Code Pink, Raging Grannies, and the Missile Dick Chicks: Feminist Performance Activism in the Contemporary Anti-War Movement

This article examines feminist performance activism in the context of the contemporary anti-war movement. Using data gathered through ethnographic participant observation, formal and informal interviews, and content analysis from October 2002 through January 2005, this article describes and analyzes the use of performance activism by three women's anti-war groups as an activist repertoire used to challenge cultural assumptions about gender. This paper argues that these groups used a combination of norm-embracing and norm-challenging performance elements to integrate gender into the anti-war agenda and promote a feminist ideology among fellow protesters and suggests that different combinations were more or less effective.