8 men including Douglas Booth on why they'll be joining the Women's March in London this weekend

It's not just women marching this Saturday in central London
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Gillian Orr|Refinery2918 January 2017

It might be called the Women's March but men are welcome, encouraged even, to join in with the events taking place around the world this Saturday, the day after Donald Trump’s inauguration.

The marches (aside from the main event in Washington D.C., there are currently 616 planned across the globe) are not positioning themselves as anti-Trump marches but rather pro-women's rights, following a presidential campaign filled with misogynistic rhetoric.

However, with insults and threats not only being directed towards women but also immigrants, Muslims, those who identify as LGBTQ, people with disabilities and other minorities, many people find themselves looking for an outlet to express themselves in the face of international concern; a place to call on those in power to honour equality, human rights and justice.

Here, 8 men tell Refinery29 UK why they will be spending this Saturday at the Women's March on London.

Fred Macpherson, 29, musician

"I was brought up by an ardent feminist and definitely identify as one, yet still catch myself being inadvertently sexist all the time. Men need to remember the responsibility lies with them and not the ones who are gonna call them out. The march on Saturday is a great reminder that gender equality is still a myth even in a country as 'enlightened' as this one."

Douglas Booth, 24, actor

"This weekend I will march to express my solidarity with all women, my disgust for a man who displays such a deep lack of respect for them – and my anger that such a man will take office in the White House. To stay silent normalises his behaviour and language. To stay silent makes acceptable what is unacceptable.

Gender equality, to this point, has been a steep climb. And now, more than ever, we must reject regressive politics."

Jack Guinness, 34, model and DJ

"I think the question we should be asking is why wouldn't you go on a march asking for basic equality between the sexes? Women's rights are human rights and everyone benefits from a society that is truly fair. I'm marching in solidarity with all the women in my life and for myself."

Zanny Ali, 31, Refinery29 UK's content manager

"I work with a lot of women on a platform aimed at women, so I hear about various injustices – minor and major – faced by women across the globe every day, from education to equal pay to violence.

And when a man can boast about 'grabbing women by the pussy' and still be elected president of the United States, it serves as a huge wake-up call as to where gender equality truly is in 2017."

Samuel Muston, 28, writer and editor

"We are entering a sort of dark age in which progressive values – values built on respect and reason and compassion – seem to be blowin' in the wind. To be a woman, to not be white, to be gay, is now to worry about the future. I am marching against retrograde politics."

Arthur de Borman, 31, set designer

"I’m marching with and for the women who have shaped my life in the past, present and future."

Eric Weber, 27, musician

"I'm half-American – my mum is from Baltimore – so I'll be marching and thinking about her and all the other wonderful women in my life. The recent election, in which the most qualified woman lost to the most unqualified man, proved to me that true equality is still a long way off."

Max Wallis, 27, poet and model

"Have you seen that sign people have at demos: 'I can’t believe I am still protesting this shit'? Well that is just about how I feel. Why we even need a march to reassert the fact that women ought to have, you know, the same human and civil rights as men is absurd in 2017, but there we are, that is the state of the world, and that’s why I am marching."

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