Political Protest Evaluation

My group’s issue we were protesting against was the idea of victim blaming. This issue can obviously be quite personal and so we felt we needed to get real voices and examples to add power and truth to our protest. By researching different aspects for our protest, we were able to develop the authenticity of our argument we were trying to present. We were able to use actual quotes from various rape cases to further our argument as we were using real life examples – this showed the prominence of the issue. By doing the research myself, I was able to develop a deeper drive for my argument as many of the different arguments and examples flared up a form of anger. I was then able to use the emotions conjured by the research, and transition them into our political protest – I felt extremely strongly about the issue I was protesting against. 

My role in the protest, along with Zoe, was a female wearing contrasting clothes to the two girls wearing more revealing clothes. This contrast was meant to represent the idea that the clothes females wear can excuse sexual harassment and rape; that by wearing more revealing clothes, they were asking for it. Additionally, I also had to shout out different quotations from our research – not only did this attract the attention of those walking past but it reaffirmed different examples of victim blaming. I feel the use of quotations along with the outfits, helped add effect and power to our argument as it really underlined the definition of victim blaming, clearing it up for those who may not have a very detailed understanding. At different intervals, we all would come out of character and chant; “Women are not guilty for the violence committed by men on their body, mind and soul.” – I feel this was an extremely effective aspect our protest as it really underlined the point we were trying to get across and by chanting it all together at once we were able to gain as much attention as possible. 

I feel that as a group we worked in quite a sophisticated to create a general professional protest. We had everything organised and sorted out before the deadline and had carried out sufficient research to support our argument. This meant we were able to present and perform to the best of our ability without having to worry about different aspects that we may not have cleared up and prepared beforehand. However, this could have been hindered by the fact we used quite blunt and bold techniques, like chanting and shouting, to get our point across as it could be argued as too ‘in your face’ and aggressive.

I felt our protest achieved to conjure up various reactions from the onlookers as there were a variety of different comments being made. For example, an older female teacher stopped on the stairs to tell us how much she agreed with our argument and protest, this showed that we were able to impact people’s ideas and their thoughts surrounding our issue. Whilst performing, I overheard someone state that they often jump to conclusions and judge girls for what they’re wearing, stating that they are practically ask for trouble. This is a further example of our protest impacting on people’s views as they were able to connect the ideas conjured from our protest and relate them to their own experiences and ideals. Though we didn’t present a direct, ‘this is what you can do’ aspect for your audience, I feel that we managed to make people think and at least question their mindset on our issue as many people made comments in response to our actions.

I found during the protest I was able to detach myself from the fact it was a theatre assessment and really start rallying for the cause I was trying to present. I was able to perform with confidence and without anxiety, devoting myself completely to the subject. I found this quite interesting as sometimes I can find myself holding myself back and not letting go, however, with this protest, I felt like I was able to give myself over to the cause and that I had no self placed personal artistic boundaries.

One of the weaker aspects of our protest was the fact that our music was so quiet and covered up by the noise of the other protests. We had developed our chant to respond to the lyrics of the song, however, as we were unable to hear the song at different points we were unable to chant as effectively as we would have liked. Often the song just got pushed into the background and I don't feel the audience were able to connect with the significance of that particular song being used. However, I feel that one of our main strengths was our use of shouting out the different quotations as it attracted attention and got our messages across in a simply way. Sophie and I developed a improvisation during the protest; I would help her, in her drunken state, walk down the stairs as I quote different victim blaming quotations about and towards her, for example; "Did you see how much she had been drinking that night? She had been dancing with that guy the whole time. What did she expect to happen?. I feel that this developed into one of the strongest aspects of our piece as it helped draw the theatrical elements into our protest that I feel we had been lacking previously. One of the challenges we faced, that could’ve weakened our protest gravely, was the fact we were presenting to a group of spectators containing many of our peers and friends. They could have easily distracted us and led us to lose focus, however, I feel that though I did come in contact with many of my friends – I managed to stay in the correct mindset and focused on promoting our message, rather than get distracted and lose my political drive.

I feel that almost every piece of political theatre is a form of protest in a way as both political theatre and a protest strive to achieve the same goal; to leave people thinking and wanting to make a change. Therefore by combining the two, I feel you can create a really powerful device that could be used to promote change and influence ideas through different mediums. You are able to combine both typical protest aspects with different theatre techniques to create something extremely artistic and thought provoking, that leaves the audience with just as much impact and effect as a rally or organised protest. If I had the chance to redo the task and create a new protest, I would have liked to developed a piece that was perhaps more artistically and theatrically driven, to really push myself and my abilities. 

Overall I am really happy with how our protest turned out and although I feel we could have developed our ideas into a more artistic and perhaps creative response to our chosen subject, I feel we created a piece that successfully communicated our ideas to the audience in a way that left them thinking about their own ideals and approach to our chosen subject.