Weapons of mass obstruction: protest symbols, from rubber ducks to pussyhats

By Matthew Sweet

How does a group of people signal its displeasure? With whatever it has to hand. Sometimes, with the hand itself. The precise method is less important than the numbers. If a crowd can raise a salute or a wooden spoon or a plastic toy, this tells the authorities that other forms of resistance are also possible. Anything, it seems, can be freighted with rebellion: in 2014 police in Bangkok began arresting demonstrators who turned public sandwich-eating into an anti-authoritarian gesture (when protests were banned, pro-democracy activists took to holding sedate picnics instead).

In recent weeks, opponents of the military coup in Myanmar have developed their own symbols. Some have been seen pushing their thumbs and pinkies together to raise three fingers to the generals: a modern gesture that, carried by internet memes, has moved swiftly from the “Hunger Games” films to the streets of Asia, gathering meaning on the way. For Katniss Everdeen and the original fictional discontents of District 12, those three fingers meant overturning the dictatorship of Donald Sutherland’s silky villain. For the Filipino students who adopted the salute in their successful campaign to oust a corrupt college dean, they represented transparency, accountability and academic excellence.