A peaceful protest happened in Staunton Monday evening to raise awareness about women's rights.
Close to 50 people showed up, all wearing the color white, a color often associated with women's suffrage.
A Mary Baldwin Graduate student used the color in a unique way to raise awareness.
It was her graduate project.
It involved a performance of Shakespeare's 'All's Well that Ends Well' but it's the way she used the color white to get a very important message across.
“I think color is a powerful visual symbol,” said Linden Keuck, a Mary Baldwin graduate student. “And anytime you have a mass of color, or one color that sort of takes the focus, it signifies to people that something is happening. That something is different about that.”
Linden Keuck chose to explore one of Shakespeare's problem plays. It is considered so, because of the issues it addresses.
“It asks questions of what women's roles are in society and what men's roles and what happens when someone doesn't fit those roles and whether or not those roles might be problems in themselves.”
Women at the time the play was written were thought of as being similar to a piece of paper.
“Paper is a sort of passive recipient much like women often are in society. Whereas writing is something that's a little bit more masculine, it's active. Pens obviously have very phallic connotations.”
Because of this, Keuck created an all white, paper set, to signify the struggles of women.
She chose white as a display of solidarity with other women, but believed the color was not the only one that represents womanhood.
“There are some problems with that association in some ways. White is a color that is seen as peaceful which is sometimes problematically associated with women. That women are expected to be more peaceful rather than to be violent or aggressive.”
She ultimately hoped to remind people that what was an issue then, is still a hot topic now.
“It's clear that these issues are still at stake in our society. And I think people need to be addressing them.”
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