Name/Title
Political ButtonEntry/Object ID
2014.48.16Description
Lavender button with design in center and in white letters: "Nov./ 15-16/ '81" Printed around edge in blue letters: "Women's Pentagon Action/ Accion de Mujeres al Pentagono" Pin on back. Maker printed along bottom edge: "Donnelly Colt Buttons" with address, and "Women's Pentagon Action, 339 Lafayette St., NYC" with telephone number.Context
About this group and the event on the pin from https://activistswithattitude.com/womens-pentagon-action/
"In November 1980 and again in ‘81, women gathered at the Pentagon to mourn, rage, empower, and defy, in a pageant-like demonstration that combined rational thought with deep emotion. The idea for the Women’s Pentagon Action (WPA) emerged from an ecofeminism conference on Women and Life on Earth held in Amherst, MA in spring, 1980. The next fall, a spinoff group met to examine the connections between violence against women, racism, and the destruction of the earth.
In the first stage, thousands of women walked to the beat of a slow drum through Arlington Cemetery, past endless neat rows of tombstones. They were led by a giant Bread and Puppet Theatre papier-mâché figure. (The first year it was draped in black, the second in white....
The drumbeat changed to a faster, more insistent beat, and a fiery red puppet took the lead for the second stage. To the astonishment of the cynical press and Pentagon personnel who peered from the windows, women began to circle the building chanting, “No more war,” and “Take the toys away from the boys.”...
From rage evolved the third stage. Another puppet appeared to lead the way (the first year gold, the second year black). The empowerment puppet held a basket of scarves. The women helped themselves as they began to encircle the Pentagon, a building one mile in circumference. ...
The fourth stage began. Women who had taken workshops on nonviolent civil disobedience began the work of blocking three of the five major entrances to the Pentagon.
Other women, led by the Spinsters, a Vermont affinity group of feminist activists, began spinning webs of multi-colored yarns across two of the entrances to express their conviction that all life is connected. They decorated the webs with flowers, feathers, leaves and bells.
Another description:
"Four huge female puppets created by Bread and Puppet Theatre ( from Vermont) led some 2,000 women in a march past Arlington Cemetery to the Pentagon. There they encircled the building, put gravestones in the lawn, wove yarn across the entrances to symbolically reweave the web of life, and created rituals of mourning and defiance by chanting, yelling, and banging on cans. Over 140 women were arrested for blocking the doors at two entrances. They also blocked the Mall entrance, but no arrests were made there. Most arrestees pled "no contest" and were immediately sentenced to 10 days for first offenders or 30 days—the maximum—for second offenders. Thirty-four of the second offenders who received longer sentences were shackled at the wrists, waist, and ankles and immediately sent 300 miles to a federal prison for women." -- Historic Pentagon Actions: 1980s to PresentAcquisition
Accession
2014.48Source or Donor
Wasserman, NancyAcquisition Method
GiftMade/Created
Manufacturer
Donnelly/Colt Progressive ResourcesDate made
1981Place
City
HamptonState/Province
ConnecticutCountry
United States of AmericaContinent
North AmericaLexicon
Nomenclature 4.0
Nomenclature Secondary Object Term
Button, PoliticalNomenclature Primary Object Term
Symbol, PoliticalNomenclature Sub-Class
Belief SymbolsNomenclature Class
Personal SymbolsNomenclature Category
Category 08: Communication ObjectsRelationships
Related Person or Organization
Person or Organization
Bread and Puppet Theater