Protesters drew on sci-fi cosplay aesthetics to build combat identity

Evidence

It became routine for wealthier braves to engage in combat with police, ripping up the street and throwing stones or building barricades, and then simply ditch the “full gear” on the street at the end of the night in order to return home undetected. In addition to the “three finger” salute from The Hunger Games, members of the movement drew on other aspects from global popular culture—like The Avengers, Star Wars, or Neon Genesis Evangelion—to shape representation of the movement. Antony Dapiran, who was deeply sympathetic to the movement, wrote, “The barricade sociality had given the protesters an identity, and forged them into a cohesive unit that could match the police play for play. And if the protesters’ full-gear outfits were a uniform, they were also in this sense a costume. Some became increasingly elaborate in their theatricality, reveling in a dystopian post-apocalyptic sci-fi chic: this was a protest of cosplay.” — Vincent Bevins, If We Burn, 774

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Anti-war splinter groups radicalized into theatrical protest tactics via factional chain — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now: The 1960s New York…, 2009; Recruitment pitches weaponized military imagery from video games and blockbusters

Broader Connections

• Anti-war splinter groups radicalized into theatrical protest tactics via factional chain #expands (0.75) — J. Hoberman, Everything Is Now, 2009
• Recruitment pitches weaponized military imagery from video games and blockbusters #expands (0.70)