I came to America a decade ago because I thought it was better to be a woman here than to be a woman in the Philippines. In some ways, it is. But I recognized quickly upon my arrival here that pink pussy hat feminism was not for me. It did not resonate with my experience, and there was no actual place for me in it, except as a token or a stick to prop up something I didn’t fully believe in.

This was long before there were actual pink pussy hats. And I’m not a token. I’m not a stick.

I must create my own feminism, I remember thinking.