Ashley Judd read the “Nasty Women” poem at the Women’s March and it will give you chills
There were a lot of powerful moments from the Women’s March on Saturday. One of these moments was Ashley Judd reading a powerful poem to the crowd at the rally in D.C. before the march. Instead of delivering a speech of her own, Judd gave a voice to the words of a 19-year-old Tennessean woman named Nina Donovan, who wrote the poem, called “I am a nasty woman.” She wrote the poem after watching the debate, where President Trump called his then-opponent Hillary Clinton a “nasty woman.” Both Judd and Donovan are residents of Franklin, Tennessee and Judd saw the teenager perform her poem at a show. It obviously moved her. And it was sort of a perfect way to fire up the crowd before the Women’s March.
Donovan was happy to see Judd bring it to the march in the capital this weekend, according to The Tennessean and marched herself in Nashville. She told her local paper that she was empowered by the march. “I was seeing the physical form of everything I was saying in my poem. If we keep fighting, we can all be equal one day. It just shows so much hope in this city and this nation,” she said. Judd really brought the poem to life with her recitation at the rally.
YOU. ARE. SO. BEAUTIFUL!! Thank you for roaring with me for #EqualityforAll #nastywomen @womensmarch pic.twitter.com/IaQajPCuet
— ashley judd (@AshleyJudd) January 21, 2017
The poem goes:
I am a nasty woman. I'm as nasty as a man who looks like he bathes in Cheetos dust. A man whose words are a distract to America. Electoral college-sanctioned, hate-speech contaminating this national anthem. I'm not as nasty as Confederate flags being tattooed across my city. Maybe the South actually is going to rise again. Maybe for some it never really fell. Blacks are still in shackles and graves, just for being black. Slavery has been reinterpreted as the prison system in front of people who see melanin as animal skin. I am not as nasty as a swastika painted on a pride flag, and I didn't know devils could be resurrected but I feel Hitler in these streets. A mustache traded for a toupee. Nazis renamed the Cabinet Electoral Conversion Therapy, the new gas chambers shaming the gay out of America, turning rainbows into suicide. I am not as nasty as racism, fraud, conflict of interest, homophobia, sexual assault, transphobia, white supremacy, misogyny, ignorance, white privilege ... your daughter being your favorite sex symbol, like your wet dreams infused with your own genes. Yeah, I'm a nasty woman — a loud, vulgar, proud woman.
I am not nasty like the combo of Trump and Pence being served up to me in my voting booths. I'm nasty like the battles my grandmothers fought to get me into that voting booth. I'm nasty like the fight for wage equality. Scarlett Johansson, why were the female actors paid less than half of what the male actors earned last year. See, even when we do go into higher paying jobs our wages are still cut with blades sharpened by testosterone. Why is the work of a black woman and a hispanic woman worth only 63 and 54 cents of a white man's privileged daughter? This is not a feminist myth. This is inequality. So we are not here to be debunked. We are here to be respected. We are here to be nasty. I am nasty like my bloodstains on my bed sheets. We don't actually choose if and when to have our periods. Believe me if we could some of us would. We do not like throwing away our favorite pairs of underpants. Tell me, why are pads and tampons still taxed when Viagra and Rogaine are not? Is your erection really more than protecting the sacred messy part of my womanhood? Is the bloodstain on my jeans more embarrassing than the thinning of your hair?
.@AshleyJudd: "They aren't so-called feminist myths, they are social realities that affect all of us." https://t.co/inPCKXhzEc #womensmarch pic.twitter.com/cpGNQV2MUq
— Katie Couric (@katiecouric) January 22, 2017
I know it is hard to look at your own entitlement and privilege. You may be afraid of the truth. I am unafraid to be honest. It may sound petty bringing up a few extra cents. It adds up to the pile of change I have yet to see in my country. I can't see. My eyes are too busy praying to my feet hoping you don't mistake eye contact for wanting physical contact. Half my life I have been zipping up my smile hoping you don't think I want to unzip your jeans. I am unafraid to be nasty because I am nasty like Susan, Elizabeth, Eleanor, Amelia, Rosa, Gloria, Condoleezza, Sonia, Malala, Michelle, Hillary!
Ashley Judd at #WomensMarch—"I am a nasty woman. I'm not as nasty as a man who looks like he bathes in Cheeto dust." https://t.co/qeReiv47XX
— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) January 21, 2017
