Meet The Creators Of #PussyGrabsBack Who Are Raging Against Trump
“Like a bushfire, it took off.”
Amanda Duarte is speaking about how fast the now world-renowned #pussygrabsback hashtag and movement got its start.
The wickedly funny writer and performer doesn’t miss an opportunity to wax irreverent about the events which have taken place surrounding the viral meme which she co-created with author Jessica Bennett.
We’re also lucky to count Duarte as a neighbor.
The flash point for Duarte and many others came on Friday, October 7 when news broke about Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s lewd comments caught on a 2005 “hot-mic” recording with then-Access Hollywood reporter Billy Bush.
“I’m automatically attracted to beautiful [women]—I just start kissing them. It’s like a magnet. Just kiss. I don’t even wait,” Trump tells Bush on the recording. “And when you’re a star they let you do it. You can do anything … Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything.”
“I was on Facebook — it seemed like everybody was on Facebook when I found out he said what he said,” recalls Duarte. She believes a festering national conversation can finally begin:
“God bless him, I love Donald Trump, he’s my favorite. He has finally brought sexual assault and harassment into the national conversation in a way it’s never happened. It’s been buried, but now we have a presidential candidate bragging. Finally, some of this stuff is being put out and can be addressed.”
Soon after, Duarte create the hashtag. “November 8. #pussygrabsback. It just came to me,” she says. “That’s just not how this is going to go. Women are going to determine this election.”
However the actual meme creation and collaboration was a surprise to Duarte.
Jessica Bennett, journalist and author of Feminist Fight Club, saw Duarte’s post via Facebook. “I hadn’t even met her. We’ve only very recently become Facebook friends because I admired her,” she says.
According to Duarte, Bennett saw the hashtag just a few minutes after she posted it for the first time. “Jessica had a postcard on her desk of this Stella Marrs image. She bought a Photoshop app for her phone,” she explains. “And then she commented on my post with the image and wrote, ‘I made you this thing.’ I made it my profile picture, and that was that.”
Duarte understands why the meme took off. “It got to all the angry pussies on Facebook. I ran over and posted it to Twitter,” she says.
When Duarte and Bennett finally met, they bonded quickly. “Within minutes we were finishing each other’s sentences. It was ‘a vulvan mind meld’,” she says.
The writer/performer isn’t a newcomer to creating viral online media. In 2015, she wrote an article in Marie Claire magazine about how she received death threats over her Facebook post about abortion:
Duarte believes that viral memes and online posts aren’t simply for the sake of popularity. “Social media is terrifying and tremendously exciting,” she says.
But the #pussygrabsback movement now is taking the form of fundraising. A t-shirt with the logo is being sold by the Female Collective, a collaboration between Duarte, Female Collective, Feminist Fight Club, and Stella Marrs. A portion of the proceeds will be donated to RAINN, the largest anti-sexual violence organization.
Duarte is hoping the movement will continue to spread. “It’s so disgusting to hear and I feel so violated,” she says. “We’re all so conditioned to feel that we’re powerless and have to take this. But we’re the ones with the power here and we’re going to use it to vote.”
Duarte was excited about musician Kim Boekbinder who wrote a song titled “Pussy Grabs Back.”
“She just turned it around, this incredible, nice tight — you’re welcome — song which is tapping into the rage that we all have now and turning it into empowerment. It speaks about how women are feeling right now.”
“Those of us who have been sexually assaulted and harassed. We’re all feeling awful and triggered. He ‘couldn’t control himself.’ The way he talks to the American people — it’s classic abuse, step-by-step this is a man who abuses women. We’re all pretty goddamn sick of it. We have power here, we have more power than Donald Trump. “
A portion of the proceeds for downloading the song will also go to RAINN.
Duarte also mentions the usage of #repealthe19th, a hashtag referencing the concept of repealing the 19th Amendment, which was added to the Constitution on August 18, 1920, granting women’s right to vote.
“Again, the #repealthe19th people — God bless these people,” Duarte says. “They’re finally bringing it out into the open. It used to be so genteel and civilized. Now we’re talking about it.”
For more information, follow Amanda Duarte at @duarteamanda and Jessica Bennett at @jess7bennett. Follow #pussygrabsback. You can purchase a t-shirt which will donate proceeds to RAINN.
The National Sexual Assault Hotline is 1-800-656-4673.