For Carol Simas, even describing her small act of defiance is a challenge.
“I’m calling about the …” she said in a recent phone call to The Columbian, before pausing.
“Pussyhat Project,” she finished with a nervous giggle.
At 75 years old, activism isn’t often on the daily docket for Simas, who lives north of Battle Ground. But then, she said, came the election of Donald Trump as president of the United States.
It was devastating, the self-described liberal Democrat said.
“I didn’t feel like I could sit down and do nothing and say, ‘Well, he won,’ ” she said.
Inspiration for action came in an unexpected place: an email from Fiber Rhythm, a Portland yarn store, informing its customers about the Pussyhat Project, a global movement to knit pink, cat-eared hats for women participating in the Women’s March on Washington, D.C. on Jan. 21. A pair of knitters based in Southern California launched the movement.
If You Go:
• The closest sister event to the Women’s March on Washington will run from noon to 4 p.m. Saturday in Portland.
The event starts and ends at Tom McCall Waterfront Park in downtown Portland. The rally will head south on Southwest Naito Parkway, then west on Southwest Jackson Street, north on Southwest Fourth Avenue and east on Southwest Pine Street.
Organizers encourage participants to bring feminine hygiene products to donate. Boxes for these donations will be at the park.
The event is open to all members of the community.
• Political organization Right2BHeard will also host a series of events in Vancouver called When Women Unite, #LOVEwins. The events start at 6 p.m. Friday with a pre-rally all-you-can-eat pancake dinner at IHOP, 2900 S.E. 164th Ave., Vancouver.
There will be a rally at 11 a.m. Saturday at the Port of Vancouver Terminal 1 amphitheater, 110 Columbia St., followed by a march along the Waterfront Renaissance Trail.
The weekend’s activities will end at 5 p.m. Sunday with a candlelight vigil, also at the amphitheater.
• For more information, visit http://vdausa.org/event/women-unite-lovewins/.
Aside from the pointed cat ears that appear when the hat is finished, the hats are named for Trump’s infamous boasting of grabbing women’s genitalia in a leaked 2005 recording.
“When you’re a star, they let you do it,” Trump told “Access Hollywood” host Billy Bush. “You can do anything.”
The Pussyhat Project’s website suggests knitting a hat as a way to give those who can’t be on the National Mall “a way to represent themselves and support women’s rights.” Organizers are also collecting hats in Virginia to pass out at Saturday’s rally — though it may be too late to mail a hat for it to arrive in time.
Simas has been knitting since she was 8, and spinning and weaving since she retired from teaching in 1986. She was able to complete four hats, including two she sent to Virginia to be passed out to women in the Washington march.
Using her longtime hobby to make a political statement was a rejuvenating experience for Simas. She’s now considering attending the sister Women’s March in Portland, one of dozens around the country that will coincide with the march on the U.S. Capitol.
“Lots of things are coming to me now,” she said. “I feel like I can be involved.”
Vancouver artist Sam MacKenzie is also knitting pussyhats using an adapted version of the pattern that allows her to knit in the round with four double-pointed needles rather than the usual two. Her wife, Kelly Keigwin, is already sporting MacKenzie’s first hat.
“It’s kind of small and meaningless, but collectively it’s a big thing,” said 37-year-old MacKenzie, deftly stitching a fuchsia hat. “Collectively it means something when everyone bands together. There is power in symbolism or unity that comes from a visual.”
‘Thoughtful work’
Activism is nothing new for the couple, who became local faces for the fight for gay marriage in 2012. Keigwin, holding the skein of yarn as her wife knitted, said she’s more inspired by “thoughtful work” of art as a way to protest, rather than work that’s angry or aggressive.
“It really becomes an interactive public art project,” Keigwin, 49, said. “You’re looking for this unified thing that’s also art, but at the same time is a social statement.”
Simas, who said she plans to rejoin the National Organization for Women after letting her membership lapse, urged others who are feeling frustrated or anxious to find their own ways to get involved.
“If you feel like you need to be involved, find a way to do it. If you need to find a way to make a statement, there are ways to do it.”
