Marching Dykes, Liberated Sluts, and Concerned Mothers: Women Transforming Public Space

Description

From the Women in Black vigils and Dyke marches to the Million Mom March, women have seized a dynamic role in early twenty-first century protest. The varied demonstrations--whether about gender, sexuality, war, or other issues--share significant characteristics as space-claiming performances in and of themselves beyond their place in any broader movement. Elizabeth Currans blends feminist, queer, and critical race theory with performance studies, political theory, and geography to explore the outcomes and cultural relevance of public protest. Drawing on observation, interviews, and archival and published sources, Currans shows why and how women utilize public protest as a method of participating in contemporary political and cultural dialogues. She also examines how groups treat public space as an important resource and explains the tactics different women protesters use to claim, transform, and hold it. The result is a passionate and pertinent argument that women-organized demonstrations can offer scholars a path to study the relationship of gender and public space in today's political culture. Cover......Page 1 Title......Page 4 Contents......Page 6 Preface......Page 8 Acknowledgments......Page 14 Introduction: Regendering Public Spaces......Page 18 Part I. Responding to Danger, Demanding Pleasure: Sexualities in the Streets ......Page 34 1. Safe Space? Encountering Difference at Take Back the Night......Page 38 2. Enacting Spiritual Connection and Performing Deviance: Celebrating Dyke Communities ......Page 58 3. SlutWalks: Engaging Virtual and Topographic Public Spaces......Page 77 Part II. Gendered Responses to War: Deploying Feminities ......Page 102 4. Demonstrating Peace: Women in Black’s Witness Space......Page 108 5. Uncivil Disobedience: CODEPINK’s Unruly Democratic Practice ......Page 126 Part III. Engendering Citizenship Practices: Women March on Washington ......Page 146 6. Embodied Affective Citizenship: Negotiating Complex Terrain in the March for Women's Lives ......Page 152 7. Participatory Maternal Citizenship: The Million Mom March and Challenges to Gender and Spatial Norms......Page 176 Conclusion: Holding Space: The Affective Functions of Public Demonstration ......Page 194 Notes......Page 202 Works Cited......Page 214 Index......Page 232