine, said she marched because she supports the Occupy movement.
“[And] I want to show my 5-year-old daughter how to have her voice be heard and be part of the revolution,” she added.
During the march, Melissa, Randazzo’s daughter, held up a sign that read “Girls Can Help Too,” while walking alongside participants.
“There’s no place I’d rather be right now,” Randazzo said.
Ridgely Fuller, a member of the Greater Boston Code Pink, which is a women-inspired peace and justice group, said sending a message of peace is important.
Fuller, who was donning pink attire and holding up a sign that read “We will not raise our children to kill another mother’s child,” said she has been involved with occupy in “a lot of other ways” and visited campsites in Portland and Augusta, Maine.
“I’m so inspired and exhilarated by this movement,” she said in an interview. “This horizontal kind of leadership, every person having a voice I just think is wonderful.”
Following the march, participants gathered back at Dewey Square for live music and SLAM poetry readings.
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