Get on board: how protest has moved from the street to the web
Protest relies on spectacle: the titillation of Seventies bra-burners, the Guy Fawkes masks worn by the Occupy movement, the naked breasts of Femen activists. But where once the street was the stage, now the platform is online: Instagram, Twitter and Facebook are the new streets, and hearts, retweets and likes the new roars of approval.
The spectacle has also adapted to the visual, online medium: holding up a board is the new way to big up the cause. “#BringBackOurGirls” happened on placards: Michelle Obama posed with hers in the Oval Office, and Cara Delevingne Instagrammed her board to her 5.5m followers.Then there was the controversial “I, too, am Oxford” protest about a lack of diversity at the university, and its rejoinder “We are all Oxford”: both dialogues were conducted on boards. Project Unbreakable, created by US photographer Grace Brown, is a photography project showcasing images of thousands of girls who have survived sexual assault, each holding a placard with a quote from her attacker.
Now, Pride in London — the organisation that celebrates the LGBTQ+ community in London — is taking its campaign to the board. The theme of this year’s festival, which runs from June 22-29, with the parade itself on June 28 — is #FreedomTo.
To champion the cause on social media, organisers want supporters to share pictures of themselves holding up posters stating what freedom means to them, prefaced with the hashtag. High-profile supporters include Graham Norton, who asks for the “#FreedomTo ...be camp”, and the gay rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who asks for the “#FreedomTo ...love and be loved”. Actor Sir Ian McKellen asks for the “#FreedomTo be who you are and what you would like to be”.
“We have a responsibility to send a message to people in the UK and across the world: if you are LGBT+ you should have the ‘#Freedom to be who you are and what you would like to be’ without fear,” says McKellen. “I encourage the LGBT+ community and our magnificent straight allies to get involved in Prideinlondon.org and share their #FreedomTo.”
“Last year’s theme was love and marriage because the Equal Marriage Bill was going through Parliament,” explainsMichael Salter, chair of Pride in London. “But this year there was a lot of concern about what was going on in Uganda and Russia, and the question was what can we do as a city to highlight inequality abroad as well as where there are still inequalities in the UK? Here, things are now a lot more about attitudinal change — for example, homophobic bullying in schools — so we came up with #FreedomTo: the theme can be interpreted however you want. It allows people to celebrate and to be comfortable — it unites a lot of causes in one.”
“It’s important for everyone to have the #FreedomTo be who they are and to live their lives free from the fear of bigotry and prejudice,” agrees Angela Eagle MP, Britain’s first out lesbian MP.
Activists: get on board to take your cause to the masses.
