Journal Entry: Nonviolent Action

Class: Women and Peacemaking

Instructor: Dr Anna Snyder
By (3012875)

Table of Contents
Journal Entry: Nonviolent Action....................................................................................................1
Theory.........................................................................................................................................1
Creativity.....................................................................................................................................2

Theory
Berenice A. Carroll goes great lengths in her article “Women take action!” to explain the

specifics of women's nonviolent direct action. And leaves me behind baffled: Where are the

specifics? What makes women's nonviolent direct action different from, well, nonviolent direct

action? In the article I could not find an answer. After reading this article, nonviolent direct

action to me seems to be even less determined by the gender of those employing it than before.

To elaborate: Carroll identifies eleven kinds of nonviolent direct action specific to women's

nonviolent direct action.1 Not a single one actually is. Most of them are pretty self-evident in that

aspect: Nobody would assume that civil disobedience,2 demonstrations and marches,3 strikes4,

visual depictions such as banners and graffiti,5 trouble-making6 or simply evading the oppressive

rules7 are special to anyone's nonviolent action, as they are at the very core of the concept. In

other cases it is Carroll herself who provides examples of the tactic being employed in a non-

1 cf. Bernice A. Carroll, “'Women Take Action!' Women's Direct Action and Social Change,” Women's Studies Int.
Forum 12, no. 1 (1989): 9-19.
2 cf. Ibid. 9.
3 cf. Ibid.
4 cf. Ibid. 13.
5 cf. Ibid. 12.
6 cf. Ibid. 18.
7 cf. Ibid. 15.

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women-specific context: Education respectively knowledge have been sought by people of color

in the struggle against slavery,8 For the remaining strategies it is also rather easy to find them in

genderwise undefined literature about nonviolent direct action, for example in Saul D. Alinsky's

“Rules for Radicals.” “Sitting on a man”9 comes down to shaming the oppressor for its

violations. Alinsky calls that “Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules,”10 and even

provides more options to achieve this – for example ridicule.11 The variety Carroll names “I offer

my body as a torch”12 bears a striking resemblance to Alinsky advocating time in jail as a

strategy.13 This could be continued for all the varieties of nonviolent action Carroll describes –

which gives her work the bad aftertaste of a women's theory for its own sake: There are women

who did it – so there must be a women's theory, no matter whether it adds any value or not. But

sometimes, women are just one part of society just like any other.

Creativity
Gay-Pride Parade Sets Mainstream Acceptance Of Gays Back 50 Years
WEST HOLLYWOOD, CA–The mainstream acceptance of gays and lesbians, a hard-
won civil-rights victory gained through decades of struggle against prejudice and
discrimination, was set back at least 50 years Saturday in the wake of the annual Los
Angeles Gay Pride Parade.
"I'd always thought gays were regular people, just like you and me, and that the
stereotype of homosexuals as hedonistic, sex-crazed deviants was just a destructive
myth," said mother of four Hannah Jarrett, 41, mortified at the sight of 17 tanned and
oiled boys cavorting in jock straps to a throbbing techno beat on a float shaped like an
enormous phallus. "Boy, oh, boy, was I wrong."

8 cf. Ibid. 11.

9 Ibid. 17.
10 Saul D. Alinski, Rules for Radicals: A Pragmatic Primer for Realistic Radicals (New York: Random House,
1989), 128.
11 cf. Ibid.
12 Carroll, Women... 19.
13 Alinsky, Rules... 155.

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 The parade, organized by the Los Angeles Gay And Lesbian And Bisexual And
Transvestite And Transgender Alliance (LAGALABATATA), was intended to "promote
acceptance, tolerance, and equality for the city's gay community." Just the opposite,
however, was accomplished, as the event confirmed the worst fears of thousands of
non-gay spectators, cementing in their minds a debauched and distorted image of gay
life straight out of the most virulent right-wing hate literature.
Among the parade sights and sounds that did inestimable harm to the gay-rights
cause: a group of obese women in leather biker outfits passing out clitoris-shaped
lollipops to horrified onlookers; a man in military uniform leading a submissive
masochist, clad in diapers and a baby bonnet, around on a dog leash; several
Hispanic dancers in rainbow wigs and miniskirts performing "humping" motions on a
mannequin dressed as the Pope; and a dozen gyrating drag queens in see-through
dresses holding penis-shaped beer bottles that appeared to spurt ejaculation-like foam
when shaken and poured onto passersby.
Timothy Orosco, 51, a local Walgreens manager whose store is on the parade route,
changed his attitude toward gays as a result of the event.
"They kept chanting things like, 'We're here, we're queer, get used to it!' and 'Hey, hey,
we're gay, we're not going to go away!'" Orosco said. "All I can say is, I was used to
it, but now, although I'd never felt this way before, I wish they would go away."
Allison Weber, 43, an El Segundo marketing consultant, also had her perceptions and
assumptions about gays challenged by the parade.
"My understanding was that gay people are just like everybody else–decent, hard-
working people who care about their communities and have loving, committed
relationships," Weber said. "But, after this terrifying spectacle, I don't want them
teaching my kids or living in my neighborhood."
The parade's influence extended beyond L.A.'s borders, altering the attitudes of
straight people across America. Footage of the event was featured on telecasts of The
700 Club as "proof of the sin-steeped world of homosexuality." A photo spread in
Monday's USA Today chronicled many of the event's vulgar displays–understood by
gays to be tongue-in-cheek "high camp"–which horrified previously tolerant people
from coast to coast.
Dr. Henry Thorne, a New York University history professor who has written several
books about the gay-rights movement, explained the misunderstanding.
"After centuries of oppression as an 'invisible' segment of society, gays, emboldened
by the 1969 Stonewall uprising, took to the streets in the early '70s with an 'in-your-
face' attitude. Confronting the worst prejudices of a world that didn't accept them, they
fought back against these prejudices with exaggeration and parody, reclaiming their
enemies' worst stereotypes about them and turning them into symbols of gay pride,"
Thorne said. "Thirty years later, gays have won far greater acceptance in the world at
large, but they keep doing this stuff anyway."

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 "Mostly, I think, because it's really fun," Thorne added.
The Los Angeles Gay Pride Parade, Thorne noted, is part of a decades-old gay-rights
tradition. But, for mainstream heterosexuals unfamiliar with irony and the reclamation
of stereotypes for the purpose of exploding them, the parade resembled an invasion of
grotesque outer-space mutants, bent on the destruction of the human race.
"I have a cousin who's a gay, and he seemed like a decent enough guy to me," said
Iowa City, IA, resident Russ Linder, in Los Angeles for a weekend sales seminar. "Now,
thanks to this parade, I realize what a freak he's been all along. Gays are all sick,
immoral perverts."
Parade organizers vowed to make changes in the wake of the negative reaction among
heterosexuals.
"I knew it. I said we needed 100 dancers on the 'Show Us Your Ass' float, but
everybody insisted that 50 would be enough," said Lady Labia, spokesperson for
LAGALABATATA. "Next year, we're really going to give those breeders something to
look at."14

This article from satire magazine The Onion pokes fun at the notion that overly charging

any event or issue with sexual or gendered context opens it up for ridicule – and thus decreases

its utility. This is pretty much how I felt about Carroll's article and the whole issue of women's

nonviolent direct action: While doing an important job by remembering women's achievements

though nonviolence and pointing out what an important point they played in different well-

known nonviolent struggles, her work depreciates quickly when she tries to top it up with a

dedicated theory – doing nothing but rephrasing things already known. This, with all due respect

to her work, is ridiculous.

14 The Onion, “Gay-Pride Parade Sets Mainstream Acceptance Of Gays Back 50 Years,” theonion.com,
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/28491 (accessed October 30, 2008)

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