On Friday the 14th of October 2022, Anna Holland aged 20 and Phoebe Plummer aged 21 threw Heinz tomato soup over Van Gogh’s Sunflowers at The National Gallery in London. The young activists proceeded to superglue their hands to the wall, then began to accost the UK government on the way they are approaching the climate crisis demanding they ban all new oil and gas projects (Gayle, 2022). The painting was protected by a thin layer of glass so was not harmed but the frame was minorly damaged, the activists were taken into custody at a police station in Central London and arrested for criminal damage and aggravated trespassing by the Metropolitan Police. The next day Holland, from Newcastle and Plummer, from London pleaded not guilty in Westminster Magistrates’ Court (DW, 2022)
Figure 1: Phoebe Plummer just after the attack (sourced by Wired.com)
Quinney’s (1970) Marxist approach at defining crime is the behaviours that conflict with the interests of the segments of society, that have the power to change society. This is most applicable to this case as halting all new oil and gas projects in the UK is not aligned with the best interests of the segment of society that has the power to change society – the ruling class (Jolly and Elgot, 2022). This is reflected in the tabloid newspapers, not taking the women’s demands seriously (Isaac Crowson, 2022) to not conflict with the best interest of the ruling class. On the other hand, broadsheet newspapers such as the Guardian focused more on the point the women are trying to make and portrayed the preparators with more dignity (Gayle, 2022).
This story has become immensely popular since the event making Anna Holland and Phoebe Plummer very well known; one reason is the immediacy in the story (Chibnall, 2007) of climate change, which the pair are trying to raise awareness for. We all know that we are passing the point of no return of irreversible damage to the climate (Carrington, 2022) and this captures our minds opening the article to more readers. This really confronts us with the question: is our planet earths future more important the 1888 painting worth USD 84.2 million (Milton, 2022). The answer should be obvious.
When it comes to the use of language, the media tends to ridicule and taunt female perpetrators. Portraying them as the ‘crazy lady’ trope: unstable, unintelligent, and dismissive of the reasons behind their actions (Carll, 2003). In this case, two women trying to get the attention of the government, described as ‘Eco-idiots’ in The Sun’s headline (Isaac Crowson, 2022), which simplifies the story down to: ‘crazy lady’ throws tantrum, making the story easier to read, which results in more readers (Chibnall, 2007). Moreover, the use of the ‘crazy lady’ cliché is an example of conventionalism, which stereotypes the perpetrator into a certain trope encouraging people that want to believe in that stereotype to click on the story and read.
Controversiality is also one of the more important reasons that this is such a viral story. It was worried by some that this stunt would alienate people who would otherwise relate to the movement but spokesperson for Just Stop Oil, Alex De Koning cleared up ‘But this is not The X Factor. We are not trying to make friends here, we are trying to make change, and unfortunately this is the only way that happens’ (Gayle, 2022). The public and newspapers may be divided on the sentiment behind this, but for its purpose the media portrayal does not matter, good or bad. As long that it covers the reason behind why the climate protestors did what they did.
(Hale et al, 2013, p.g.155) states that fear of crime is increased if that crime is reported on television. The activists attempted to increase public fear of the climate criminals that are our leaders, by attacking a high-profile artwork to get it in the media. This has slightly worked as it has got our leaders attention but not got them to do anything.
The case drew a lot of attention to the issue it was trying to, as it took advantage of the way the media likes to dramatise situations, this got a lot of both negative and positive attention depending on what source and has achieved one of its intended impacts of raising public awareness. Although it has not halted the UK government going ahead with new oil and gas projects (GOV.UK, 2022). The portrayal was fair for the most part not including the tabloid newspapers. Justice has not been served to the real criminals in this case as the UK government is still planning to go ahead with a large number of oil and gas projects which will cause more unneeded deaths to be caused and the terrors of the climate crisis to evermore so worsen.
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