#ShePersisted Becomes Battle Cry as People Tweet Their Female Heroes

Jennifer Gerson Uffalussy
·Contributing Writer
Elizabeth Eckford, one of nine black students who marched into Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., to hostile screams after integration was ordered in 1957, is one of the female heroes people are tweeting about to the #ShePersisted hashtag. (Photo: Getty Images)
Elizabeth Eckford, one of nine black students who marched into Central High School in Little Rock, Ark., to hostile screams after integration was ordered in 1957, is one of the female heroes people are tweeting about to the #ShePersisted hashtag. (Photo: Getty Images)

“She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.”

Those were the words Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said of Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., overnight on Tuesday after Warren attempted to read a letter that Coretta Scott King, the widow of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr., had written 30 years ago opposing the nomination of Jeff Sessions for a federal judgeship. Scott King’s 1986 letter condemned the Alabama Republican’s civil rights record.

McConnell then led a vote against Warren, and the Senate decided, 49-43, that she had to stop speaking and leave the Senate floor for violating a Senate Rule 19, stating that one senator may not “directly or indirectly, by any form of words impute to another Senator or to other Senators any conduct or motive unworthy or unbecoming a Senator.” (Meanwhile, on Wednesday morning, Sens. Tom Udall, D-N.M., Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., and Sherrod Brown, D-Ohio, read the letter aloud on the Senate floor … and no one objected.)

Almost instantly, the hashtags #ShePersisted and #LetLizSpeak went viral on social media, becoming a battle cry of the self-proclaimed anti-Trump resistance movement.

Many also tweeted examples of women they considered to be their female heroes.

A Teespring campaign was quickly launched by Shirts of the Resistance — whose other wares include messages like #Resist and No Ban, No Wall — featuring T-shirts emblazoned with the McConnell quote for $19.99, with proceeds from the shirts benefiting the ACLU.

Elizabeth Warren vs. Senate #Resist Tee, from ShirtsoftheResistance on TeeSpring.

Some of Warren’s colleagues in the Senate also took to Twitter to support Warren’s effort and King’s words:

As Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Coretta Scott King’s daughter Bernice said herself on Twitter last night:

The words “Nevertheless, she persisted” seem set to join other phrases unwittingly uttered by men during this election cycle that have become noms de guerre of sorts for those who oppose Trump’s record on women.

“Nasty women” and “nasty woman” became a rally cry after Trump called Hillary Clinton “such a nasty woman” during the third presidential debate.

Also seen at the women’s marches that took place around the world on Jan. 21 were pink pussy hats — pink beanies with cat ears — that not only served as a visible marker of solidarity for the movement but also took their name from the word “pussy.” The word became a daily utterance during the election after Trump’s was caught on tape saying, “When you’re a star, they let you do it. You can do anything. Grab them by the pussy. You can do anything,” to TV personality Billy Bush.

Melania Trump then wore a pink pussy-bow top by Gucci to the second presidential debate — which social media read as a veiled statement on her husband’s actions.

Read More:

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