Women’s March Colloquy - Chants of the Resistance: Flow, Memory, and Inclusivity

Abstract

Participating in the Women’s March in New York in 2017, this author was struck by how quiet the march seemed, relative to Japanese protests. This essay considers the ways in which policing shapes the sound of protests. In Japan, heavy policing renders protests less visible, compelling Japanese protesters to use sound to make their claims known; chanting, recognized as important in building solidarity, is often led and planned. The Women’s March in New York was privileged by light policing; it didn’t need sound to be seen. The leaderless atmosphere of the Women’s Marches led to a high rate of innovation in chanting. Drawing from ethnography and videos of thirty protests, the essay analyzes the chants of the first six months of the Resistance. Using a combination of humor, references to recent events, interaction with popular music, and intertextuality with historical protest culture, these chants and songs engage protesters and issues in memorable fashion. Aiding the construction of these new chants is their tendency to follow the familiar musical forms of sentences or periods, and their frequent use of pre-existing text patterns. The essay ends with a critique of the decline in intersectionality seen in the 2018 Women’s March in New York and a call for agonistic democracy.