The British peace movement: A critical examination of attitudes to male violence within the British peace movement, as expressed with regard to the “molesworth rapes”

Gender and the Subject of (Anti)Nuclear Politics: Revisiting Women’s Campaigning against the Bomb1

“…One complementary discourse could be termed antiviolence , focused as it was on the problematic masculinity of the mainstream political subject and its connection to nuclear politics. Here, masculinity was constructed either as intrinsically pathological or as structurally corrupted: Either way, nuclear weaponry was contextualized on a continuum of violence perpetrated by men and male‐dominated institutions—from rape, through domestic violence, to war (Held 1988; Russell 1989b). Within the terms of this discourse, the roots of violence were located in male sexuality and an associated drive to dominate women, nonwhites, and nature (Kokopeli and Lakey 1982:233, 235–8; Easlea 1983), and/or to a larger system or structure of “patriarchy” (Warnock 1982; Zanotti 1982), both explanations bearing witness to the influence of radical feminist analyses (Koen and Swaim 1980:1; Roseneil 1995:6–7; 2000:34).…”

“…Within the terms of this discourse, the roots of violence were located in male sexuality and an associated drive to dominate women, nonwhites, and nature (Kokopeli and Lakey 1982:233, 235–8; Easlea 1983), and/or to a larger system or structure of “patriarchy” (Warnock 1982; Zanotti 1982), both explanations bearing witness to the influence of radical feminist analyses (Koen and Swaim 1980:1; Roseneil 1995:6–7; 2000:34). Although it was primarily concerned to critique pronuclear male subjectivity, this discourse had the effect of elevating existing models of femininity and womanhood, providing as it did a negative justification for women‐only organizing against the bomb (Held 1988; Rosenbluth and Russell 1989:302–5). A generalized figure of the “Woman” became by default the bearer of antinuclear struggle, a world without nuclear weapons requiring variously the feminization of male psychology, the overthrow of male power and patriarchal structures by women, or even limitations on the numbers of men born into the world (Gearhart 1982).…”