A sea of bold black letters painted on A4 paper submerges my kitchen, a few candles are lit, and a couple of drinks are on the table. We’re chatting, debating, laughing, there is music in the background. We’re trying not to get paint all over the place, and testing new techniques for the acrylics to dry faster. You can feel the thrill, the excitement, and some apprehension. Sometimes there’s even a cauldron of homemade glue bubbling away over the stove. Once everything is dry, we take to the streets with our buckets full of glue, our brushes, and our slogans.
Feminist Collages London is a branch of a queer-feminist collective that started in France in 2019. It is an activist collective that challenges the violent patriarchal system in place by pasting slogans onto the walls of London and cities around the world. It started as a form of protest to raise awareness about Femicide, fight against gender-based violence, and strongly support the victims. The Feminist Collages London provides us with a set of tools to make noise, let our voices and anger be heard.
I conducted a focus group with six members of the collective, to share ideas about what the group stands for, how they are represented, and why they joined the community in the first place. They communicate mainly through social media, making it an accessible and visible platform.
« I would like to walk in peace – leave me alone »
The important role of the streets as a battleground, loud but silent.
When asked why they joined the group, one participant said “this is my way to take back the space and exist in this masculine, toxic environment”- most people agreed. As a long history of protests shows, the streets have always been a battlefield for social change. FCL is re-appropriating a space riddled with toxic masculinity where many women and gender minorities feel unsafe. Feminist analysts refer to this public space as a « built environment, constituted by, as well as constitutive of gender », FCL is participating in the deconstruction of this environment’s hostility. People who are unheard, underrepresented, who feel like they cannot be themselves are redefining their own experience of the streets by engaging with this community.
« There is a strong desire to exist in the streets, it’s somewhere I don’t feel comfortable because of street harassment, I wanted to take back the streets. »
« I feel powerful when we are a group »
The collective.
Throughout our conversation, I realised that a lot of people were also looking for a sense of community, solidarity, and safety. The idea of the group as a safe place is important when sticking, they stick en mixité choisie, which means that the group has deliberately chosen not to accept cis-men. When they are out as a group, the uneasiness, and fears of the everyday shift to another focus. They are empowered in numbers. The voices of these people need to be heard and not intermediated. The adelphic nature of the group adds to this sense of safety and community: “I think we are building our own world. Step by step things are moving.”
« Everyone knows a victim but who knows a rapist »
Who needs to hear it?
The messages transmitted via the slogans are varied, especially in Feminist Collages London, which strives to be inclusive and intersectional. A participant mentioned how inclusive the slogans were when they looked them up on Instagram, they also mentioned how inclusivity can be an issue in so many feminist movements: « Whenever I see slogans about trans people in the streets it makes me feel so happy ». The topics of the slogans can be personal, collective but most of all they target everyone, and no one. They are there for people to see, you can have the same message for different targets. It leaves no one indifferent. They make some feel uncomfortable, some are intrigued, some empowered. « It’s such a way for people to re-appropriate the streets for themselves, to talk about their experience without necessarily trying to make them relatable ».
As an act of civil disobedience, sticking does come with obstacles. When on the streets, in action, FCL tends to stick fast and move quickly to avoid police confrontation, however, most of the participants seemed to be more weary of the passers-by, having had bad experiences in the past. One of the participants talked her experience when out sticking: a man was arguing with her and being a bit aggressive, “he completely denied our struggle” she said that she was most afraid of this kind of intereaction, especially when the message is about ones own experience.
“I remember the first time I went sticking, I felt really peaceful”
"Inclusivity is knowing that there are lots of different ways to be a human being"
FCL is a grassroots movement that stands for inclusivity, intersectionality, and decentralisation. We spoke about these ‘pillars’ with the group. It’s important to underline this as many feminist groups do not comply with these values. Inclusivity and intersectionality go hand in hand, one participant said that they felt included and empowered by being a part of FCL they referred to inclusivity and intersectionality as “reading frames”. The FCL is a horizontal movement, meaning that there is no hierarchy, and the decisions are made democratically. Another participant “As a woman of colour I feel like it’s quite rare to find…it’s also something to post messages about the experience of racialised people and it’s still very rare. This is an aspect of inclusivity that is important to me.”
The way that this movement has evolved from Paris to all over the world is also something that we talked about. The fact that it has grown also “contributes to the intersectionality of the movement it brings a bigger community of people together” says one of the participants. Sticking has become a worldwide tool to talk about many things, to fight different forms of oppression and violence, and to tell personal stories. It also leaves a space for hope, for example when they pay tribute to important black women, it becomes about visibility and respect which goes hand in hand with denouncing gendered-based violence when challenging existing systems of oppression.
Standing there in the cold, looking up at our collages, a strong sense of pride is lingering in the air. We have accomplished something tonight, something that people will see on the way to wherever they are going, it will become a part of the neighborhood for a short while. Hopefully, inquisitive heads will turn, some will question their privilege, some will deny it, some will rejoice, some will be apathetic but all in all we have left a bit of ourselves and so many on the street tonight.
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