The institutionalization of revolution: An analysis of the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival

This paper examines the Michigan Womyn's Music Festival (MichFest) to determine whether or not it has shifted from a radical revolutionary social movement to a process of institutionalization. Like previous studies on the festival, I too am interested in examining how effective it is to create separate spaces for specific identities as a means of resisting hegemonic institutions within patriarchy. However, this study is unique in questioning whether or not the MichFest's social critique in and of itself becomes its own institution as well as the implications of its position. With the help of Patricia Yancey Martin's (2004) theoretical work on institutionalization, I analyze the festival as not only as an intentional community created out of a specific social movement---a radical feminist, separatist social movement. I use three methods of data collection: participant observation, secondary data analysis from previous research on the festival, and content analysis of festival programs and online bulletin board discussions. From this information, I conclude that MichFest does not fall within the binary script of revolution versus institutionalization as previously mentioned. Rather, it provides insight into how social critique can and does exist inside the process of institutionalization.