Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy Book Talk with Ray Acheson

Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy Book Talk with Ray Acheson

By Mathilde Haas

On April 27th 2021, the D.C Student Consortium on Women, Peace and Security organized an event entitled “Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy Book Talk with Ray Acheson”. It was an opportunity for Ray Acheson to present their upcoming book “Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy” and share their views and experience on the fight to abolish nuclear weapon and the Treaty on the Prohibition of Nuclear Weapons (TPNW) as well as the role youth and women need to play in this fight, despite the difficulties encountered.

Ray Acheson is a great advocate for nuclear disarmament. They are the Director of Reaching Critical Will, the disarmament Program of the Women’s International League for Peace and Freedom (WILPF) and represent WILPF on the International Steering Group of ICAN. They also are a visiting researcher at Princeton University. In addition to relentlessly fighting for the end of nuclear weapons, Ray Acheson is working on the issues of killer robots, arms trade and war profiteering. 

 In all their work, Ray Acheson strives to denounce the patriarchal and racist structures of violence and war while presenting an antimilitarist feminist point of view. 

Ray was introduced by Noelle Cohn, the Vice President of the WPS Student Consortium, who offered an interesting remark while telling the story of her discovery of Ray’s work. She underscored that no articles about disarmament written by women had ever been given to her in the course of her studies. Upon researching such articles, she saw how imperative it is to engage with different perspectives and especially a feminist one in the field of armed violence. Ray Acheson fits perfectly in this effort to uncover new lenses, as they offer an outspoken antimilitarist feminist perspective that is quite rare in this area. 

In their introductory remarks, Ray Acheson noted that the feminist perspective is deliberately marginalized in the field, even made fun of. Later on, they gave unbelievable examples of gaslighting and victim-blaming that women working on the matter of nuclear disarmament had to be subjected to. For instance, they counted that, in the process of negotiations for the TPNW, women had been called ‘emotional’ and ‘irrational’. It was also said that pushing for this treaty would make the use of nuclear weapons more likely.

While this kind of sexist rhetoric may have seemed like a thing of the past for many, Ray Acheson is here to remind everyone that it is still very much alive. Through their book, Ray sheds a light on the treatment of women working on the TPNW negotiations and, at large, in the field of armed violence. The book also allows them to correct some of the misinformation about the TPNW that has been circulating and which often contains a patriarchal and racist character to it. Ray thus makes clear that the TPNW is the fruit of concerted thinking and strategy aiming at making a real difference by challenging the nuclear orthodoxy and the theory of nuclear deterrence. Ray explained that a feminist perspective on nuclear weapons is necessary to be able to highlight the patriarchal techniques used to protect the existence of nuclear weapons, notably the fact that nuclear-armed States will cite the ‘international security environment’ as a reason for not engaging in denuclearization even though this environment was specifically created and influenced by them.

Through the questions of different members of the WPC Student Consortium, Ray went on to detail their views on different topics. they touched upon the importance for youth to get involved in this field and bring new points of views and ideas. They also spoke on the interrelated nature of many of the main fights currently being led everywhere (climate change, systemic racism, police and jail reform, nuclear weapons, etc). They noted the crucial character of solidarity and mutual learning between the different movements. 

In their concluding remarks, Ray Acheson presented some lessons learned for the TPNW process. Mainly, they emphasized the importance of trust-building and camaraderie. Noting that States are made of individuals, Ray confided that, in her opinion, finding the right people within those States governments is the only thing needed to spark change.  

Ray Acheson is a very inspiring individual. It is, arguably, quite refreshing to see someone speak freely on what happens behind the closed doors of treaty negotiations. 

They make great points about the structures of power and violence that are usually kept silenced. From their intervention, it is evident why different perspectives, and especially a feminist one, are needed for a deep understanding of the workings of peace and security matters. Only by considering those will we be able to truly bring about change. 

 Ray Acheson’s book “Banning the Bomb, Smashing the Patriarchy Book Talk with Ray Acheson” will be published in June 2021. Pre-orders are already available at this link: https://rowman.com/ISBN/9781786614896/Banning-the-Bomb-Smashing-the-Patriarchy