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What is Femen?

The Femen movement is a group of authoritative, thrillseeking, strong women.

By Lindsie PolhemusPublished 10 years ago 4 min read
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“Our mission is protest! Our weapons are bare breasts!” The first thing you’re going to notice about a FEMEN protest is naked bodies, covered in slogans painted on skin and crowns of flowers in their hair. Breasts are the marker of the movement. Women taking off their shirts and showing their breasts is good press for FEMEN, the now-French based international women’s movement intent on improving women’s rights.

FEMEN is a protest group formed by women for women. They started protesting in 2008 against the treatment of poor women in Ukraine who were being lured into sexually compromising positions by sex-tourists. Known now for their nude protests, that’s not how the movement began. They originally parodied the idea of “sluttiness” by showing up in underwear and bikinis. FEMEN eventually expanded into broader issues of women’s rights, lately having special disdain for religious institutions they believe continue to promote the idea that women should be subservient to men.

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FEMEN member, Inna Shevchenko is a leader of the group and is often the target of many threats. She officially gained attention in 2012 after she cut down a wooden cross on a hill overlooking Kiev with a chainsaw to protest prostitution under the tagline “The Ukraine is not a Brothel”. She handled a chainsaw again in 2012 at a festival in the Netherlands in order to protest the verdict against Pussy Riot. She sought refuge in France after receiving death threats and it is here that the movement was given new life.

The movement made headlines again when they teamed up with Egyptian blogger, Aliaa Elmahdy. Elmahdy had first earned attention by posing nude on her blog to protest Islamism growing in Egypt. She then took to the streets with FEMEN and posed nude, backed by two FEMEN protesters, in front of the Egyptian embassy in Sweden. On her bare body, she had written, “Sharia is not a Constitution.” “Sharia” is the word for Islamic law, as described in the Qu’ran. Elmahdy describes herself as “secular, liberal, feminist, vegetarian, individualist Egyptian,” ideals that fit well with the FEMEN criteria.

The movement made headlines again when they teamed up with Egyptian blogger, Aliaa Elmahdy. Elmahdy had first earned attention by posing nude on her blog to protest Islamism growing in Egypt. She then took to the streets with FEMEN and posed nude, backed by two FEMEN protesters, in front of the Egyptian embassy in Sweden. On her bare body, she had written, “Sharia is not a Constitution.” “Sharia” is the word for Islamic law, as described in the Qu’ran. Elmahdy describes herself as “secular, liberal, feminist, vegetarian, individualist Egyptian,” ideals that fit well with the FEMEN criteria.

So what’s the point of all this nudity? According to the website and their videos, it’s to get the message out. If they are topless, they receive attention. They get new coverage. Their ideas spread. The point of the nudity is to desexualize their bodies. FEMEN’s topless protests are a movement against sex tourism, homophobia, the sexual exploitation of women, dictatorship and religion. The goal of the activists is “sextremism serving to protect women’s rights,” and they are hell bent on making their point. Their protests are often disruptive and end in detainment by police.

Each image on the site comes an aggressive message, meant to empower women. The website includes videos, reports, updates and articles about the status of FEMEN and its movement. FEMEN’s ideology includes sextremism, atheism, and feminism. Their perception of the world women live in is one of second class status.

Is nudity a strange call to action for a feminist organization? In an interview, high profile member Alexandra Shevchenko, an original from the Ukraine days, says that the idea of their strategy is to get naked and move that naked body toward the enemy. Not seductively, at all, but aggressively, and to do it in such a way that they can look the enemy in the eye and tell them why they are wrong. She goes on to say that they are happy to be covered by any kind of magazine or newspaper, explaining,

“We want to spread our idea exactly in that places where man think that a woman is just a sexual object. We want to go there, to come inside, and from inside show that women can be different.”

The women of FEMEN are certainly willing to take risks and face the consequences. Shevchenko claims that as a result of her actions within the FEMEN movement, she’s been arrested more than 70 times. It’s not at all hard to find videos or photos of FEMEN women being tackled and restrained by police before they are arrested and taken to jail.

Skeptics of FEMEN claim that the group is useless and juvenile. Some even believe it is run by a patriarch and the women just want attention. FEMENs believe they have clearly organized view of what the movement is about. Their ideology, objectives, and goal are to improve the conditions that women face in society at large. Though they admit their “weapons are bare breasts”, if that is what it takes to facilitate change, then to all women, I say, “bare away!”

FEMEN is defined as “an international women’s movement of brave topless female activists painted with the slogans and crowned with flowers”. These women aren’t hindered by the police, the skeptics, or even the government. They are focused on relieving the control that patriarchy has on the female body and quality of life as they have experienced. Their symbols, protests, and bodies combined make for a force to be reckoned with for years to come.

advocacyfeminism
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About the Creator

Lindsie Polhemus

Lover of dogs, wine, and buffalo chicken. Laughing through this thing called life.

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