Gender and Occupy Wall Street

What is Occupy Wall Street?

The Occupy Movement kicked off on September 17th, 2011 with the Occupy Wall Street Protest. which, according to Andrew Fleming was in part prompted by the group Adbusters. (Need Citation) Though, this was a protest brought into being by the Internet. Without the internet and social media, Occupy would not have become the worldwide phenomenon it was.

Below is a map and timelines just covering the Protests that had over 1,000 people. There are a lot more protests that are listed on Wikipedia. There are also international protests that occurred throughout the world that are not covered in this writing, simply for brevity and limitations of the embedded tools.

Note Just because a point on the timeline states that there is no end date it doesn’t mean that it is still going. After looking at these interactive elements I invite you to have a look at these lists for further details. As there are many international protests as well.

“List of Occupy movement protest locations”

“List of Occupy movement protest locations in California”

“List of Occupy movement protest locations in the United States”

There are so many protests with their own methods and individual reasons for protest. It makes one wonder, what were the goals of the movement?

Goals and Tactics of the Occupy Movement

The Goals of Occupy Wall Street and its sister protests were very diverse as there was an astounding amount of diversity in thought. Some issues are more general than others as some protests had local issues or reference other protests from an earlier point in the year. For example, here is a group signs from the Occupy Wall Street Archives Working Group Records from NYU’s Tamiment Library and Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives. These signs were all taken from the Occupy Wall Street protest.

{Insert images here}

As can be seen, there are a variety of issues at just the Occupy Wall Street Protest.

The tactics of the Occupy Movement are in the title, Occupation of a space for an indefinite amount of time, generally till they are removed from the location. The main location of focus was Zuccotti Park in New York City,

Mobilization and what made Occupy Unique.

The entire Occupy Movement is what is considered by Lance Bennett of “The Logic of Connective Action,” as a “Crowd Enabled Connective Action.” (Need Citation) In layman’s terms, this protest was not sustained by an Organization, it was sustained by the people through social media. Going back to Fleming’s article, he quoted a leader at Adbusters, “‘We came up with the idea but independent activists just made it their own,'” (Need Citation) 

Gender and Occupy

Now how does this tie to Gender? Well, let’s look at a landmark near the Wall Street Stock Exchange that is a symbol that ties an air of masculinity to the space. The Wall Street Bull, which under the lens of gender is a large Masculine figure that is very much so anatomically correct. According to the article by Pinto from the Tribeca Trib, some very peculiar traditions have evolved involving the statue’s testicles. (Need Citation) This obviously adds a gendered air to the space of Wall Street and the whole stock trading world as a whole. The statue represents the robustness of the American market. This is further defined with the common economic terms of bear and bull markets as the symbol of the bear is for the most part depicted as masculine, then the bull is one of the most masculine symbols there is, and the bull is considered a good sign economically.

Looking at the writings of Jessica Horn in “Gender and Social Movements Overview Report” published in 2013, the writing mentions gender issues that became prevalent in the Occupy Movement.

NOTES (Do not Include in PUBLISHING!!!)

Add more info pertaining to the space and Gender

Okay this is a very basic Skeleton I will be following for the Narrative. I just need time to get it processed.

Need to Fix up citations

Tie to Greenham Commons protest

Talk about the basics of OWS goal and messages. H5 images using the NYU Archive or LOC

There are a variety of Issues at play here in the Occupy Wall Street

This is to show the movement and not just highlight OWS.

Timeline needs pictures

Explain the nature of how the protests started. General History

Tie in the unique mobilization of the movement. Online

Tie into other protests like arab spring. Go into what made Occupy Wall Street unique compared to past protests.

Tie to Greenham Commons protest

Do you have to be in the camps to be part of the movement.

Need to find some way to tie this into gender (I forgot about that requirement)

Look for evidence of gender in the OWS movement (H5 if an image I can use.)

Check ties to the LGBTQ Movement at the time.

effects that OWS had on gender-based protest as OWS was a large movement with a lot of effects after. Tie into BLM as well?

Bibliography

Fleming , Andrew. “Adbusters Sparks Wall Street Protest.” Vancouver Courier, September 27, 2011. https://web.archive.org/web/20121011160015/http://www.vancourier.com/Adbusters+sparks+Wall+Street+protest/5466332/story.html.

Hammond, Gabriella. “History of the Charging Bull (and How to See It).” The Wall Street Experience. Accessed November 26, 2024. https://www.thewallstreetexperience.com/blog/story-behind-legendary-charging-bull/.

Horn, Jessica. Gender and social movements: Overview report. BRIDGE, Institute of Development Studies, University of Sussex, 2013.

Pinto, Nick. “Bull!” The Tribeca Trib, September 1, 2007. https://web.archive.org/web/20080908014825/http://tribecatrib.com/archives/newssept07/Bull.htm.

“Occupy Wall Street.Org.” Occupy Wall Street | NYC Protest for World Revolution. Accessed November 26, 2024. http://occupywallst.org/.

Wikipedia Sources: Note these are for general information, dates, and numbers. Used in the timeline and map

“List of Occupy Movement Protest Locations in California.” Wikipedia, August 2, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Occupy_movement_protest_locations_in_California.

“List of Occupy Movement Protest Locations in the United States.” Wikipedia, October 9, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Occupy_movement_protest_locations_in_the_United_States.

“List of Occupy Movement Protest Locations.” Wikipedia, November 16, 2024. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Occupy_movement_protest_locations.