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Feminisms Matter: Debates, Theories, Activism

Chapter 10: The Strategies That Empower Us: Feminist Activism

Overview of Chapter 10:
- This chapter explores some of the strategies and tactics feminist
activists have used to realize their goals
- Bromley describes some differences between the second and third
wave, explores strategies that feminist activists have used, and
identifies second and third wave forms of activism.
- Bromley explores initiatives of the following groups: W.I.T.C.H.,
Guerrilla Girls, Raging Grannies, Riot Grrrls, Radical Cheerleaders, and
RebElles

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- Why do many third wavers distance themselves from the second wave?
o Critique essentialism
o Critique the monolithic, white, middle class, heterosexual, liberal
representations of the second wave
o Reject the idea that the identity of being a “woman” can rally enough
support for social justice
o Reject the idea that feminism is just about “women’s issues”—argue
that it is a movement seeking to end all oppression
- Why is this rejection of the second wave shortsighted?
o Because third wavers adopt and extend ideas forwarded by
second wave (build on the theories and forms of activism) offered by
feminist postmodernism, transnational feminism and queer theory.
o By expanding these ideas and building on the theories of the
second wave, third wavers show there is continuity across the
waves.
o At the same time, third wavers engage in a critique of the failings
and exclusions of second wave thinking

- Note: we have learned that the second wave of the feminist movement
consisted of more than white, middle class, heterosexual women, but we also
learned that white middle class women’s voices were heard the most in
certain instances (i.e. think of Betty Freidan; president of NOW and her
comments about lesbian women)

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- Which Wave Are We In and How Do We Know? 4th wave?
o Some people argue that we are already in a fourth wave
o There is no clear indication of this transition or consensus that a
transition has occurred among feminist scholars

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o What are 4th wavers concerned with?

§ Concern for the environment
§ Transnational feminisms and the globalization
§ Engaged in the struggles for legal, political and social
inequality that were initiated by previous waves and are also
concerned with sexual health, eating disorders, body image,
hybrid identities, sex work, sex trafficking, ecology
(ecology=how organisms interact with each other and the
environment) and economic globalization
§ Many of these issues are not new—take for example, Suzie
Orbach’s “Fat Is a Feminist Issue” (1978), Angela Davis’s
“Women, Race and Class” (1981), or Cherrie Moraga and Gloria
Anzaldua’s “This Bridge Called by Back: Writings by Radical
Women of Colour” (1981). Existing critical feminist theories
concerning sexism, racism, sexuality, class, colonization and
imperialism are still useful in addressing the concerns for third
wavers
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- Third wave strategies include the following:
o Personal narratives/storytelling
o Individual acts (unlike mass demonstrations that characterized
the second wave)
o “Play” (playfulness and humour)—NOTE: this also relates to the
second wave
§ One of the critiques that third wavers launched at second
wavers was that they were too serious.
§ However, second wavers were not without their moments of
humour (for example: Miss America Pageant in 1968 and
1968-1971 W.I.T.C.H. movement (Women’s International
Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell).
o Guerilla theatre—NOTE: this also relates to the second wave
§ Second wavers used “guerilla theatre,” a term coined in the late
1960s to describe popular performances in public spaces that
challenged political and cultural norms to make their message
clear
o Culture Jamming (and critique of pop culture)
o Utilize zines, ezines, narratives, poetry, music, art, graffiti, video,
dance and street theatre, blogs

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- As an activist tactic, third wavers are engaged in writing from an

individual perspective:
o Personal narratives are empowering because…
§ They allow third wavers to voice their ideas, describe their
experiences, engage in critical, self reflection
o Using personal narratives to reflect on the experiences of eating
disorders by those living with them, is an important third wave
initiative
§ Eating disorders, for example, can be examined using feminist
analysis of sexism and gendered identities of masculinity and
femininity as well as challenging our consumer culture and the
idealization of thin bodies.
§ This analysis might examine how patriarchal ideals of
femininity—thinness in this case—intersect with notions of
race, class and sexuality as well as the commodification and
objectification of women’s bodies. The purpose behind this
analysis would be to confront eating disorders, to challenge
fatphobia, and to resist conventions of femininity.
o The third wave’s emphasis on personal narratives is also
reminiscent of the storytelling that has been a central component
of past feminist activism, particularly the consciousness raising
initiatives of the 1960s and 1970s era of the second wave.
§ It was through these initiatives—gathering women together to
relate the stories of their lives and experiences of oppression—
that the complexities of women’s lives were exposed and that
“the personal is political” is true because personal stories
relate to broader structures in society.
§ During the third wave, the intersectional oppressions of
gender, race, sexuality and class became clearer

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Culture Jamming
- When was it coined?
o A term coined by the band Negativeland in 1984
- What does it mean?
o Is a form of activism that challenges dominant cultural messages (and
original messages) by exposing the myths about power, consumerism,
militarization, sex, race, gender, sexuality, ability, age, which
advertisers use to sell their products and the media employ to
maintain the status quo
o It is a mode of guerilla communication that resists and subverts
popular culture by hijacking billboards, refiguring and reframing
company logos and creating alternative advertisements as well as
engaging in performance art, graffiti, and hacktivism
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o Culture jams are created artistically, using humour, irony and satire
o Culture jamming is intended to open people’s eyes to the extent to
which the media control what we think
- What is Adbusters?
o Adbusters is one of the best known publications producing counter-
cultural messages that subvert existing advertisements to challenge
the naturalness of their messages, such as “Drinking alcohol is sexy”
or “buying a nice car will help you get a hot chick” (Note:
“subvert”=challenge the authority of something)
o Challenges consumerism through acts of activism
§ Consumerism is a social and economic order that encourages the
acquisition of goods and services in ever-increasing amounts
*****

Slide about Calvin Klein Subvertisements

- Subvertisements surprise viewers and invite them to re-examine the dominant
message in the firs advertisement.
- What is the original ad like? Not hairy, wouldn’t say “reality”
- Contrasts what we’re told to buy and what it will do, with what reality is like
- We’re told that if we buy the products, we will be desirable (thin, sexy) but what
actually happens is that we look the same (this is reality)

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Zines, Ezines and Blogs

- What are zines?
o Zines are small scale, d-i-y, cheaply produced “booklet-esque”
publications
o They are created in cut and paste, artistic, and comic formats and offer
personal narratives, poetry and information about feminist issues
o They are created and distributed locally
o By taking control of all aspects of production from inception to the
final product, third wavers are empowered by doing feminism
- What are e-zines?
o More recently, with the wider access to the Internet, and simplified
website production technologies, zines have made it to the web as
ezines
o Example of e-zine:
§ Girls Get Busy:
§ https://issuu.com/ggbzine/docs
§ https://issuu.com/ggbzine/docs/ggb-24
- Another web based cultural production that many third wavers used as
a strategy for empowerment is blogging, which uses the Internet to
create spaces for many women and marginalized people to write their
stories
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Other third wave feminist tactics:
o Significance of individual bodies, pop culture, and the Internet
are new strategies that second wavers didn’t employ
o Individual acts
§ Third wavers recognize that subversion and resistance,
especially to gender norms, can be exercised individually;
individual bodies become sites of expression and activism
§ While first and second wavers placed their bodies on the line in
masses in feminist demonstrations, marches and sit-ins, in
contrast, third wavers privilege individual acts, often
displaying their bodies dramatically for 24 hours a day, 7 days
a week
o Personal style and ways of being (Note: one could challenge Bromley
and argue that this existed in other waves, and that it isn’t exclusive to
the third wave)
§ Third wavers transmit their ideas and engage in social change
through personal style (clothing, hair, piercings, and body art)
and ways of being (gestures and performances)
o Third wavers offer both the production and critique of pop
culture as ways of challenging norms as well as altering social
expectations and values
o Third wavers perform, enact, and produce feminisms through
zines, ezines, narratives, poetry, music, art, graffiti, video, dance
and street and guerilla theatre
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Now, let’s have a look at second wave activism that utilized some of the
previous strategies that were discussed…

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Second Wave activism that utilized previously mentioned strategies:
Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City (1968)
o Used play, humour and guerilla theatre
o What did this include?
§ Feminist protesters staged a parody on pageantry where
women were displayed and evaluated like livestock at an
auction (Note: parody=a spoof, a joke or ironic imitation)
o What did this challenge?
§ On the boardwalk in Atlantic City, activists disrupted the
pageant by parading and crowning a live sheep and auctioning
off a Miss America dummy to the highest bidder. In doing so,
they were challenging women’s enslavement to beauty
regimes and standards
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o Adding to the guerilla theatre spectacle, protesters rid

themselves of the ‘tools of female torture”
§ By pitching high heeled shoes, girdles, and curlers into a
“freedom trash can.” Although no actual bra-burning ensued,
this is were the urban myth was born
o http://1968inmemory.web.unc.edu/2018/04/bra-burning-a-myth-
that-extinguished-feminism/

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W.I.T.C.H. movement (Women’s International Terrorist Conspiracy from Hell)
from 1968-1971
o Used the strategy of play, humour, and guerilla theatre
o Who was part of W.I.T.C.H? What did this group focus on?
§ Began in 1968 on Halloween, when a group of women, dressed
like cartoon witches, entered a Chase Manhattan Bank and
placed a ‘hex’ on Wall Street. The group used “zaps,” a term to
describe protests using guerilla theatre tactics and humour to
contest the policies of big business and government agencies

o What did they challenge?
§ The performance of spells and chants by the coven generated
shock value to draw attention to concerns about the insidious
relationship b/w capitalism, banks, and the Vietnam War
o The group’s final zap occurred at the 1969 bridal fair being held
at Madison Square Garden in NYC:
§ The zap was a protest to expose the link b/w capitalism and
women’s oppression. Raising placecards displaying “Confront
the Whoremongers, W.I.T.C.H exposed the exploitation of
women’s romantic dreams of the perfect wedding day in the
name of profit

*****

Now, let’s have a look at third wave activism that utilized some of the previous
strategies that were discussed…

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Third Wave activism that used some of the previously mentioned strategies:
The Guerilla Girls
- Straddle second and third wave feminism
- Emerged in the second wave of the feminist movement, in 1985


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- What does this group focus on?

o The group originated in NY where there were protests focused on the
institutionalized sexism and male dominance in the art world
o Using humour and wearing their trademark gorilla masks to ensure
anonymity, they provide information, provoke discussion, and show
that feminists can be funny even when they are struggling with the
serious issues of sexism, racism, classism and misogyny
o The Guerilla Girls use bodies, physically and artistically, as canvases to
graphically contest the exclusion of women artists, and exclusion of
artists of colour, in major galleries and to address cultural concerns
o Donning gorilla masks to draw attention to the issues, Guerilla Girls’
art commonly is confrontational and exposes the ridiculousness of
sexist and backlash culture

o Their activism and art demonstrate that feminists can be funny even
when they are struggling with the serious issues such as sexism,
racism, classism, and misogyny
o The tactics and strategies employed by the group suggest continuity
across the waves

- What does this group challenge?
o Guerilla Girls challenge the social construction of women’s bodies,
control over women’s bodies, and the ways in which women’s bodies
are mis(used) to convey sexist messages
- In 1989:
o The Guerilla Girls designed an advertisement for its campaign to
bring attention to the low number of women artists featured in
museum collections which provocatively read “Do women have to get
nude to get into the MET (Metropolitan Museum of Art)?

- In 2001:
o The Guerilla Girls targeted the Oscars with a sticker campaign to
expose the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences’ failure to
nominate women’s directors
- In 2006:
o The Guerilla Girls collaborated with the group “Movies Directed by
Women” to place a billboard outside the Kodak Theatre where the
Oscars are held each year. The billboard graphically pictured a
‘female’ gorilla dressed in a pink evening gown with chains around
her wrists that read, “Unchain the women directors! Women directed
only 7% of the top 200 films of 2005. No woman has ever won the
Oscar. Only 3 have been nominated”

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The Raging Grannies

- Who are the Raging Grannies?
o In 1987 the Raging Grannies were founded as a group of 50+ women
who were fed up with taking a backseat in politics
o Originating in Victoria, B.C, the Raging Grannies now boast more than
60 groups throughout Canada, the U.S, Greece, India and Israel
o They create amusing and satirical lyrics to convey their messages and
have used popular tunes to entertain and inform crowds
- What does this group focus on?
o Clad in funny looking “old lady” attire—old fashioned dresses, floppy
hats full of flowers, frilly aprons, and kitted shawls—they have
protested everything from militarism and nuclear energy, to
environmental degradation, sexism and education policies, and they
have staged their protests at military bases, legislatures, corporate
headquarters, and in the streets
- Why is the granny identity subversive?
o The granny identity is subversive, especially when used in protest,
because it allows older women to claim public space with their bodies
o These older women could easily be dismissed as parodies of passive
“little old ladies”
o The Raging Grannies are not passive old ladies; they are energetic,
active, political and knowledgeable about social and political issues
o Their surprisingly harmless, apolitical granny image has earned them
official respect as well as access to places where others might be
barred
§ For example: when six Ottawa grannies attempted to deliver
coal for then prime minister Jean Chretien’s Christmas stocking
on December 12, 1997, a police officer helped one granny over
a barrier securing the residence, only to be embarrassed later
when he was instructed to arrest her
§ All six Raging Grannies were arrested for trespassing. When
the case came to trial two years later, the judge reprimanded
the Crown Attorney and dismissed it, stating it was a waste of
taxpayers’ money
- According to a secret 1999 report, the RCMP considered the Raging Grannies
a potential threat and an anti-Canadian force; the U.S has also raised
concerns about the security risk that the Grannies pose to the war on terror



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- Other examples of activism that the Raging Grannies have been

involved in:
o Grannies in Victoria, BC; Tucson, AZ, and New York, NY have protested
against militarization by swarming Armed Forces Recruitment Offices
offering to enlist. They baffled recruiters who were by law unable to
ask the Grannies their age and therefore were forced to process their
applications. Their protests stalled the recruitment process and
served as political commentary on the costs of war the young people
o The Raging Grannies also organized protests they called “Closets are
for brooms” to expose and challenge homophobia in government
policies

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Riot Grrrls
- Who were the Riot Grrrls? What did this group focus on?
o Often regarded as a significant transition to third wave feminism
o Emerged as a grassroots movement in the 1990s to challenge sexism,
male dominance and the exclusion of women in the punk rock music
scene
o Sung about and wrote about sexual violence in the home as well as
date rape and abortion
o Consisted of fans and feminist rock bands
o Riot Grrrl was concerned with second wave feminist issues such as
reproductive rights, domestic violence, rape and body image
o They used an intersectional analysis of these issues
- Used zines and D-I-Y aesthetic:
o Used zines and music to get their messages across
o Their D-I-Y feminist strategies have greatly influenced third wavers’
cultural productions and the idea that you can learn by doing
- What does D-I-Y mean?
o D-I-Y= promotes the idea that anyone is capable of performing a
variety of tasks rather than relying on paid specialists; includes a
low brow, cut and paste aesthetic
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The Radical Cheerleaders
- Who were the Radical Cheerleaders?
o Another important third wave activist group
o Formed in 1996, in Florida
o Their political protest strategies used cheering and dance to convey
their messages




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- What did this group focus on?

o Their messages were brash, aggressive, and feminist, making their
routines into spectacles
o Dubbing themselves, “activists with pom-poms”, the Radical
Cheerleaders challenge, resist, and subvert norms of gender, race,
class and sexuality
o Their protests confront traditional expectations abut gender, women’s
place in public, and challenge femininity by using profanity and
shouting
o The Radical Cheerleaders, created cheers about rebellion,
choreographed to dance moves and infused with cheerleading tricks
to effectively combine performance and protest

- Like the Raging Grannies’ subversion of the little old lady identity, the
Radical Cheerleaders co-opted the identity of cheerleaders, typically
defined as feminine, conventionally sexy, polite, well behaved, and
disciplined
- What does co-opt mean?
o Co-opt= divert to or use in a role different from the usual or original
one
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The Blood Sisters
- Who were the Blood Sisters? What did this group focus on?
o Active between 1996-2004, brought feminism to the forefront by
linking ecology (note: ecology=how organisms interact with each other
and the environment) and women’s health
o Montreal based group exposed the toxic effects, both for women’s
bodies and landfill sites, of commercially produced menstrual
products containing bleach and other chemicals
o They contested the capitalist exploitation of the environment and
control over women’s bodies
o The rallying call for Blood Sisters was “protect your pussy”
o Through the production of zines, bathroom graffiti, performance,
workshops and the internet, they informed women of alternatives
such as creating or buying reusable/washable pads and reusable
menstrual cups such as the Diva Cup, which is made from medical
grade silicon, and the Keeper, which is made from natural gum rubber

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RebELLES
- Who are RebELLES?
o Canadian young feminist collective
o Boasts a membership of diverse women of different backgrounds,
ages, races, classes, abilities, ethnicities, sexualities, etc.
o They produced a manifesto at a conference in Montreal in 2008 to
identify their concerns, mobilize action, and raise consciousness
- What does this group focus on?
o RebELLES recognizes the need for global feminist solidarity to
challenge global economic forces and to confront local and national
government and business policies that exploit, oppress and harm
women around the world
o They expose militarization, war, and genocide as gendered
experiences, where sexual exploitation and rape have become
common weapons
o They contest economic globalization and free trade as contributing to
women’s social, economic and cultural insecurity
o They acknowledge that many of the issues raised by second wavers
have yet to be resolved

Look at feminist blogs!
Practice culture jamming: Find an advertisement from a men’s or women’s
magazine. How are gender, race, sexuality, class, ability depicted? What is
the original message of the advertisement? What are the promises made by
the advertisement you chose? Subvert this message by creating a counter-
advertisement that challenges the original advertisement. Add text and
alternative images to culture jam this advertisement. How are you
changing the meaning of the advertisement? What are you saying about
this product?