Embodying imperfect unity: womanhood and synchronicity in anti-war protest

Abstract

In March 2003, a contemporary version of the Greek play Lysistrata was performed on over 1000 stages across the globe to protest the war in Iraq. This article analyzes the synchronized performances of Lysistrata in order to question the role of the lived body in social activism. The lived body, as conceptualized by Young (2005), considers the power and constraint we experience as the material facts of our bodies – skeleton and organs, ligaments and tendons, muscles and fat – move and exist in a particular time in history, a particular geographic space, surrounded by particular other people who are co-constructing ways of being in the world together. In the past several decades, numerous public examples have emerged of women in particular creatively constructing themselves in relation to their given socio-historical conditions. This article engages in a two-part analysis, of a ‘productive misreading’ of Aristophanes' Lysistrata and of the synchronized performance-protests orchestrated by the Lysistrata Project, in order to better understand the ways in which gendered bodies are enabled and constrained by their physical and social environments in performing dissent.

Keywords::

• rhetoric
• anti-war protest
• nationalism
• lived body
• Lysistrata

Notes

^1. When the original domain name expired, Lysistrata Project collaborator and webpage designer Mark Greene created an archive page at http://lysistrataprojectarchive.com/lys/ to preserve much of the organizing information for viewing. However, the archive site is somewhat disorganized, and as time passes, more of these archived links lead to defunct webpages. Therefore, we have provided a summary table of readings organized by country in Appendix A at the end of this article. On the archive site, event organizers noted that their list of readings contained more than the 1029 readings in which around 60 countries cited in press releases and media coverages as late reports from the global protest-performers who drove those numbers upward. According to our count, the site listed 1013 distinct readings in 62 countries, so some discrepancies remain regarding the exact number of performances.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Anna M. Wiederhold

Anna M. Wiederhold conducted this research while studying for her Ph.D. at Ohio University, USA (now completed). In August 2013, she takes up the position of assistant professor in the Communication Department at the University of Nevada, Reno. She studies public advocacy and civic engagement, and her research interests include communicative negotiations of contested spaces and alternative ways of organizing.

Kimberly Field-Springer

Kimberly Field-Springer was also studying for her Ph.D. at Ohio University while conducting this research (now completed). In 2013 she takes up the position of assistant professor in the Communication Department at Ashland University. She is interested in the intersections of health communication and women and gender studies.