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En bref
Burmese dissidents protested Myanmar’s ruling junta by encouraging supporters to mail panties to foreign embassies and top generals (who superstitiously feared that female underwear sapped their power).
In 2007, after a brutal crackdown on widespread democratic protests, public protest in Myanmar (also known as Burma) became impossible. Nonetheless, dissent remained widespread, and many creative, subversive and lower-risk actions proliferated. Though they weren’t enough to overcome the generals’ grip on power, these actions served to further isolate the ruling generals, helping people overcome their fear and trauma and feel part of an active resistance.
Nothing breaks the spell of power quite so effectively as laughter.
Playing on the military leadership's superstitious fear that coming into contact with women's underwear could take away their power, Lanna Action for Burma called on women across Myanmar to protest the regime and its use of sexual violence by mailing panties to the generals. Supporters around the world were also asked to mail panties to their Myanmar embassy or consulate.
Lanna Action for Burma also used other symbolic means to ridicule the military and confront the government. Association with stray dogs is highly offensive in Burmese culture, so activists attached images of Senior General Than Shwe to the collars of stray dogs. On his birthday, they baked cakes in the shape of panties with Than Shwe’s face on them, and would leave them in the street for stray dogs to feed on. Later, to protest the corrupt 2010 elections, Lanna Action for Burma engaged in a bit of electoral guerrilla theatre, attemping to register the Lanna Panty Party, circulating a “pantifesto”, and vowing to “contest and win the Burma 2010 elections, form a transitional government and hand over power to the peoples of Burma, and then have a nice lie down with a good book and a cool beer” (see: TACTIC: Electoral guerrilla theatre).
During a time of extreme state violence, when public gatherings were outlawed, the “panty power” action offered easy and low-risk ways to express dissent. It brilliantly used superstition and cultural taboo to inject humor into a dire situation and undermine an immensely powerful opponent.
Tactique clé
At a time when public gatherings were outlawed, this action gave people a way to protest in a decentralized fashion, on their own time and in their own lives, both in Myanmar and abroad.
Principe clé
This action brings to mind the story of the emperor who paraded through the streets naked because he’d been told that only the stupid and incompetent wouldn’t be able to see his supposed new clothes. In both cases, the power of the ruler proves to be extremely vulnerable to laughter and ridicule, whether it’s a child exclaiming that the emperor has no clothes or women pointing out that the generals are afraid of underwear. Nothing breaks the spell of power quite so effectively as laughter.