"Love is a Bulletproof Vest":

*all names of participants have been changed to provide anonymity and some of them have more info than others based on how much they felt comfortable being put in this research.

• Marina (white) is a 22 years old college student.
• Quinn (white) is 51 years old, non binary (they/them), parent and Portland resident.
• Christine (white) is 56 years old, parent, and runs a meditation studio.
• Thalia (white) is in her 40’s and is a health writer.
• Layla (white) is 50 years old and is a member of the activist group Portland Raging Grannies.
• Emma (white) is 23 years old and is from Portland, Oregon.
• Anna (white) is 23 years old and a recent college graduate.
• Maia (Asian) is in her 40’s and is a graphic designer.
• Julia (white) is in her 70’s and is a member of the Portland Raging Grannies. 
• Nikki (Black/Latina) is 30 years old. She is the founder of Black Millennials.

There were people wandering around and I was shocked that a couple of women walked up to me and said, do you need any snacks or water? Do you need a drink? And I was like, you're asking me? I'm usually the one who brings all that stuff like that and Band-Aids and the Advil. And like, everybody makes fun of me because my backpack, I was a soccer coach right, I always had the tissues and whatever tweezers, this random crap that you put in a backpack (Quinn). 

One of the women....said, oh, were you walking back to your car alone? And I said, yeah. And she said, well, we're going to walk you to your car. I don't want you to be by yourself. I was like, well, that's really nice. I can just follow you guys until...you're turned off differently than me. And she was like, no, absolutely. We're going to walk you all the way back to your car. And, you know, that's something that women will do for even strange women who are strangers will do for each other just naturally, because you know, the unique risks that there are for us in an urban space (Thalia). 

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The creation of the Wall of Moms brings up questions about the actual message of the Portland protests and the introduction of federal officers into downtown. The Wall of Moms took the idea of “mom” and “nurturing” to an extreme level, putting themselves on the front lines of the protest, willing to be tear gassed, attacked, and violated to protect the people that were standing behind them. 

The Wall of Moms was an example of protests as a place where the “invisible labor” that many moms engage in in the household was suddenly made visible, physically taken out of the domestic household and placed in a highly publicized space. But, the Wall of Moms also highlights the important of and need for an intersectional approach when it comes to feminist urban studies and theory. 

The controversies surrounding the Wall of Moms was not against mothers protesting but the lack of Black leadership. An alternative group, Moms United for Black Lives, formed. The group came was led by Demetria Hester, a Black activist who has been a prominent voice at the Portland protests.

“I'm all in and I'm going to, like, wear my yellow shirt. I'm a summoned mama and I am standing on the line with the moms. I'm going to do this. I'm in the Wall of Moms, goddammit” (Quinn).  

“I think if I didn't have someplace to go that first night. I would have gone and I'm like, ok, I can go see what they do and then decide for myself. And they were incredibly kind, incredibly nice earplugs. I forgot earplugs. Think about your snacks. They were so nice” (Christine).  

“the community was crucial to my existence, like this was a survival thing they were helping me with my trauma and part of that trauma was not just like a suicidal trauma, but also like a gender identity crisis that was successfully resolved as a result of me being completely open and willing to hear like other people's perspectives and stuff. One of the surprising things I found in the community downtown was that it was almost a hundred percent LGBTQ+ people or allies, one hundred percent allies and like neurodiverse and Black, and so it was this intersectionality of all these different things” (Quinn).

There needs to be long-term studies of effects of riot control agents on women’s bodies to understand, in particular, the risks to reproductive health.

When women engage in their right to the city, they do so from a perspective of community, safety, and mutual aid. Public safety policy and urban design should incorporate these eyes on the street in to policy. 

Using narrative strategies to study protest can reveal how women contribute to the life of cities, providing a more nuanced understanding of urban space. 

As a participant observer, I exercised my own right to the city by walking streets at night I’d avoided, talking to strangers, and putting myself in the middle of events I would have watched from sidelines. I have come to see public engagement is not a privilege; it is a right and a process. It is this approach to being, learning, and participating, I plan to carry forward.