
The Body as a Symbol a Tool and a Way to Make us Listen
Along with it came the message she had hoped to spread, challenging body stigma across the nation.
People are using the body as an agent for political and social change
. With violence and provocative images/ video content taking commonplace in the public domain, the human
form is being used to evoke shock value for campaigns through affronting social norms.
History of the human form
It became so prolific in the 1860s that the Indian government tried to abolish it as a practice to secure repayment of debts. Using the body to express the message within a campaign bolsters the impact past the threshold value needed for a powerful and poignant message sure to capture the public’s eye.
. Mahatma Gandhi underwent a three-week strike to try to gain peace between warring Hindus and Muslims in the 1920s.
Take Bobby Sands of the IRA who began his hunger strike in prison in 1981, 66 days later he died at the young age of 27. His death inspired riots across the nation; the manipulation of his body provided a powerful image for his cause.
The body has been used by some protestors as simply a barricade. The infamous image of the student standing alone in a bid to stop the progression of four tanks in Tiananmen Square, his small body paling in comparison to the 62 tons of armor it stood against, opened the nation’s eyes and ears to the plight of students and liberals alike within China at the time. This one image still holds its iconic photographic state as a poignant example of the power the body can have.
05 Jun 1989, Beijing, China — A Beijing demonstrator blocks the path of a tank convoy along the Avenue
Eternal Peace near Tiananmen Square. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
05 Jun 1989, Beijing, China — A Beijing demonstrator blocks the path of a tank convoy along the Avenue of
Eternal Peace near Tiananmen Square. — Image by © Bettmann/CORBIS
More so recently there has been a boom in using the naked form as a tool for protest, as seen by Rae at the beginning of this article.
Nakedness is a symbol for them of freedom; freedom to the right of their own bodies and freedom to show, undisguised, their hatred for the patriarchal system.
Most famous for this technique would be the extreme feminist group, Femen, whose, ‘Mission is to protest, our weapons bare breasts.’
Femen uses a technique coined extremism, using non-violent provocative protest for humanitarian causes. Nakedness is a symbol for them of freedom; freedom to the right of their own bodies and freedom to show, undisguised, their hatred for the patriarchal system. They not only use their bodies in their protests but their bodies are part of their cause.
In whatever form it is undeniable that using the body within a protest, demonstration or campaign has a high impact. Perhaps it is the courage that these people displaying the most intimate possession we have so publically. Perhaps it is the universal relatability of the human form that other images lack. A photo or placard, no matter how gritty or harrowing, still affords us a level of distance from the issue. The image of a body in protest is effective as we immediately associate it with our own; It makes the issue really, it brings it into our lives, not just the lives it was affecting, it provokes.
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