ITS activists have dressed as policemen and sex workers in
Kiev; as marathon runners and Muslim men in London; and as nuns and
maids in Paris. Femen, a Ukrainian women’s movement, mostly fights
against pornography and prostitution—yet all its protestors demonstrate
topless. Why are some feminists going bare-breasted?
Part of the
reason is that most legal avenues have already been pursued, with marked
success. British women gained the Equal Pay Act in 1970; their French
sisters won the right to abortion in 1975; and by 1980 American women
could sue for sexual harassment. Yet women's bodies have become
objectified on a scale “as never before”, says Kat Banyard, co-founder
of UK Feminista, a British feminist movement. The female body is
the new battleground,
from campaigns against Page 3 girls and “lads’ mags”, to the SlutWalk
marches, during which women claim their right to undress without insult.
Femen
forms part of this fresh wave of feminist protest. Its early
demonstrations targeted Ukraine’s sex industry and macho culture.
Topless protests are intended to ridicule (mostly)
male voyeurism.
By stripping, Femen says, women expose their vulnerability but also use
their naked bodies as weapons. Its grand aim is to give new meaning to
the nude female, as a political tool instead of a sex object. “It no
longer works to promote yoghurts and cars”, says Inna Shevchenko, the
leader of Femen’s Paris branch and training centre. When the group first
protested in 2008, activists dressed provocatively, but did not show
their breasts; when one did on a whim in Kiev, Femen realised the
media attention that
nudity could garner. Alice Schwarzer, a leading German feminist, thinks
that the protests work so long as the message gets more attention than
the flesh.
This view is not universally held. Hind Makki, a Muslim feminist blogger, balks at their methods: “It is regressive to make yourself look like a sex toy,” she says. Others predict that media interest in protests by topless feminists will wane. That seems unlikely.
