Sisters doing it by themselves: woda in antinuclear and other protests from the 1980s onwards

Resumen

Why have women chosen to conduct political protests without men? Does this choice have epistemological and practical validity for direct action in the 21st century? The paper mentions the background of the women-only direct action at Greenham, UK in the 1980s; this introduced NVDA to a British public accustomed to more deferential modes of protest, as well as encouraging many previously straight women towards other forms of sexuality. The identities used by women in such actions are considered, along with some other identities that were not on offer. The discourse of two manifestos is analysed, from Greenham in 1981 and from actions in 2016, showing a move away from the earlier peace-loving, maternal, ‘vulnerable’ woman. For now, nuclear war has been overtaken by a host of even greater threats, but all demand responses beyond the ballot box, with creative, feminist NVDA continuing to provide a useful model.