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PORTSIDE CULTURE

HOW TO BE A NONVIOLENT SECOND-WAVE FEMINIST  
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Eleanor J. Bader
June 14, 2024
The Indypendent
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_ In 47 essays written from the early 1970s to the late 1990s,
prominent Second Wave feminists question how nonviolence might be
applied to effectively transform violent systems of aggression, from
rape to war. _

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Feminism, Violence and Nonviolence: An Anthology
Edited by Selina Gallo-Cruz
Edinburgh University Press
ISBN: 9781399526036

During the 1970s and 1980s, many feminists pushed the armed forces to
allow women to serve in combat. Many also organized to demand that
police forces diversify and bring more women and people of color into
their ranks. But this segment of the women’s movement did not
represent everyone. A  smaller but hugely vocal constituency opposed
violence, militarism, police expansion and colonialism, and argued
that an equal opportunity to maim or kill would do nothing to create
the equitable societies they sought to build.  

Unfortunately, their efforts often get short shrift in historical
accounts of the era. The anthology, _Feminism, Violence and
Nonviolence_ zeroes in on the influence of pacifist thought on Second
Wave feminism. The book highlights the many intersections between war,
interpersonal violence and women’s oppression.  

It’s a valuable collection. Nonetheless, because the essays were
written between the early 1970s and the late 1990s— and the book
does not create a bridge to contemporary feminist, peace, and social
justice efforts— it will largely serve as a resource for historians,
researchers, and scholars. 

The anthology offers an expansive view of violence. As the late
Barbara Deming [[link removed]], a writer active in the War
Resisters League [[link removed]] and World Peace
Brigade for Nonviolent Action, noted in a 1971 essay called _On
Anger_: “Bullets and bombs are not the only means by which people
are killed. If a society denies certain of its members food or medical
attention, or a political voice, the sense of their own worth, the
freedom to exercise their talents, this too is waging war of a
kind.”

Indeed.

Native American sociologist Winona LaDuke
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executive director of Honor the Earth [[link removed]],
offers a stark illustration of this, writing that radiation has
contaminated Native lands and waterways contributing to an
astronomical spike in cancer among the Acoma, Laguna, and Navajo
peoples. In _Red Lands and Uranium Mines_, written in 1981, she
reports that: “One-half of all United States uranium resources and
one-third of all Western low-sulfur coal lie under Indian lands. To
the Bureau of Indian Affairs and organizations such as the Council of
Energy Resource Tribes, these resources are seen as the ladder to
economic development of impoverished reservations…A contingent of
Indians, however, believe that the resources should be left in the
ground.”

Eco-feminist Vandana Shiva
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goes further, arguing that ecological devastation is explicitly tied
to corporate greed and unfettered global capitalism. She calls on us
to oppose both. In excerpts from 1988’s _Staying Alive: Women,
Ecology and Development,_ she stresses that “While gender
subordination and patriarchy are the oldest of oppressions, they have
taken on new and more violent forms through the project of
development…Development projects appropriated or destroyed the
natural resource base for the production of sustenance and
survival…The destruction of ecologically sound traditional
technologies, often created and used by women, along with the
destruction of their material base, is generally believed to be
responsible for the feminization of poverty in societies which have
had to bear the costs of resource destruction.”

And it has only gotten more dire in the 36 years since these words
were written.

This reality underscores _Feminism, Violence and Nonviolence_ and
reinforces its potent intersectional and international focus.
Nonetheless, some of the 47 essays, especially those debating the
efficacy of fighting back against a rapist, are dated. Similarly
advice about staying safe while walking alone after dark, penned
before cell phones became ubiquitous, needs to be updated.

Editor Selina Gallo-Cruz acknowledges these limitations but stresses
that the book captures “a pivotal historical moment during which
activists questioned how nonviolence might be applied to effectively
transform violent systems of aggression, from rape to war.”  The
words of feminist luminaries–among them Charlotte Bunch, Andrea
Dworkin, Audre Lorde, Pam McAllister, and Adrienne Rich–provide an
important grounding in pro-peace tactics and strategies. What’s
more, by tracing the ways misogyny is learned, internalized, and
transmitted, _Feminism, Violence and Nonviolence_ challenges
patriarchal domination and highlights the ongoing impact that racism,
sexism, colonialism, displacement, interpersonal violence, and war
continue to play in the lives of women and their loved ones.

THE INDYPENDENT _is a New York City-based newspaper
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* Feminism
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* second wave feminism
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* Nonviolence
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* Violence
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