How Glitter Bombing Lost Its Sparkle: The Emergence and Decline of a Novel Social Movement Tactic*

Abstract

This article explores the case of glitter bombing, a short-lived form of protest in the LGBT rights movement, to understand the mechanisms behind the decline of a novel tactic. To date, little attention has been directed toward tactics that have disappeared from movement repertoires. Using interview data, I find that glitter bombing declined due to many of the same factors that initially provided momentum for its diffusion. First, it was specific to LGBT rights to the degree that the audience of potential adopters was limited. At the same time, the radical nature of glitter bombing meant that adopters were peripheral movement actors who lacked organizational support. Activists dedicated limited resources to gaining media attention and online popularity, often at the cost of other crucial aspects of mobilization. Finally, an increase in repression multiplied these challenges by posing risks to adopters and shifting media coverage away from the tactic's celebratory framing.

After the March: Using Instagram to Perform and Sustain the Women's March

“…This body of work shows how, as Taylor et al. (:866) put it, “social movements often adapt, create, and use culture—ritual, music, street theatre, art, the Internet, and practices of everyday life—to make collective claims.” Other examples include the use of “glitter bombs” in the LGBTQ movement (Galli ), singing in the 2011 Wisconsin Uprising (Paretskaya ), and street theater in AIDS activism (Gould ). Yet while these examples illustrate the performative aspect of protest clearly, we see all political acts as performance, whether they feature dramatic, eye‐catching displays or not.…”

“…Since the introduction of the Internet, SMOs and activists have found ICTs useful for planning and staging protest events, both online and offline. Studies of well-known recent and current social movements, including Occupy, Arab Spring, and the Movement for Black Lives, show the importance of ICTs to the emergence of these movements (e.g., Abul-Fottouh and Fetner 2018; Gamson and Sifry 2013;Nielsen 2013;Ray et al 2017;Tufekci 2017). Activists also use ICTs creatively, during the course of physical protest activities.…”

Mass Transit Shutdowns as a Tactical Innovation in Bogotá, Colombia

“…This coincides with Álvaro Uribe's term (2002)(2003)(2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008)(2009)(2010) as President of Colombia. This period is known to have spurred a sustained increase in the levels of contention across the country (Murillo 2009;Rochlin 2012;Sarmiento and Delgado 2007;Velasco 2011), which is important for this study because novel protest tactics-such as TM shutdowns-are known to emerge during times of intense collective contention (Galli 2016;McAdam 1983;Tarrow 2010).…”

Contentious Tactics as Jazz Performances: A Pragmatist Approach to the Study of Repertoire Change

“…Fourth, I use these conceptual redefinitions to pose a new model for understanding tactical innovation and repertoire change based on tracing the relation between tactical affordances, contextual factors, and activists’ strategies and identities over time. I illustrate the model with three case studies of unforeseen tactical innovation: Galli’s (2016) work on glitter bombs, Beckwith’s (2000) study of workplace sit-ins, and Boutros’s (2017) analysis of antiharassment tactics. These works illustrate how innovations in repertoires emerge from a process of performative experimentation over habituated lines of action and, more specifically, when the affordances of these experiments become puzzle-solving, unexpectedly changing the dynamics of contention.…”