Bagism
Encyclopedia
Bagism is a term which was created by John Lennon
and Yoko Ono
as part of their extensive peace campaign in the late 1960s. The intent of bagism was to satirize prejudice
and stereotyping
. Bagism involved literally wearing a bag over one's entire body. According to John and Yoko, by living in a bag, a person could not be judged by others on the basis of skin color, gender, hair length, attire, age, or any other such attributes. It was presented as a form of total communication
. Instead of focusing on outward appearance
, the listener would hear only the bagist's message
.
on March 31, 1969, and explained it more thoroughly in a June 14, 1969 interview with David Frost
. Bagism reflected the whimsical, carefree, and often comedic
mood of John and Yoko's other peace efforts, such as their Bed-In
s. By catching the attention of the masses with its outlandish premise, bagism presented a powerful social and political
message to the world. As Lennon stated, "Yoko and I are quite willing to be the world's clowns, if by doing it we do some good."
The couple had earlier appeared in a bag, at The Alchemical Wedding, an underground artists' gathering, at London's Royal Albert Hall
in late 1968. The event was put on by the Arts Lab
and BIT
, which sought to challenge audiences to be participants rather than passive consumer
s. John and Yoko climbed into a large, black velvet
bag on stage, sat cross-legged, knee-to-knee, hunkered down and closed the bag. They moved only twice in 45 minutes, hunkering further down. This was a strong challenge to the audience.
Yoko said that bagism was inspired by the theme of Antoine de Saint-Exupérys The Little Prince
, which was "One sees rightly only with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes." She hoped that the bag, by hiding her and John's physical appearance, would make their essence or the essence of their message visible.
cake
in a bag", which was at the Vienna
press conference, and the second is in the song "Come Together
" where he sings "He bag production". This is referring to Bag Productions Ltd, Lennon's public relations company, which derived its name from Bagism. Bagism is also alluded to in John's own composition, "Give Peace a Chance
", with the line, "Everybody's talkin' about Bagism, Shagism
, drag
ism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, That-ism, ism, ism, ism."
called Bagism was created circa 1994 by Sam Choukri, providing John Lennon and Beatles links, photographs, rare sound recording snippets and video
. At one point, circa 1996, the precursor to Bagism.com, a website focused on John Lennon, was sent a cease and desist
request from the representatives of John Lennon's estate over copyrighted John Lennon content. After an unsuccessful appeal to Ono and the John Lennon Estate and the Dear Yoko petition
campaign, Choukri decided to focus his efforts on less legally-volatile content and the website has since been a hub for discussion, detailed discographies
, letters, article
s, fan
artwork
and poetry
and many other types of content.
In 2006, Liverpool John Lennon Airport
had the words "Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism" stickered along the front windows of the airport. This was done along with the branding of various John Lennon
lyrics around the inside of the airport.
In 2010, the studio band Strawberry Walrus recorded a song about Bagism titled "Bagism" and released it on their album titled "This Is Not Here."
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
and Yoko Ono
Yoko Ono
is a Japanese artist, musician, author and peace activist, known for her work in avant-garde art, music and filmmaking as well as her marriage to John Lennon...
as part of their extensive peace campaign in the late 1960s. The intent of bagism was to satirize prejudice
Prejudice
Prejudice is making a judgment or assumption about someone or something before having enough knowledge to be able to do so with guaranteed accuracy, or "judging a book by its cover"...
and stereotyping
Stereotype
A stereotype is a popular belief about specific social groups or types of individuals. The concepts of "stereotype" and "prejudice" are often confused with many other different meanings...
. Bagism involved literally wearing a bag over one's entire body. According to John and Yoko, by living in a bag, a person could not be judged by others on the basis of skin color, gender, hair length, attire, age, or any other such attributes. It was presented as a form of total communication
Communication
Communication is the activity of conveying meaningful information. Communication requires a sender, a message, and an intended recipient, although the receiver need not be present or aware of the sender's intent to communicate at the time of communication; thus communication can occur across vast...
. Instead of focusing on outward appearance
Human physical appearance
Human physical appearance refers to the outward phenotype or look of human beings. There are infinite variations in human phenotypes, though society reduces the variability to distinct categories...
, the listener would hear only the bagist's message
Message
A message in its most general meaning is an object of communication. It is a vessel which provides information. Yet, it can also be this information. Therefore, its meaning is dependent upon the context in which it is used; the term may apply to both the information and its form...
.
Purpose and origins
John and Yoko introduced the idea during a well-received press conference in ViennaVienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
on March 31, 1969, and explained it more thoroughly in a June 14, 1969 interview with David Frost
David Frost (broadcaster)
Sir David Paradine Frost, OBE is a British journalist, comedian, writer, media personality and daytime TV game show host best known for his two decades as host of Through the Keyhole and serious interviews with various political figures, the most notable being Richard Nixon...
. Bagism reflected the whimsical, carefree, and often comedic
Comedy
Comedy , as a popular meaning, is any humorous discourse or work generally intended to amuse by creating laughter, especially in television, film, and stand-up comedy. This must be carefully distinguished from its academic definition, namely the comic theatre, whose Western origins are found in...
mood of John and Yoko's other peace efforts, such as their Bed-In
Bed-In
During the Vietnam War, in 1969, John Lennon and Yoko Ono held two week-long Bed-Ins for Peace in Amsterdam and Montreal, which were their non-violent ways of protesting wars and promoting peace...
s. By catching the attention of the masses with its outlandish premise, bagism presented a powerful social and political
Politics
Politics is a process by which groups of people make collective decisions. The term is generally applied to the art or science of running governmental or state affairs, including behavior within civil governments, but also applies to institutions, fields, and special interest groups such as the...
message to the world. As Lennon stated, "Yoko and I are quite willing to be the world's clowns, if by doing it we do some good."
The couple had earlier appeared in a bag, at The Alchemical Wedding, an underground artists' gathering, at London's Royal Albert Hall
Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall is a concert hall situated on the northern edge of the South Kensington area, in the City of Westminster, London, England, best known for holding the annual summer Proms concerts since 1941....
in late 1968. The event was put on by the Arts Lab
Arts Lab
The Arts Lab was an alternative arts centre, founded in 1967 by Jim Haynes at 182 Drury Lane. Although only active for two years, it was influential in inspiring many similar centres in the UK and continental Europe, including the expanded I.C.A...
and BIT
BIT
BIT was an information service, publisher, travel guide and social centre founded, in 1968, by John 'Hoppy' Hopkins. It pre-dated the internet as a free service that would try to find any information asked for and derived its name from the smallest unit of computer information.-BIT:BIT was...
, which sought to challenge audiences to be participants rather than passive consumer
Consumer
Consumer is a broad label for any individuals or households that use goods generated within the economy. The concept of a consumer occurs in different contexts, so that the usage and significance of the term may vary.-Economics and marketing:...
s. John and Yoko climbed into a large, black velvet
Velvet
Velvet is a type of woven tufted fabric in which the cut threads are evenly distributed,with a short dense pile, giving it a distinctive feel.The word 'velvety' is used as an adjective to mean -"smooth like velvet".-Composition:...
bag on stage, sat cross-legged, knee-to-knee, hunkered down and closed the bag. They moved only twice in 45 minutes, hunkering further down. This was a strong challenge to the audience.
Yoko said that bagism was inspired by the theme of Antoine de Saint-Exupérys The Little Prince
The Little Prince
The Little Prince , first published in 1943, is a novella and the most famous work of the French aristocrat writer, poet and pioneering aviator Antoine de Saint-Exupéry ....
, which was "One sees rightly only with the heart, the essential is invisible to the eyes." She hoped that the bag, by hiding her and John's physical appearance, would make their essence or the essence of their message visible.
Bagism in the songs of The Beatles
Bagism is mentioned twice in Beatles songs. The first time is in "The Ballad of John and Yoko" where John refers to "eating chocolateChocolate
Chocolate is a raw or processed food produced from the seed of the tropical Theobroma cacao tree. Cacao has been cultivated for at least three millennia in Mexico, Central and South America. Its earliest documented use is around 1100 BC...
cake
Cake
Cake is a form of bread or bread-like food. In its modern forms, it is typically a sweet and enriched baked dessert. In its oldest forms, cakes were normally fried breads or cheesecakes, and normally had a disk shape...
in a bag", which was at the Vienna
Vienna
Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...
press conference, and the second is in the song "Come Together
Come Together
"Come Together" is a song by The Beatles written by John Lennon and credited to Lennon–McCartney. The song is the opening track on The Beatles' September 1969 album Abbey Road....
" where he sings "He bag production". This is referring to Bag Productions Ltd, Lennon's public relations company, which derived its name from Bagism. Bagism is also alluded to in John's own composition, "Give Peace a Chance
Give Peace a Chance
"Give Peace a Chance" is a song written by John Lennon, originally under the moniker Lennon–McCartney, released as a single in 1969 by the Plastic Ono Band on Apple Records, catalogue Apple 13 in the United Kingdom, Apple 1809 in the United States. It is the first solo single issued by Lennon, and...
", with the line, "Everybody's talkin' about Bagism, Shagism
Sexual intercourse
Sexual intercourse, also known as copulation or coitus, commonly refers to the act in which a male's penis enters a female's vagina for the purposes of sexual pleasure or reproduction. The entities may be of opposite sexes, or they may be hermaphroditic, as is the case with snails...
, drag
Drag (clothing)
Drag is used for any clothing carrying symbolic significance but usually referring to the clothing associated with one gender role when worn by a person of another gender. The origin of the term "drag" is unknown, but it may have originated in Polari, a gay street argot in England in the early...
ism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism, This-ism, That-ism, ism, ism, ism."
Internet following
A websiteWebsite
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
called Bagism was created circa 1994 by Sam Choukri, providing John Lennon and Beatles links, photographs, rare sound recording snippets and video
Video
Video is the technology of electronically capturing, recording, processing, storing, transmitting, and reconstructing a sequence of still images representing scenes in motion.- History :...
. At one point, circa 1996, the precursor to Bagism.com, a website focused on John Lennon, was sent a cease and desist
Cease and desist
A cease and desist is an order or request to halt an activity and not to take it up again later or else face legal action. The recipient of the cease-and-desist may be an individual or an organization....
request from the representatives of John Lennon's estate over copyrighted John Lennon content. After an unsuccessful appeal to Ono and the John Lennon Estate and the Dear Yoko petition
Petition
A petition is a request to do something, most commonly addressed to a government official or public entity. Petitions to a deity are a form of prayer....
campaign, Choukri decided to focus his efforts on less legally-volatile content and the website has since been a hub for discussion, detailed discographies
Discography
Discography is the study and listing of the details concerning sound recordings, often by specified artists or within identified musical genres...
, letters, article
Article (publishing)
An article is a written work published in a print or electronic medium. It may be for the purpose of propagating the news, research results, academic analysis or debate.-News articles:...
s, fan
Fan (person)
A Fan, sometimes also called aficionado or supporter, is a person with a liking and enthusiasm for something, such as a band or a sports team. Fans of a particular thing or person constitute its fanbase or fandom...
artwork
Work of art
A work of art, artwork, art piece, or art object is an aesthetic item or artistic creation.The term "a work of art" can apply to:*an example of fine art, such as a painting or sculpture*a fine work of architecture or landscape design...
and poetry
Poetry
Poetry is a form of literary art in which language is used for its aesthetic and evocative qualities in addition to, or in lieu of, its apparent meaning...
and many other types of content.
Recent Uses
Liverpool John Lennon Airport
Liverpool John Lennon Airport is an international airport serving the city of Liverpool and the North West of England. Formerly known as Speke Airport, RAF Speke, and Liverpool Airport the airport is located within the City of Liverpool adjacent to the estuary of the River Mersey some southeast...
had the words "Bagism, Shagism, Dragism, Madism, Ragism, Tagism" stickered along the front windows of the airport. This was done along with the branding of various John Lennon
John Lennon
John Winston Lennon, MBE was an English musician and singer-songwriter who rose to worldwide fame as one of the founding members of The Beatles, one of the most commercially successful and critically acclaimed acts in the history of popular music...
lyrics around the inside of the airport.
In 2010, the studio band Strawberry Walrus recorded a song about Bagism titled "Bagism" and released it on their album titled "This Is Not Here."
See also
- BurqaBurqaA burqa is an enveloping outer garment worn by women in some Islamic religion to cover their bodies in public places. The burqa is usually understood to be the woman's loose body-covering , plus the head-covering , plus the face-veil .-Etymology:A speculative and unattested etymology...
- Peace movementPeace movementA peace movement is a social movement that seeks to achieve ideals such as the ending of a particular war , minimize inter-human violence in a particular place or type of situation, often linked to the goal of achieving world peace...
- Veil of ignorance