Marching Dykes, Liberated Sluts, and Concerned Mothers

"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"-- "This project examines the ways in which women's public protests in the 21st century create spaces for involvement in cultural and political publics focused on a range of timely issues including gender identity, sexuality, war, corporate greed, and reproductive rights. Based on participant observation, interviews, and analysis of archival and published sources, this interdisciplinary study blends feminist, queer, critical race and performance studies with explorations of public space in order to explore what public protests do, and why they are culturally important. The public demonstrations examined include Take Back the Night marches, Dyke marches, CODEPINK direct actions, Women in Black vigils, the 2004 March for Women's Lives, and the 2004 Million Mom March. Key to this project is the argument that these demonstrations share significant characteristics as performances in their own right, and are not simply one feature of the broader social movements they're a part of. The author suggests that an analysis of these women-organized demonstrations offers a distinct opportunity to explore the relationship of gender to public space in contemporary U.S. political culture"--

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Nonfiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.