A suffragette was a member of an activist women’s organisation in the early 20th Century who, under the banner ‘Votes for Women’, fought for the right to vote in public elections, known as women’s suffrage.

It was formen in 1903, by Emmeline Pankhurst, which engaged in direct action and civil obedience. This meant that the suffragets usually engaged in heckling politicians, trying to storm parliament, being sexually assaulted during battles with the police, chaining themselves to railings, smashing windows, setting fire to post boxes and buildings, setting bombs, and faced enormous anger and ridicule from the media. This was a shock factor tactic in order to get people’s attention and to urge politicians to change the rights for women as soon as possible.

The suffraget campaign was suspended when WW1 broke out in 1914. After the war however, the Representation of People Act 1918 gave the vote to women over the age of 30 who met certain property qualifications. Ten years later, wome gained electoral equality with men when the Representation of People (Equal Franchise) Act 1928 gave all women the ability to vote at age 21.

This can be compared in a way to BLM (Black Lives Matter). Black people specifically have been scrutinized by police, mainly in America, however there has been examples of this kinds of prejudice in the UK also – police are making a stereotype against black people and harming them – sometimes to the point of death – due to the stereotype that is held by the police. This is unfair and is a form of discrimination held against them purely due to their skin colour. This is the same for women in the early 20th Century, because they were women, they were seen as unfit to vote and

were stereotyped into being less educated, less intelligent, less dominant etc. Because of their gender, their rights were taken away from them. The types of protests can also be compared, BLM and Votes for Women used violent, shock tactics in order to gain attention from world leaders and politicians since no one was listening or paying attention any other way. During BLM protests, riots were held, looting took place and fires were ignited.

Dadaism was a movement with explicitly political overtones and was a reaction to senseless slaughter of the trenches of WW1. It essentially declared war against war, countering the absurdity of the establishment’s descent into chaos with its own kind of nonsense.

Popular Dada artists include: Marcel Duchamp, Francis Picabia, George Grosz, Otto Dix, John Heartfield, Hannah Hoch, Max Ernst, Tristan Tzara, Richard Hulsenbeck and Marcel Janco.

There is some controversy over where Dada first originated. Some believe that the movement first developed in the Cabaret Voltaire, an avant-garde nightclub in Zurich, others claim a Romanian origin. Dadaism is often characterised by humor and whimsy, tending towards the absurd. This kind of attitude was used as a satirical critique of the prevailing societal and political systems . to which the onslaught of WW1 was largely attributed to.

The name Dada is one derived from nonsense and irrationality. In some languages in means ‘yes, yes’ as a parody of the population’s senseless obedience to authority, whilst in others it has completely different meanings or connotations.