It investigates the historical circumstances that led to flashpoint moments in this wave of activism, such as the feminist protests of cinemas that accompanied the release on UK screens of the Brian De Palma film
Dressed to Kill (1980), and the prosecution and trial of Diane Potter and Maria Schween for 'defacement of property' in 1978 following their feminist culture jamming of publicly displayed posters for the films The Stud and
Emmanuelle 2, distributors for which had anchored advertising campaigns to the sexual objectification of female characters, in discursive and ideological harmony with the gender politics of the films themselves.
And it culminates in an in depth look at the curious case of the (non) production by MGM of a Yorkshire Ripper film that was reported by industry trade papers at the time to have been in development in 1980 at which point the case was still unsolved, and the
murders of women in the north of England were still intermittently taking place. Specifically, it uses archival sources in The Women's Library and Feminist Archive North to explain and contextualise the activities of feminist activist Sandra McNeill, a leading
figure in West Yorkshire's 'Reclaim the Night' movement who spearheaded an organised campaign to stop the production, distribution and marketing of the Peter Sutcliffe film that was never made.