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Ribbon Around the Pentagon, The
Western Folklore, Fall 1996 by Michael Owen Jones
The Ribbon was an instance not of folklore as a unifying force in society but as resistance and critique of cultural norms and public policy. The day after the ceremony in Washington, D. C., however, nuclear arms policy did not change nor did the Pentagon reveal any cracks in its facade. Given the limited effect of the Ribbon at governmental levels, the author must confront the issue of whether, as a functionalist might have it, the project was merely a way of "letting off steam." As she points out, "It would be unrealistic to expect that a single event such as the Ribbon could have much impact on the arms race" (232). In addition, change occurs incrumentally over time, which is difficult to measure. But of particular importance, the use of a medium and a method that many considered nonconfrontational actually increased "the significance of the project in the lives of individual participants" (227). In large measure, panel makers achieved a sense of individual empowerment and witnessed changes in attitude in themselves and others that affected social relations, opening up alternatives, writes Linda Pershing. As she discusses throughout the book, many motivations and consequences swirled around the Ribbon project. Some women used it as a relatively safe way of conveying their views on a controversial issue. "It also validated women and their work by placing women's traditional fabric arts in the public eye and by sending the message that what these women (and a few men) wanted to communicate, using media that have arisen out of the work of caring for family and community, was important enough to display openly in the nation's capital" (4). Participation in the project created community and generated lasting friendships, affirmed the value of home and family life, offered a respite from household tasks, inspired self-esteem for creative talents, served as a coping device to deal with the horrors of the nuclear age, and more, depending on the individuals involved.
To conclude, this is a wonderfully complex study and the best cultural analysis of folk art of which I am aware. Linda Pershing succeeds not only because she places folklore in an historical context with attention to its social and political ramifications, but also because she is always sensitive to folk art as an aspect of human behavior manifested in specific situations and related to participants' personal experiences, motivations, and interactions with others (for more information about historical, cultural, and behavioral perspectives, see Georges and Jones, 1995). As she writes in regard to the methods she employs, "Giving primary attention to the behavior, activity, and creative communicative processes of expression, many folk art scholars have moved away from analysis of objects as an end in iteself and toward the study of people's behavior in interacting with objects. This analytical orientation-which synthesizes processual aspects of people's relationships with objects and formal, structural considerations-has as its goal the better understanding of how people make, use, relate to, and manipulate objects in order to express themselves and their personal and cultural values" (5-6). Her book is a fine example of this orientation, the most authoritative study of the Ribbon around the Pentagon, and a model for future research on folk art, women's culture(s), and folklore generally.
