“In France, reforms only come through revolutions.” 一 Charles de Gaulle
I arrived in Paris on August 30th. My study abroad program allows me to take courses at French universities. Two weeks after my arrival, I was absolutely enraged by French bureaucracy. To sign up for classes in France, you have to go in person to a secretary, who may or may not be in the office. The classes you have found to fit your schedule may or may not be held at the listed times, or may not even exist at all. I thought my frustrations were unjustified, merely a product of my over -dependence on American convenience. But when I discovered that the French students were just as lost as I was, the system’s flaws became apparent.
French universities are severely underfunded, and the systems are broken because no one has the motivation or the means to change them. The protests sprouted out of various issues that French lycée students (ages 15–18) encounter. Among the reasons: students are packed into classrooms too small for their class sizes, and teachers’ salaries are far too low and largely stagnant, making teaching an unsustainable profession. This has caused a shortage, meaning teachers go unreplaced for long periods of time and students’ learning suffers.
I first noticed that costuming and wearable art were playing a part in this movement when a pink inflatable cow stepped onto the metro car I had just exited. I’d also seen various clips of TikToker @Bisoù dressed as the Fortnite character Midas, mobilizing troops of dancers to the Patrick Sébastien song “Toc Toc.” Now I really started wondering: what on earth do a video game I played in middle school and an abnormally colored bovine have to do with France’s youth revolution? Times Now answers: “For a generation raised on anime, gaming, memes and social media, these [costumes] offer a common language that can bring together people who might otherwise have little in common.” In Fortnite lore (both canon and fan-theorized), Midas revolts against an endless mind-controlled cycle called “The Loop,” which wipes characters’ memories after battles and forces them to fight again and again. He therefore acts as a symbol of resistance against a broken system. References to One Piece and its protagonist, Monkey D. Luffy, are also easy to spot in the crowds. Luffy and his ruffian pirate crew, the Straw Hats, fight for absolute freedom and against the deeply flawed organization of the Marines. The person in the pink cow costume likely didn’t dress up to signal a pop culture reference, but rather, as another costumed protester put it in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, because “it truly brings joy during this dark moment in France’s history.” A protest that is being watched around the world can be incomprehensible to those on the outside. Using accessible symbols and shared references gives spectators the opportunity to better understand the protest’s intentions and to support it from afar.
I’ve also been following the protests through my host mother’s eyes; she, as one would expect of the French, is remarkably opinionated. She explains French culture to me, laughing to herself while quoting the philosopher Raymond Aron: “The French from time to time have revolutions but never reforms.” She explains that revolution is in their blood. Then she quotes a French proverb: “Revolutions are started by idealists, written by philosophers, and finished by scoundrels.” She understands the protests through these “truths.” While my host mother agrees that the French have a tendency to revolt, she criticizes the protests, saying that they’ve become too violent and that the French government is at a stalemate. She believes no progress can come from continued protest. She goes on about the looting of high-end stores, saying it’s really the fault of the “gamins de banlieue,” which translates directly to “kids from the suburbs” but carries the connotation of “kids from the hood.” The term is charged, as the banlieues are home largely to immigrant and marginalized populations.
Since the protests started and the violence skyrocketed, there has been pervasive anti-immigrant rhetoric, particularly from the far-right populist party, the Rassemblement National (RN). Marine Le Pen, a central figure in the RN, blames “decades of anarchic immigration” for the riots. She is echoed by a fellow right-wing politician, Donald Trump, who has claimed that France is being “conquered, looted and burned to the ground by migrants, jihadists and communists.”
The wreckage in these protests can be attributed to what the French call “les casseurs,” “the breakers.” French President Emmanuel Macron went on air saying, “We should never mix up those people—there’s men and women who protested peacefully—with looters and rioters.” Yet it seems the far right, or really any party that doesn’t support the protests, is using the unrest to push its own political agenda and win support in the upcoming election. Immigrant communities have unjustly come under scrutiny; it is neither right nor just to blame an entire population for destruction carried out by people of many different identities and communities. Additionally, the violence doesn’t come only from the protesters; police have used extreme measures, causing horrific injuries to students.
The protests are left-led and pro-immigrant, and the protesters’ beliefs are evident in their visual communication. Fashion is but another form of visual communication: across the waves of protesters, keffiyehs flash in the crowd. Keffiyehs are a symbol of the pro-Palestine movement, signaling that the movement rejects anti-immigrant rhetoric by extending its support to foreign conflicts and to displaced and oppressed populations. Beyond the theatrical costumes, the protesters communicate their beliefs through other well-known references and symbols. What we wear is the most immediate form of expression, especially at a time when everything is broadcast, and not always broadcast with a voice attached. Visual communication is a tool for sharing and propelling intent, and it has helped spark similar protests across Europe.