Code Pink: The 21st century mothers of invention
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Local/Global Encounters
Code Pink: The 21st century mothers of invention
LINDA MILAZZO
ABSTRACT As women in the USA move forward with their activism, they must appreciate the great advances brought about by the women pioneers who came before. Because of the noble and heroic work of their predecessors, the women of today are able to venture beyond issues of women’s rights and gender inequality. Although there is still much to be accomplished on these fronts, the current injustices wrought by corporate globalization, US imperialism, unjustifiable wars, and religious fanaticism, have redirected women activists from the national stage into the global arena. Linda Milazzo introduces Code Pink as a key women’s organization that collaborates closely with social justice organizations throughout the world. It has put a new face on women’s activism with a fierceness and creativity that would make Susan B. Anthony grin, and blush, all at the same time. Unlike its feminist forerunners, who chose message above fashion, and ‘Ms.’ over ‘Mademoiselle’, Code Pink has brazenly invented a cheeky new chic. Milazzo argues that Code Pink is the activist equivalent of Victoria’s Secret catalog (a US publication of sexy lingerie) meets the Nation Magazine, employing flash and femininity to promote socio-political change. KEYWORDS founders; predecessors; sugar and spice; creativity; seriousness; fashion; pinkslip (an American metaphor for termination from one’s job)
The legacy of the first women’s rights activists The history of the women’s progressive movement and political activism in the United States is both gruelling and glorious. Contrary to the enduring misogynist portrayal of heroic males and submissive females, activist women were often more cunning and able than their strongest male counterparts. And for good reason. Their own government deemed them inconsequential. The Declaration of Independence never mentioned them.‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness. ^That to secure these rights, Governments are instituted among Meny’.1 There is no mention of women nor their rights, their equality or their liberty. From the instant the nation was founded, women had to fight for their own independence and make their own declaration to fight. Development (2005) 48(2), 100–104. doi:10.1057/palgrave.development.1100130
Milazzo: Code Pink Challenging their nation’s laws and defying the wills of their fathers and husbands, American women fought and eventually won their rights. The Women’s Rights Convention convened in 1848, followed by the struggle for Women’s Voting Rights, initiated in 1869 by Susan B. Anthony and ratified 51 years later as the 19th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States. Margaret Sanger’s work for birth control began in 1921, culminating in the formation of Planned Parenthood in 1942. The Equal Pay Act passed in 1963, and the Civil Rights Act
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