Peter Tatchell Wing |
POLITICS AS PERFORMANCE
The Art of Making a Scene
Making a Scene, Edited by Henry Rogers & David
Burrows, ARTicle Press Birmingham in association with the IKON gallery, 31
December 2000, £12.
Further information: + 44 (0) 121 331 5970
MAKING A SCENE explores the interface between literary theory, performance art,
cultural criticism and political activism.
The anthology includes chapters by critics, philosophers and activists from the
US and Britain, including Gilane Tawadros, Henry Rogers, Coco Fusco, Jonathan
Katz, Amelia Jones, and Peter Tatchell.
In his contribution to Making A Scene, Peter Tatchell theorises the direct
action campaigns of the queer rights group OutRage! as "the art of
activism", where the creative style and symbolism of protest are used to
amplify and empower the political content and message:
Excerpt from the chapter, The Art of Activism: Protest As Performance, by Peter
Tatchell:
"The direct action campaigns of the queer rights group OutRage! are an
example of a unique political genre - "protest as performance". Our
juxtaposition of political themes and cultural forms borrows ideas from
performance art to promote an explicit human rights message. This "art of
activism" campaigning seeks to profile lesbian and gay emancipation in a
way that is both educative and entertaining. Much of
OutRage!'s direct action is also challenging and confrontational, claiming for
the queer community public spaces and agendas that have been hitherto
off-limits. Our bid for justice often involves intruding - usually
uninvited! - into previously all-heterosexual domains where we stage symbolic
spectacles that question the orthodoxy and presumptions of straight morality and
culture.
This OutRage! activism has included, among other things, taking over
solemn state ceremonies and appropriating sacred symbols of national
consciousness, such as Remembrance Sunday at the national war memorial, the
Cenotaph. Our annual alternative Queer Remembrance Day ceremony occupies - both
physically and spiritually - a place of national identity and significance. It
projects onto the geographic space of the Cenotaph, and into the emotional space
of the commemoration of the war dead, a subversive queer message......
By celebrating Queer Remembrance Day at the Cenotaph we are performing an
act of subversive political symbolism in a hallowed place of national importance
that has been previously forbidden to queers. This claiming of a state memorial
and ritual for a queer agenda challenges invisibility and censorship, promoting
public awareness and debate about a marginalised element of queer history and
suffering.
Queer Remembrance Day illustrates the way OutRage! transcends a
purely legalistic approach to homosexual liberation. Unlike the mainstream,
respectable wing of lesbian and gay rights campaigning, which tends to be
co-opted into the confines of parliamentary politics and law reform, OutRage!'s
model of direct action is foremost about raising consciousness and transforming
cultural attitudes and values concerning queer issues. We are seeking to
simultaneously revolutionise ethics, opinions, laws and institutions, in
order to change fundamentally the way society thinks and acts about
homosexuality. Moreover, we are not merely trying to change the way straight
society perceives queers; we are also attempting to change the way the lesbian
and gay community perceives itself.....
For queers on the receiving end of bigotry, the label of
"victim" can be profoundly disempowering and dispiriting. That is why
OutRage! tries - through its militant direct action tactics - to undermine the
notion of gays-as-victims. In its place, we seek to create a new queer
consciousness of pride, defiance and resistance, where fags and dykes maintain a
sceptical, discerning attitude towards straight culture and refuse to conform to
the dictates of heterosexual society.
A precondition for the self-respect and self-empowerment of queers
is overturning the psychologically disabling victim mentality that has been
foisted upon us by straight society, and which many homosexuals have themselves
embraced in a bid for public sympathy.
OutRage!'s feisty, sassy brand of political activism is an explicit
rejection of the cowering, defeatist, long-suffering image of victimhood. Our
confrontational protests, where we dare to challenge even the most powerful
homophobes, are about making the mental and political transition from victim to
victor; creating a new, strong, uplifting identity of queers fighting back and
overcoming oppression".
peter@tatchell.freeserve.co.uk
http://www.petertatchell.net
Message originated from peter@tatchell.freeserve.co.uk
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