The use of art as a form of protest in women's liberation: A case study of Ankara Tiyatro Oteyüz

Using art as a form of protest in women's liberation movement became evident during the second wave of feminism with new appearances of feminist art and many issues that women face brought forward by the art performers who were included in feminist art. However, a feminist art alone is not sufficient in terms of both in the solutions for these problems and in effecting women's perceptions of their own body, self and identity; and, in social, cultural and political change in social everyday life. This point creates a need for a field of art, as a tool for struggle, which gives an opportunity for women in order to be able to express all problems they face and in order to be able to make changes in social life. Hence, this effective area of art has to include women with their womanly experiences as 'oppressed' instead of as 'performers'. In addition, it is also should be an area that the meanings related to being women can be produced by women themselves. That area, finally, should not be split from political and cultural roots. In this respect, theatre can be evaluated as an effective field of art in which women take part as 'oppressed'; it is also important in the development of awareness related to the political and cultural constructions of female identity. The main problem of this research is to question the social transformative potential of art and protest, which can be seen as tools for struggle towards inequalities, hierarchical relations, marginalisation and debauchery created by cultural, political, economical and social conditions. For this respect, the social and individual transformative potential of theatre, which is used as a means of protest in women's liberation movement will be examined and discussed