Feces as Political Weapon: From Diogenes to Pavlensky

Introduction

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Scatology—the use of imagery of excrement, bodily emissions, and the “lower body” for symbolic purposes—has served for thousands of years as a powerful instrument of political critique and social protest. From the ancient Cynics, who publicly violated taboos, to contemporary actionists who nail themselves to the cobblestones of Red Square, scatological gestures function as a radical form of discourse aimed at undermining dominant power structures and social conventions. This investigation traces the evolution of scatology as a political instrument through key historical figures and artistic movements, demonstrating the persistence of this strategy across various cultural and temporal contexts.

Diogenes and Ancient Cynicism: Philosophy Through Provocation

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Cosmopolitanism as Anarchism

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Diogenes of Sinope (c. 412–323 BCE), founder of the Cynic school of philosophy, was the first thinker to call himself a “cosmopolitan”—a citizen of the world. However, his cosmopolitanism had a radical anarchistic character: he denied the concepts of fatherland and local laws, asserting that only the law of nature exists. This nihilism was directed against the state and all forms of domination, making Cynicism a unique school of the ancient period, loudly announcing itself at a time of social upheaval.

Cynicism represented a philosophy of the socially humiliated—non-citizens, who formed the backbone of the school, those who “dared to speak openly about social problems to a society that despised them.” In the deliberately “plebeian” street philosophy of Cynicism, one can trace a clear socio-political subtext of protest.

Scatological Provocation as Method

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Diogenes conducted himself as a marginal subject, shocking the public—but not so much with the intention of offense as from a need to draw attention to his own philosophical program. His public actions, including masturbation in the square, urinating on those who insulted him, and living in a clay barrel, constituted a performative critique of social norms.

The scatological element of Cynicism lay in a demonstrative contempt for cultural taboos surrounding bodily functions. Diogenes asserted the naturalness of what society considered shameful, thereby undermining the symbolic foundations of social hierarchy. Public execution of what should have occurred in private space destroyed the boundary between polis (public sphere) and oikos (private sphere) upon which the entire political organization of ancient Greek society was built.

Sources:

• Diogenes — Wikipedia
• Cynicism — Wikipedia
• The Dog in the Barrel: What the Cynics Can Teach Us

Martin Luther: Scatological Theology

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Excrement Against the Devil

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Martin Luther (1483–1546), one of the key figures of the Reformation, is known not only for his theological ideas but also for extraordinarily crude, scatological language in his polemics. As researchers note, Luther was “particularly inclined to scatological phraseology, vivid depictions of excrement and intestinal gas—everything that could be called manifestations of the ’lower body.’” His theological and epistolary legacy is distinguished by rudeness and bawdy comparisons with which the reformer showered his opponents.

In his disputes with Satan, Luther used expressions like “kiss my ass.” He explained his obscene manner by saying that “he mocks the devil, who deserves such treatment and with whom one can effectively fight by mocking him scatologically.” The traditional association of excrement with the devil was a common belief of the era, but Luther elevated it to a theological principle.

Political Context of Scatology

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Luther’s scatological lexicon was not merely rudeness—it was a conscious rhetorical strategy aimed at papacy and the Catholic Church as a political force. Calling the pope the Antichrist and using images of excrement to describe church practices, Luther desacralized the institutional power of the church. In the context of the 16th century, when religion and politics were inseparable, such rhetoric had a revolutionary character.

Luther hated flies, calling them “imago diaboli et haereticorum” (image of the devil and heretics), because they “loved to rub their hindquarters on paper, soiling the pages of books with their excretions, just as the Evil Spirit relieved himself in pure hearts.” This metaphor linked excrement, the devil, and religious opponents into a single complex of uncleanness, opposed to Protestant purity.

Sources:

• Luther, the Devil, and Others. The Inkwell as Argument
• Martin Luther’s Inkwell, or Combat with the Devil

The French Revolution and Scatological Pamphlet

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The era of the French Revolution (1789–1799) witnessed an explosion of political caricature and pamphlet literature in which scatological imagery played a central role. Monarchy, aristocracy, and the Catholic Church were depicted through metaphors of the lower body, defecation, and filth.

James Gillray (1756–1815), an outstanding English caricaturist of the age, was known for his “particularly cruel and often scandalous or scatological” approach to political satire. His works demonstrated how graphic satire could serve as an instrument of political commentary, using images of the lower body to discredit political opponents.

Daumier and the Digestive Metaphor of Power

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Honoré Daumier (1808–1879) in his famous political caricatures of King Louis-Philippe used scatological humor, “likening the entire act of collecting money and spending it on his loyal supporters to the act of consuming food.” This metaphor transformed political economy into a bodily process of digestion and defecation, where the people’s wealth passed through the royal body and was transformed into excrement distributed to courtiers.

Such depiction of power through the metaphor of digestion had profound political meaning: it reduced the monarch from the symbolic height of divine right to the level of a simple biological organism, subject to the same bodily processes as any human being. This was radical equalization, undermining the legitimacy of monarchical power.

Sources:

• Caricature and cartoon - Early 19th Century, Satire, Humor | Britannica
• Political cartoon - Wikipedia

Dada: Excrement of Bourgeois Culture

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Dada, which emerged in Zurich in 1916 as a reaction to World War I, employed scatological strategies to attack bourgeois culture and the political establishment that had led Europe to catastrophe. Although Dadaists rarely used direct scatological imagery, their aesthetics of absurdity, disgust, and anti-art functioned according to the same logic: the transformation of high culture into filth.

Marcel Duchamp’s famous “Fountain” (1917)—an inverted urinal signed with the pseudonym “R. Mutt”—represented a scatological gesture par excellence. By transforming a utilitarian object associated with urination into a work of art, Duchamp produced a symbolic inversion: what should have been at the bottom (the toilet) was placed at the top (museum, gallery). This gesture was not merely an aesthetic provocation, but a political statement about the nature of capitalist culture.

Dada manifestos and performances often used language of excretion, describing bourgeois art as “shit” and their own works as acts of cultural defecation. Tristan Tzara wrote: “Dada is our shit.” This self-identification with excrement was a strategy of refusal of the symbolic capital of high culture and occupation of the position of radical outsider.

Viennese Actionism: Body as Political Battlefield

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Post-War Austria and Collective Amnesia

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Viennese Actionism—a radical artistic movement of the 1960s associated with the activities of a group of Austrian artists: Günter Brus, Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, Arnulf Rainer, Rudolf Schwarzkogler, and Peter Weibel. The context for the emergence of actionism was post-war Austria, where “in everyday life materialism reigned and society seemed to have completely forgotten its recent tragic past.”

The most important task of the Viennese actionists—first and foremost Hermann Nitsch—was to “overcome the collective amnesia of Austrian society, where tragic and shameful pages of the recent past, including active support for the Nazis, had become taboo topics.” Actionists employed extreme bodily practices—including blood, excrement, animal entrails—to break through the barrier of social repression.

Scatology as Political Protest

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Otto Mühl, Hermann Nitsch, and Rudolf Schwarzkogler “created performances in order to gain the ability to perceive true reality, through their brutal actions expressing protest against the existing state and social order.” The human body—“convulsive and neurotic, painful and fragile, alive and suffering”—became a means of expressing deep layers of the human psyche and simultaneously a field of political struggle.

In June 1968, Günter Brus began serving six months imprisonment for “contempt of state symbols,” and Otto Mühl received one month in prison following his participation in the public action “Art and Revolution.” These judicial persecutions demonstrated how threatening the actionists’ scatological and bodily practices were to those in power.

In one of his actions, Brus publicly defecated and masturbated while performing the Austrian national anthem. This gesture combined all elements of scatological political protest: the desecration of a national symbol through bodily emissions, the publicization of the private, the transformation of a patriotic ritual into an indecent spectacle. The state responded with repression, confirming the political effectiveness of the action.

Sources:

• Viennese Actionism — Wikipedia
• Viennese Actionism / Wiener Aktionismus | ART Uzol
• The Nightmare of Art-Utopia. How Viennese Actionist Otto Mühl Created a Commune

Contemporary Political Actionism: Pavlensky and His Heirs

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Petr Pavlensky: Body as Territory of Protest

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Petr Pavlensky (b. 1984)—a Russian artist-actionist who continued the tradition of Viennese actionism in the context of contemporary Russia. His actions represent extreme bodily practices directed against the repressive state apparatus.

In May 2013, Pavlensky conducted the action “Carcass,” where “assistants brought a naked artist, wrapped in a multi-layered ‘cocoon’ of barbed wire, to the entrance of the building of the Legislative Assembly of Saint Petersburg.” This action symbolized the condition of a citizen in a police state: a body ensnared in barbed wire, unable to move, representing political unfreedom.

In October 2013, Pavlensky conducted the action “Fixation” on Red Square in Moscow, “nailing a nail through his scrotum to the cobblestones.” This gesture—literal fixation of genitals to the symbolic center of Russian power—represented a radical metaphor for the castration of civil society by the state. The use of genitals (proximate to the scatological zone of the “lower body”) gave the action particular acuity.

In October 2014, Pavlensky, “sitting naked on the roof of the Serbsky Institute of Psychiatry in Moscow, cut off the lobe of his right ear with a knife,” protesting the use of psychiatry for political purposes. In November 2015, he conducted the action “Threat,” setting fire to the door of the FSB building in central Moscow.

Scandal in France: Scatology in the Information Age

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After receiving political asylum in France in 2017, Pavlensky continued his practice, but in a new context. In February 2020, “Benjamin Griveaux, a candidate for mayor of Paris, withdrew from the election after publication of intimate video,” in which Pavlensky claimed to have participated. He and his girlfriend faced up to two years in prison.

This action represents an evolution of the scatological gesture in the age of digital media: instead of literal excrement or bodily fluids, “informational excrement” is used—compromising materials thrown into the public sphere. The logic remains the same: the desecration of a politician’s public image through the exposure of what should remain private.

Sources:

• Pavlensky, Petr Andreyevich — Wikipedia
• Living Thread: What Actions Made the Artist Pavlensky Famous — RBC
• Petr Pavlensky Arrested in Paris — Meduza

Pussy Riot: Scatology and Feminist Protest

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The feminist punk group Pussy Riot, known for its political actions in Russia, also employed elements of scatological aesthetics in its performances. Their “punk prayer” in the Cathedral of Christ the Savior in 2012, while not containing direct scatological elements, functioned according to the same logic of desecrating sacred space.

In later actions, group members employed imagery of the lower body and uncleanness to criticize the alliance between the Orthodox Church and state power. The feminist aspect of scatology is particularly important here: the female body, traditionally perceived as “unclean” in patriarchal cultures, becomes an instrument of political critique precisely through accentuation of this “uncleanness.”

Scatology in Political Caricature: Continuous Tradition

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Academic research demonstrates that scatological humor remained a constant element of political caricature throughout its entire history. “From the 1960s onwards, the iconoclasm of a new generation of radical scholars led to growing recognition that the scatological and sexual humor of Georgian engravings was inseparable from understanding historical political discourse.”

After the Napoleonic Wars, the need for propaganda temporarily declined, but with the beginning of World War I, “editors, caricaturists, and governments showed enormous interest in this practice as a source of propaganda.” Scatological imagery was used to dehumanize the enemy, depicting the opponent as unclean, animal, subhuman.

In the contemporary age, political caricature continues to employ scatological imagery, particularly in online space, where weakened censorship permits more frank depictions. Memes depicting politicians in scatological contexts circulate on social media, continuing the centuries-old tradition of using the “lower body” for political critique.

Sources:

• Caricature and cartoon - Early 19th Century | Britannica
• Political cartoon - Wikipedia

Theoretical Framework: Bakhtin and the Grotesque Body

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Mikhail Bakhtin, in his study of François Rabelais’s work, developed the concept of the “grotesque body” and carnival culture, which provides a theoretical framework for understanding scatology as a political instrument. According to Bakhtin, carnival was a temporary inversion of social hierarchy, when the “lower” (bodily, social, moral) rose to the top, and the “upper” descended below.

The grotesque body is an unfinished, open body, connected with material processes: eating, drinking, defecation, copulation, birth, death. This body is opposed to the “classical body”—the closed, static, individualized body of the ruling classes. Scatological imagery and practices thus represent an assertion of the grotesque body against the classical, popular culture against elite, material against ideal.

Carnival laughter, according to Bakhtin, was ambivalent: it simultaneously affirmed and denied, buried and resurrected. The scatological gesture in politics functions analogously: it buries old power, casting it into the sphere of uncleanness, and simultaneously asserts a new order through laughing renewal.

Psychoanalytic Aspects: Anality and Power

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Psychoanalytic theory, beginning with Freud, links the anal stage of development with questions of control, power, and property. The “anal character,” according to Freud, is distinguished by stubbornness, stinginess, and pedantry—qualities often attributed to bureaucrats and authoritarian leaders.

Scatological political protest can be interpreted as regression to the anal stage—a refusal of socialized control over bodily functions as a form of refusal of political control. Public defecation or the use of excrement imagery represents a literal rejection of the “cleanliness” of civilization, a return to a pre-civilizational state.

Moreover, the act of defecation is associated with separation, the ejection of the unnecessary. The scatological gesture in politics often symbolizes the desire to throw away, to rid oneself of corrupt power, of repressive institutions. The political opponent is equated with excrement—with what the body/society must rid itself of for healthy functioning.

The Effectiveness of Scatology: Why It Works

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Scatological political gestures are effective for several reasons:

1. Taboo Violation: Excrement is one of the most powerful cultural taboos. Its public use guarantees attention and shock, breaking through informational noise.

2. Desacralization of Power: Power relies on symbolic capital, on an aura of dignity and elevation. The scatological gesture destroys this aura, reducing power to the level of bodily emissions.

3. Impossibility of Ignoring: Power can ignore rational critique, but it cannot ignore radical violation of decorum. The scatological gesture demands a response—repressive or defensive—and this response often exposes the repressive nature of power.

4. Democratization Through the Body: All people, regardless of status, are subject to the same bodily processes. The scatological gesture reminds us of this equality, undermining the elite’s claims to superiority.

5. Historical Memory: Scatological protest relies on a long tradition, from Diogenes to the present. This tradition lends additional legitimacy to the gesture in the eyes of those familiar with history.

Criticism and Limitations

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Scatological political protest is not without criticism. Opponents point out:

1. Absence of Constructive Program: The scatological gesture can destroy, but offers no alternative.

2. Elitism: Paradoxically, radical artistic actions are often comprehensible only to an educated public familiar with art history and theory.

3. Risk of Trivialization: Excessive use of shock tactics can lead to blunting of public sensitivity.

4. Gender Aspects: Scatological protest is often associated with the male body; women employing these strategies face harsher condemnation.

5. Moral Ambivalence: Using “dirty” methods to fight “dirty” power raises questions about permissible means of political struggle.

Conclusion

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From Diogenes, publicly masturbating in the Athenian agora, to Pavlensky, nailing his scrotum to Red Square, the scatological gesture remains a powerful instrument of political protest. This persistence is explained not only by the shock value of taboo violation, but also by deep symbolic and psychological mechanisms linking the lower body with the lower ranks, excrement with corruption, cleanliness with power.

Scatology in politics functions as a form of carnival inversion, temporarily overturning the established order and reminding us of the materiality of all bodies, including the bodies of rulers. It represents a radical refusal of “civilized” discourse in favor of a more ancient, bodily language of protest.

In the contemporary age, when political discourse is increasingly mediated by technology and abstractions, the scatological gesture returns politics to the body, to material reality. This return can be unpleasant, offensive, shocking—but therein lies its political power. Scatology remains the weapon of the weak against the strong, of the nameless against the named, of bodies against institutions.

Related Materials

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• Overview Summary
• Art
• Philosophy

Sources

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1. Cynicism — Wikipedia
2. Martin Luther — Wikipedia
3. Viennese Actionism — Wikipedia
4. Caricature and cartoon - Early 19th Century, Satire, Humor | Britannica
5. Petr Pavlensky — Wikipedia
6. Political cartoon - Wikipedia
7. The Dog in the Barrel: What the Cynics Can Teach Us
8. The Nightmare of Art-Utopia. How Viennese Actionist Otto Mühl Created a Commune
9. Diogenes — Wikipedia
10. Martin Luther’s Inkwell, or Combat with the Devil
11. Viennese Actionism / Wiener Aktionismus
12. Living Thread: What Actions Made the Artist Pavlensky Famous — RBC
13. Petr Pavlensky Arrested in Paris — Meduza

FolkUp Research Lab | Lucerna