Political Protest Evaluation

“Protesting can topple governments, informs, illuminates, entertains and raises awareness and it's impossible to imagine life without it.”


My group, of Sophie, Willa, Chloe and I, chose our protest to highlight that victims of rape should not be blamed no matter what the circumstance are (primarily focusing on women).

"Women are not guilty for the violence committed by men on their body, mind and spirit". This first quote, had our group focus on the idea that no victim should be blamed for their rape and we chose to repeat it throughout the protest to enforce this opinion and reason for the piece.

We began by finding quotes about victim blaming, sourcing peoples ideas/opinions that suggest some people think sometimes its the girls fault, instead of the rapist, who we agreed was to blame and should take sole responsibility for the crime.
As we looked further into researching quotes we found ourselves becoming angry, which only made us more passionate about our cause. It encourages us to come up with the tag line, that each of us wore around our neck, "we are not asking for it". This enforced our idea that there are no excuses for rape.   

Examples of quotes found:

• “Some girls like to be raped.” - response of Israeli Judge Nissim Yeshaya in an appeal court ruling on the gang rape of a 13-year-old girl by four Palestinian boys.
• “She drank too much”- Hong Kong Security Secretary said 
• “Rape isn't always rape”- By Crimewatch presenter Nick Ross
• “Just let it happen, it’ll be over soon.”
• “She led me on.”
• “Boys will be boys.”
• “She was asking for it.”
• “She was walking alone.” 
• "If it’s a legitimate rape, the female body has ways to try to shut that whole thing down."

We had the idea to print out these quotes, taping them around our protest area as we relayed them to spectators in order to help people hear and react to the ideas that we felt they should oppose. By shouting these quotes we felt we could elicit a strong reaction from our audience as they couldn't escape what we were saying, unlike if they'd been able just to walk past the written quotes. Hopefully, we would get a small portion of that heard annoyed  by what was said, therefore encouraging them to evaluate their own opinions to victims of rape. 

It was important that we said the quotes aloud because it would make people realise that real people said these things and held theses opinions. However we also made sure to hang up the quotes so that people could read who said them and realise they were real opinions, or confirm what they'd heard us shouting if they'd previously misheard.  

My role in the protest was to relay the quotes to the audience, with the other girls. I was also (with Willa) dressed more conservatively in long trousers and a long sleeved top to contrast with Sophie and Chloe who had dressed in a more revealing fashion. With the the signs around our neck saying "we not asking for it", we were trying to imply that no girl should be raped and it shouldn't be excused if she is wearing something society suggests is not appropriate because she has "too much leg out" or "cleavage on show". Willa and I's dress code insisting that if we were raped it should be treated no different to if we were dressed similarly to the others.    

I felt that our protest was quite "in your face" as we came across quite abrupt shouting quotes, whereas some other group chose silent or lesser approaches to gain peoples attention. However in my opinion I thought this loud approach was better for us because, as well as being noisy in the foyer and needing to vie for attention, it helped people to hear and listen to what we were saying, drawing their attention. In some rape cases some victims are frightened to speak out in general, scared they may be blamed, so for us to protest about it I feel as though we should not take that same approach, needing a contrast and get our voices heard (both literally and mentally).

I felt that as a group, we worked very efficiently, having organised all that we needed ready for the day before our protest. Each of us had a set job to do, gathering the props (signs, speakers, music and posters) and we all knew what we were saying so that we could focus on the topic. This then enabled us to immerse our selves, delivering our protest passionately which then hopefully rubbed off on our audience and encouraged them to also become passionate about the subject.

I got the impression our protest had a good impact on spectators because I saw that a lot of people stopped to listen and few people asked us questions about the topic, challenging certain things we said. One boy asked what he could do to stop this kind victim blaming, which got me evaluating what we were trying to say. I realised that we wanted to highlight that people should not have these opinions and re-evaluate how they deal with victims of rape. If we managed to make one person change the way they deal with it, we'd have achieved what we wanted. 

We also had a couple of teachers that told us, in passing, they agreed with our idea that we shouldn't treat victims, giving me the impression that 

I thought one of our strengths was that we had a great deal of focus because we really wanted to do the topic justice. Having done lots of research on victim blaming and knowing our message, I felt that we became more passionate which meant we could immerse ourselves and let us truthfully portray the subject. This meant spectators were more likely to understand and accept what we were saying.

I also felt that as we were a group of girls it made the topic more relatable for those watching, because we're the most common group targeted with victim blaming. Although weren't suggesting that the male sex aren't targeted, we just wanted to highlight how it occurs more frequently to the female demographic. Also by having us saying the offending quotes meant it gave a nice contrast, as it would've shocked spectators to see ourselves being so derogatory to our own kind. I feel this worked to enforce that these statements/ideas are futile and stupid.

On the other hand our music was quiet and as we'd chosen the song "Blurred line" to purposely emphasise our point (due to popular belief it's about date rape), I thought that it was a shame it couldn't be heard. We'd also developed a chant that fit to certain parts of the music but as we couldn't hear it we then couldn't do it. I thought it was good that all made the silent decision to improvise around it, either not doing it or doing it when we felt appropriate, instead of every time how we'd originally planned. 

Protests as Theatre.

Theatre often focuses on making audiences think, with writers and producers focusing on hard hitting subjects in attempt to change people's opinions and affecting them to change.

Protests similarly focus on these subjects, often traditionally be based around petitions, marches, sit ins etc. However some theatrical performances can also be considered protests, focusing on the same subjects instead just using a different format. For example in a performance, actors might be able to physically show the effects and results of certain issues, allowing audiences to sympathise better with the cause than if they'd just heard/seen facts from chants and banners.

For theatre to occur there must be an audience, which is the same for a protest. If a protest has no audience, who will listen to what you are saying and consequently there would be no ability to change it.