Donna Sheehan

Overview

Donna Sheehan born Oakland, CA April 1, 1930 (d. 2015). Artist and peace activist. Began her environmental activism with a protest against California Dept. of Transportation herbicide usage, 1983. Founded anti-toxics sustainability organization MOW & SOW, 1986. Led Unreasonable Women Baring Witness in nude Iraq War protests, 2002-03.

Quotations

“It is no accident either that women would choose to get naked for the sake of peace and justice. For Baring Witness is about using the greatest weapon women have, the power of the feminine, the power of our beauty and nakedness to awaken our male leaders and stop them in their tracks. In this way, Baring Witness is about heightening the awareness of human vulnerability.

"By risking with our nakedness—our charm and beauty and vulnerability—in service of peace we are exposing the flesh all humans share. We are casting off the old dominant paradigm of aggression and restoring the power of the feminine to its rightful place as the protector of life. It is time for women to deter the men in their lives from violent acts, as nurturers, as guardians of our families and as voices of reason.

"War seems to be a masculine invention. For thousands of years, men have been conditioned to respond to threat and confrontation with violence first. Whereas the feminine way is to resolve difficulty and conflict through dialogue and negotiation, through compromise and kindness, not acts of violence.” (Baring Witness, Dec. 2002; photo linkedin.com)