US feminists and Central America in the age of Reagan: the overlapping contexts of activism, intellectual culture and documentary film making

• Published in: Journal of American studies 2014-02, Vol.48 (1), p.199-221
• Main Author: Witham, Nick
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Activism; Administration; Central America; Documentary films; Feminism; Film makers; Foreign policy
• ISSN: 0021-8758
• DOI: 10.1017/S0021875813002533

This paper examines the attitudes of feminist activists, intellectuals and filmmakers to US intervention in Central America during the 1980s. It traces the development of mutual intellectual and political sustenance between feminism and anti-interventionism, arguing that as feminist thinking bred new ways of approaching US involvement in Central America, so anti-interventionist struggles bred new ways of thinking about women's activism. In making this point, the paper complicates narratives of the 'age of Reagan' that overlook the persistence of left-wing politics during the 1980s. Instead, it argues that a specific form of international feminism enabled a community of activists to contribute to a vibrant culture of dissent that criticized conservative approaches to women's rights and, at the same time, vigorously contested the interventionist foreign policy of the Reagan administration. Reprinted by permission of Cambridge University Press. An electronic version of this article can be accessed via the internet at http://journals.cambridge.org