couple - Kathleen Brien

NONFICTION SECOND PLACE

Privilege Check

by Gabrielle Schatz

Before studying feminism through my major in Gender, Sexuality, and Women’s Studies, I knew about feminism as it pertained to politics and the social climate though I seldom thought about it intersectionally.

In March 2012, I was arrested. Along with 30 others, I was arrested on the steps of the Virginia capitol for protesting the Republican anti-choice legislation. Knowing I was a feminist was never a question to me, and when police and armed guard swarmed the capital to further undermine women, instinct kicked in. I wasn’t going to move off those steps. I wasn’t going to let two rich, white men stop me from non-violently defending female reproductive autonomy, or at least I though I wasn’t. I was arrested with the others who refused to move off the steps. We were split up by sex and forced onto white school buses, one designated men and the other women. We were taken to the 9th Street jail, where the men on of the first bus were immediately unloaded. Our bus had to wait, as if to be further punished for speaking out. The women were left on the bus without our water or a break for 8 hours. When it got bad, some of us peed at the back of the bus. They left our constricting zip-tie cuffs on until our hands went purple. Eventually, officers came on the bus.

I was singled out. They asked my name and where I was born—Israel—and if I had scars or tattoos. Anxious to get off the bus, I answered. The officers didn’t ask anyone else, and I figured someone had called on my behalf. When we were unloaded, I was brought before the magistrate first. I cooperated. Before I knew it, I was taken inside city lock up. I was finger printed, strip searched (where my Diva Cut was thrown into the trash), mug-shot, and taken to a cell.

I waited in the cell for the 17 other women to arrive, but they never did. It didn’t take long—I kicked, screamed, cursed, called out, I counted yellowed bricks on the cell walls, I made patterns with the markings on the floor, the scratches on the walls.