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Protesting in Professional Attire: A Follow-Up |
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Never underestimate the power of small groups, and never underestimate the power of symbols.
As some readers may be aware, The Seminal staff attended September 15’s antiwar march dressed in professional attire. We also distributed pamphlets that included two of our recent articles: one explaining our dress code, and one stating our belief that the progressive community needs to generate its own strategies for extricating the US from Iraq.
We were four strong. But the response that we got, especially from other protesters, was incredible. First, no one criticized us or made any negative comments. Though many were skeptical, skepticism quickly turned to curiosity or approval after we said the words “professionalism” and “seriousness,” and many people walked away from us only to stop a few feet away, deeply absorbed as they read our pamplets. Second, people took us seriously. People complimented us on our ideas, made way when we walked by, and spoke to us more politely than they would have had we been dressed in casual clothing. Third, we could feel ourselves challenging stereotypes. The counter-protesters on the side of the streets looked at us strangely; one woman whose sign read “hippies smell” was clearly perplexed. Fourth, our appearance sparked several interesting conversations with strangers, drawing out larger issues of organization and discipline at protests.
Based on the response we received as four people, we are ready and excited to try the tactic again in stronger numbers. We feel confident that a coordinate group of ten people, all dressed in professional attire, would present a striking visual image, and that a hundred or more would literally cause jaws to drop - and perhaps attract serious media attention as well. Given that we are fully prepared to express the goals of the antiwar movement (as we see them) in an articulate and forceful manner, camera time would be invaluable.
The idea of dressing in professional attire is neither original nor complicated. In fact, it is the tactic’s simplicity and directness that gives it power. We plan to continue using it and expanding upon it as we attend further peace demonstrations. Anyone interested in lending their support should contact us at seminal@theseminal.com.
Finally, if you like this tactic, we encourage you to use it on your own. As our experience demonstrated (both to us and to other people), even on a small scale it can be surprisingly effective.
Glad to hear it was effective!
Thats an awesome idea guys. Instead of waving signs and acting all a ruckus. Act serious, show your serious and people will notice. Great Job.
I really like this idea. It makes a lot of sense. It seems maybe too many protesters aren’t thinking creatively enough and thus aren’t gaining the attention for the cause that they should be. It’s not good to be easily marginalized.
What you should be looking at are the early civil rights marches in Belfast and Derry. Silent and dour and very catholic. Dark, brooding northern catholic, not the hipity-hop catholic of the americas. Of course, that all collapsed into violence, and t’was violence that won through in the end, so make of it what you will.
Best of luck increasing your cohort - the image of a whole horde of rebellious G-Men descending on the capitol is too good to pass up.
Good idea, but making up words like “professionality” doesn’t help create the desired effect. Try professionalism next time.
Bravo! I was down there as well and I think I saw you guys. Excellent work and excellent idea. Hopefully, it gains momentum. Keep it up!
Have you heard of Billionaires for Bush? Similar idea, but with a more ironic spin. I like the idea. Keep it going!
I did not know that”professionality” was a word.
Next time, some advance notice would be nice. Putting a submission up on Reddit less than a week beforehand is pretty useless for someone living in, say, Minneapolis. If you’re already working on getting something organized for another event, you should let people know right now. Not a week in advance, not a month in advance, now.
I had this very same idea a few years ago! I’m glad to see someone putting it into effect!
Great job! Keep up the good work! 
Research certainly substantiates the idea that people dressed neatly in suits are taken more seriously and get a better reception than people dressed down. Your example will perhaps inspire others to think about the impression they create with their dress. Some will criticize it as “superficial—appearances should not matter”, but they are speaking from an ideology and ignoring the fact that apperance DOES matter. One must not only BE serious and thoughtful about the issues, to convince others one must also SEEM serious and thoughtful. The serious dress does it. Many thanks for setting a good example.
Professionality is part of the strategery, yuk.
I’m curious as hell, who is who in the photos ?
I think Jro is the one with the curls.
Introduce yourselves, put a caption under the photos.
You guy’s ( and gal ) look so nice I just want to pinch your cheeks like a proud grandma.
Its all in good fun. Congrats on your efforts to break the stereotype.
Now you need to put the same applications toward the message.
Incredible, but simple idea. I think that you are on the right track. Imagine if everyone showed up to a protest in professional attire. I think it would make a much larger statement than it normally would.
While I agree with the anti-war protests, it is always ridiculous to see the signs comparing Bush to Hitler, etc. If you want to make an impact, be professional. Good job!
Introductions:
In the above photo, from left to right, Josh’s girlfriend, Josh, J-Ro, and Ish.
J-ro !
Eating good these days huh?
hate to break it to you guys, but people have come up with this idea for years and it always ends the same way: with your suit and tie head getting busted in by the police. and i don’t mean the mpd or capitol police, i mean a real police force, like miami or nyc. here is a guy trying it down at the ftaa protests in november, 2003:
he was beaten and arrested; listen, free speech shouldn’t require a dress code. and a dress code certainly won’t stop storm troopers from taking away your rights when they receive an order to.
issues are issues no matter what clothes you wear, and the stereotypes we need to break are the ones that say “respectable” looking people are allowed to have free speech and “disreputable” looking people are not allowed the same. think about that.
link did not go through last time (filtered out)
http://media.collegepublisher.com/media/paper308/stills/nx2i867n.jpg
link to photo included as website.
You know, if one person, just one person does it they may think he’s really sick and they won’t take him. And if two people, two people do it, in harmony, they may think they’re both [spies] and they won’t take either of them. And three people do it, three, can you imagine, three people [wearing serious attire]. They may think it’s an organization. And can you, can you imagine fifty people [...]. And friends they may think it’s a movement.
You should have included some kind of unique URL into your pamphlets, just to count the interested people
pet spina.
I am a frequent conservative poster at this site.
The staff and I have had our share of run ins on countless threads.
Although I support the war for my own reasons I must come to their defense on behalf of their efforts to repair a divide created by people like you.
You are a classic example of the attitude expressed in the left that I love to bash.
Tear it up and beat it down with no solution in sight.
Any fool can critisize anything. It is suggestions and praise that motivate and get a movement forward.
We are all only human. And as much as any ideal is put forward we all pre judge things by first impressions. It is a natural defense mechanism that is built in to us all.
Should these genlemen that went looking like they meant business be discouraged by your attitude that it hasnt worked before and wont work this time ?
Fuck it ! If were gonna get our ass kicked by the cops we might as well dress like slobs ? Is that what you are saying? Sounds like it.
Free speech has no other requirement other than you not deprive someone else of his civil liberties while you are in the act of the speech.
So let them dress up and do what they think is important to their cause without your bullshit negativity.
And where do you get this B.S. that it always ends up the same way ? J-ro and company came home in one peice, right ?
Some protesters intentionally cause civil discourse for the sole pupose of the attention factor. Its the ones that carry it too far and resist the arrest that get the hard end of the stick. It doesnt have a damn thing to do with what they are wearing.
I was born in the 50s and was a flower child of the 60s.
I saw protesters mistreated on a scale this country has never seen since then.
I can say assuredly that the world today is way more tolerant than you would try to lead us to believe with your implication by only a handful of incidents.
If a congressman see’s and hears your message and walks up to you and invites you to lunch to discuss the issue, its better to be dressed and ready to go to a place where the Maitre`D doesnt have to loan you a shirt and tie.
You want to talk business ? Dress like it !
Why do think all your elected leaders dress the way they do ? The are required codes of conduct in the business world, verbally and visually.
So, to use your own logic in reverse lets put it this way.
Since its the voice the message and the issue that matter the most, put a cherry on that sundae and get dressed !
Keep up the good work! I think I might do that too!
Being so concerned with appearances, none of the photos above give an indication as to your support of the issue. Sell one of the suits and use the money to take a picture while holding a “sign of protest” and you’d be more effective. (Sorry, can’t read the tiny buttons.)
“Hippies stink†is an ad hominem argument; it defeats itself by indicating the bigotry and shallowness of the originator. Aren’t you simply reinforcing the class barriers in an apologist costume? Isn’t your self-satisfied and divisional message one of pandering to the bias’ of others, while inflicting unneeded snarky criticism upon your fellow protesters?
Forget all the naysayers gentlemen, as I’m sure you already have. They’re the types who pick out negatives regardless of the validity of an idea, exposing either the narrow scope of their minds or the spiteful path of their thought process. “Haters” is the term used in certain social circles of America. And cheers to Micky for hitting the nail on the head. put a cherry on that sundae.
Wow, you found out that people will take you more seriously if you don’t dress like a smelly hippie and use curse words everyother word. Wow you pinko commies are catching on. Next thing you know you may figure out that your wrong…..scary isn’t it.
Great job. And, regarding those comments about using the word “professionality”… no,it’s not in Websters…yet.
However, if you google the word, you receive 155,000 results (as of now). Some of those results are from governmental agencies from around the world; others from fortune 500 companies. It’s a swell word. (swell: first-rate; fine: a swell party. per websters.)
(sorry…just one of my pet peeves. I see people “correcting” Mark Twain’s manuscripts and returning pages with red corrections.
(yeah…i know i just set myself up. I can take it.)
Hey Mike !
I can smell you from here.
And I live in Hawaii!!!, LOL
You did it. Novel idea and you actually did it. Just keep going. You can change the world.
@Chiphead,
Good eye. If you’ll accept fatigue after a long weekend as an excuse, maybe you’ll still believe me that I do know how to use the English language. The change has been made back to the correct vocabulary, but I’ll leave the comments up just for the sake of transparency.
“So concerned with appearances?” Have you paid any attention to American culture or politics recently? We’re adapting our tactics to the realities of the society and the political climate we live in. In an age of soundbites and mass media, you often have less than thirty seconds to get your point across. We’re not shallow, we’re harnassing the power of images to grab attention. Even a cursory study of the history of social movements should teach you that they are often made or broken by their ability to use symbols.
As far as class issues, it is your assumption that suits are the hallmark of class division, not ours. Our approach is not meant to exclude anyone, nor to criticize our fellow protesters - when, in fact, have we done that?
Sorry I didn’t get a photo of you guys, but I did happen to catch Josh in one I took just before I ran into you:
http://flickr.com/photos/kcivey/1394313564/
Once again, I see three pictures of well dressed individuals. No message. No illustration of you being anything other than casual bystanders. Actually your dress distances you from the activities behind you in the first picture. These pictures could have just as easily appeared on a young republican’s Facebook under the caption, “Caught in a protest”. I don’t see anyone harnessing attention or using insight into culture or politics at all, only your reinforcement of unfortunate stereotypes as protest fashionistas.
Firstly, you’re taking things out of context. We didn’t carry signs because we didn’t need to - our physical presence signaled where we stood on the issues. We were also ready with our literature. Secondly, your negative reaction was one that we did not hear EVEN ONCE from our fellow protesters. As soon as we explained our reasoning, many people complimented us, and no one was offended.
Looks like we’re challenging your stereotypes, then. Since when does one political party have a monopoly on suits?
Likewise the stinky hippy need not heed your fashion prescription, his physical presence signals where he stands on issues. Thanks for attending the protest and being active in ending the war.
If you can get 4 people to show up at every Iowa caucus site with the same attitude and dress, you can elect anyone you want, and stop this stupid war.
Now that’s how you fight the system. Bravo.
I work for a spiritual organization and media house called EnlighteNext. Among other things, we produce a magazine called “What Is Enlightenment†(www.wie.org) which aims to address many of the urgent and pressing questions relating to spirituality, politics, philosophy, business, science and all other areas of culture in new and meaningful ways that make sense for the times we’re living in. Our mission is to help catalyze a revolution in consciousness and culture and to be at the leading edge of defining the emerging values and ways of thinking that will help our culture to truly evolve in the most positive and necessary ways.
Many of us here have been recognizing for some time that a lot of the values typically associated with the liberal left; values which many of us have consciously or unconsciously cultivated in our own ways, are no longer serving us, and in fact are actually holding us back from moving forward in our own development as individuals, but more importantly as a collective cultural force to be reckoned with.
Recently, a few of my co-workers and I were discussing our own growing distaste for the ultra-casual image and attitude adopted by “lefties†and the message that sends about their values. Don’t get me wrong. Not too long ago I counted myself among them, but at least some of my “leftie†values have definitely begun to shift in quite dramatic ways the more I really question them. One of the things I’ve realized is that the left is so often not taken seriously because they don’t present themselves in a serious way. They don’t take themselves seriously enough to present a serious, sharp and professional image, so naturally others don’t take them very seriously. So, when my friend emailed me a link to your article about protesting in professional attire I thought it was just great. I think you guys are really onto something important that goes deeper than just what people are wearing. It’s about a different relationship to life. It’s about taking life seriously and expressing that by how you represent yourself to the world. It’s also about not trying so desperately to set yourselves apart from the rest of culture by showing that you’re “differentâ€Â. We need to stop cultivating attitudes of division and begin working to create more common ground.
I believe that there’s a way to be formal without being stuffy, stiff or conservative, and we’re finding that out together here. Formality can be about expressing a natural nobility, and self-respect that does not need to be pretentious or arrogant, but is more about expressing a seriousness of character and intention. And, as you’re finding out, it sends a strong and clear message that’s hard to argue with. I believe that In light of the current world situation we can no longer afford to be casual. It’s just not the appropriate response to the times were living in. It’s great to see that there are others out there realizing that its no longer cool to be casual. Casual won’t save the world.
Keep up the good work!
If nothing else it shows you guys can afford a suit
I am interested in the topic of protest behavior. Your idea of wearing professional wear is interesting to me. I understand that you felt that you were treated with more respect than you might have been had you been dressed in casual clothing.
What concerns me most regarding the behavior of the protesting public is violent and hateful / hostile attitudes, actions and language.
I think that a nonviolent standard of behavior would generate an increasingly large popular social justice movement.
I am not sure creating expectations of how people should or shouldn’t look is the best way to develop a large protest movement. Though I like your idea for the potential attention it might elicit.
I think the most important thing is for people to feel comfortable when protesting. If that means wearing a suit, so be it. If that means wearing a locally loomed and grown cotton sheet - so be it.
What creates comfort for me is not how people are dressed, but how people are emotionally. Nonviolent attitudes, behavior and language help me to feel comfortable when I am confronting the institutions which enable war, violence and destruction. When I am confronting George Bush’s policy on Iraq, I want to be prepared to forgive him for his wrongdoings, and give him a genuine hug in order to initiate the healing process. There must always be space for reconciliation. Even when the reality is so grim.
Sorry for rambling on like that.
You all look good in your suits / dress. But I think it was your calm and cool demeanor that has the most potential to win the day - in the end.
@
- Robert Whitlock
I think that you have a very good point Robert. I also think it dovetails with the attitude that these young activists are taking.
I believe that the tradition of nonviolence and civil disobedience must be nurtured and cultivated. That should be the driving force behind any creative political action. It seems to me that this ideal was present in this experiment.
I found the article well written and I feel it explained why the group felt the need to do something new.
Good work! It’s nice to see people challenging stereotypes, and trying new ideas since “regular” protests don’t work anymore. I hope you managed to do this again with more people, and gain media attention … make it clear it’s not just “dirty hippies” who can’t tolerate the stench of the Bush policy.
Lawyers in Pakistan tried something similar earlier. http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/in_pictures/6442747.stm
Appearance does matter so all you ugly overweight people stay at home. Is that suit coat second hand? Sorry, that’s not the right appearance. Do you really think that tie matches your socks? Sorry. You can’t march with us.
alex,
this is so great! an apparently effective counterpart to billionaires for bush. i’m living in boston (cambridge to be exact), let’s be in touch.
also, i enjoy this site. keep up the good work.
peace,
lindsay
Good idea. Next time I’m holding a small protest at an embassy again I’ll tell the people to dress up… Chances of actually getting to speak to someone would be a lot higher then when everyone looks like “hippies”.
Cool!
Superb idea. The media so often forgets that people from all walks of life work for peace every single day. Many of us work for peace in our offices as well as our homes. Thank you for making us visible and giving us a voice.