Fact Check

Women Carry Anti-Baby Signs at the Women's March on Washington?

The photographs have been on the Internet since before the 21 January 2017 march.

Published Jan. 26, 2017

Claim:
Demonstrators at the Women's March on Washington carried signs that said "babies are useless."

On 26 January 2017, social media users began sharing an image of two women holding signs with disparaging messages about babies, claiming the images came from the 21 January 2017 Women's March on Washington:


The images above did not come from the Women's March on Washington. They have been on the Internet since long before the 2017 rally, and are in fact not even real. The image was created as part of a contest for web designers in which the challenge was to make up the most inane protest possible:

We've all seen them. Stupid protests are everywhere. Special interest groups, animal rights activists, the Girl Scouts, Cheerleaders Against Mockery, everybody's got a cause it seems, and they aren't afraid to get out there with the picket signs and tell us all just how important it really is. Your task is to show us the silliest causes you can think of, for instance, a scene at a mime rally, as in DrToast's themepost above. Keep it clean and be creative, and be picky with your source images, guys; funny doesn't have to mean mean poor quality.

The rules of this game are thus: You are to show a silly or meaningless protest. As always, quality is a must. We will remove poor entries no matter how much we like you. You'll have 48 hours for this contest so make your submission count.

Other signs created by humorous graphic designers include "We Demand Charles in Charge NOW!!" and "Down with picketing, protesting, and any other P word."

Sources

Wallace, Tim, and Parlapiano, Alicia. "Crowd Scientists Say Women’s March in Washington Had 3 Times as Many People as Trump’s Inauguration." The New York Times. 22 January 2017.

Worthington, Danika, and Hayley Sanchez. "Who Marched? Snapshots of 11 Groups Who Participated in Women’s March on Denver." The Denver Post. 21 January 2017.

DesignCrowd.com. "Stupid Protests 2."

Bethania Palma is a journalist from the Los Angeles area who has been working in the news industry since 2006.

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