Complaint and Project Connection

Luis Gonzalez

Acts of Resistance: Activist, Interlopers, and Pranksters SP 19

Professor Cacoilo

April 8, 2019

Complaint and Project Connection

The Guerrilla Girls are feminist activist artists. They wear gorilla masks in public and use facts, humor and outrageous visuals to expose gender and ethnic bias as well as corruption in politics, art, film, and pop culture. They believe in an intersectional feminism that fights discrimination and supports human rights for all people and all genders. They undermine the idea of a mainstream narrative by revealing the understory, the subtext, the overlooked, and the downright unfair. The Yes Men are an activist duo and network of supporters created by Jacques Servin and Igor Vamos. Through various actions, the Yes Men primarily aim to raise awareness about problematic social and political issues. The Yes Men operate under the mission statement that lies can expose truth. They create and maintain fake websites like ones they intend to takeoff, which have led to numerous interviews, conferences, and TV talk show invitations. In my opinion, The Guerrilla Girls themes are better suited to my semester project instead of the Yes Men because The Guerilla Girls formed to fight discrimination against women artists and artists of color in the art world, which eventually extended its reach to broader social issues. The Guerilla Girls fought their way to the top, while also being anonymous so they can express to the public about the larger social issues. When it comes to my semester project there has been initial problems and complaints throughout it, which led me to making my project in order to solve this problem. Being born and raised in Jersey City, New Jersey there wasn’t a lot of programs that kids such as myself at the time can join and enjoy themselves. Many people would say a kid not being active at a young age can make them lazy, not as confident, but most importantly it can make them less motivated to do anything. My dad was always involved with the youth, whether it was being a baseball coach or a boxing trainer. This leads me to why I chose what to do for my semester project. When I was graduating from middle school my dad decided to open a boxing gym in Jersey City. The sport that the city wasn’t too familiar with when it came to involving it with the youth. It took a long time to open and have it be promoted in the city but with my help and others, kids were slowly joining the program. Up until this day the program is growing to the point where kids are unable to join because of the large quantity that has joined already. One of the major reasons on why it has grown tremendously is because of the motivation that my dad and I preach to the youth. Being the best boxer is not the main reason why we show them the techniques but showing them how to be discipline and having confidence in themselves overlooks all of that. They don’t have to enjoy the sport but if theirs one thing we would like for them to take and cherish with them it’s discipline and confidence for their future. 

Jersey City youth Ethan Montenegro demonstrating his techniques with coach Rob

Jersey City Recreation Boxing program members coming together upon a great workout session 

                                                            Work Cited

Confessions of the Guerrilla Girls. (1995). HarperPerennial.

Sholette, G., & Thompson, N. (2004). The Interventionists: Users Manual for the Creative Disruption of Everyday Life ;. North Adams, MA: MASS MoCA.