I was grateful to have been invited to join a conversation about the future of feminism that looked specifically at the tactics of Ukrainian protest group, FEMEN on Al Jazeera English‘s show The Stream last week.
Inna Shevchenko, the leader of Femen International and Chloe Angyal of Feministing.com were guests on the show and the producers invited feminist bloggers Chrissy D, Ariana Tobin, Sara Yasin, (who are all the best, fyi), and myself to bring in critical perspectives and questions.
I’ve posted the show in it’s entirety at the bottom of this post.
The show was pretty packed, discussion-wise, and the producers did a great job of trying to include a wide variety of perspectives on FEMENâs tactics. That said, there is A LOT more that could be said around some of the issues that came up and comments that made on the show. I personally spent much of my time on the show silently fuming over the, frankly, crazy things Shevchenko was saying.
Iâve written about Femen before, noting that the group seems generally clueless about feminism, past and present, based on statements such as: âWeâre the new face of feminismâŠClassical feminism is dead.â Shevchenko seems to think that FEMEN invented both feminism in the Ukraine as well as the incredibly original, never-been-done-before tactic of women using their naked bodies in order to get people to look at them. They call it âsextremismâ, I call it the same old shit. What Iâve noted elsewhere is that nude protest, when it comes to women, is a great tactic if your priority is to get media attention, but can be problematic because, often, that is the only way the media will pay attention to women — i.e. if we are performing for the male gaze.
Contrary to popular belief, I am not opposed to boobs. Rather, I am opposed to womenâs bodies constantly being objectified and sexualized. I am also opposed to the fact that nobody gives a shit about women or feminism unless women and feminism look like a beer commercial or a burlesque show.
Though Shevchenko claimed that FEMEN’s topless protests are about taking back power over their own bodies, she contradicts her point by saying that which is true â when it comes to women the focus is almost always on the body.
She also believes that the reason people paid attention to them when they took off their tops was because âsociety was shockedâ â but really? Is that why? Or were they just stoked to see boobs? Naked breasts arenât âtabooâ (in the West, in any case) because people think breasts are wrong and bad, but because breasts are sexualized â meaning that we think that breasts should only exist as sexualized objects for male pleasure (which is also why people get all bent out of shape over women who breastfeed in public â BUT THOSE ARE FOR BONERS, NOT BABIES). Feeding your baby is a practical thing to do. Taking off your shirt in order to get the sexist media to take photos of you plays on the sexualization and objectification of female bodies and reinforces the idea that womenâs bodies are to-be-looked-at. FEMENâs tactics arenât about women controlling their own bodies, theyâre about letting the media control womenâs bodies â the media says: âwe wonât pay attention to you unless youâre hot and nakedâ and FEMEN obeys. So whoâs in control here, again?
Angyal responded to my comment pointing to some of these issues by saying: âIâve been on the receiving end of the âfeminism: youâre doing it wrongâ conversation and I donât find it to be⊠a productive conversation. Everyone has their own way of doing feminismâŠâ And I get that and would otherwise agree. There are different ways to âdo feminismâ and there is certainly more than one strategy when it comes to activism. That said, after following FEMENâs âactivismâ and particularly after witnessing and hearing Shevchenkoâs responses on the show, I am convinced that FEMEN is, in fact, not only âdoing feminism wrongâ but not âdoing feminismâ at all.
Shevchenko is completely condescending, disrespectful, and outright rude when it comes to addressing feminists and the feminist movement and uses the same old tired âweâre playing with objectificationâ crap that the third wave/burlesque/stripping-is-empowering-if-I-choose-to-do-it has been trying to push on us through a veil of postmodernist jargon as of late.
Quoting her is a little crazy-making because her statements either contradict the very points she seems to be trying to make, or are just meaningless smoke and boob-mirrors (and yes, I think we do need to take into account that English isnât her first language and that it was likely difficult for her to communicate her points as clearly as she would have liked to. That said, her points are still wack), but I still think theyâre worth addressing.
To be honest, Iâm not sure that even she believes her own words.
Shevchenko claims that âonce [men] see us on the protest naked, they realize that itâs not naked woman and theyâre bad, itâs not naked woman in [a] strip club â this naked woman is still looking nice, this naked woman is sexy (because sheâs naked, of course) â she can attract, for a second, but once they see us moving, when we are screaming, and when we are showing that we are against them⊠honestly.â
But honestly, Inna, do you really believe that men think naked women are âbadâ? Do you think that the media is suddenly covering the feminist movement because they are realizing that they should no longer oppress and objectify women? Or do you think that theyâre just enjoying the show and, as she clearly knows â it is a show. The women involved in these âprotestsâ are to-be-looked-at â to attract. The only message is: âlook at meâ. It isnât âusing your body for your own reason[s]â if you are only using it in order to get male attention and publicity. Call a spade a spade.
Sara Yasin, who blogs at Muslimah Media Watch, made an excellent point to this regard:
âI have absolutely no problem with nudity⊠The issue with FEMEN is that they have no point. Apart from taking off their tops, I actually have no idea what theyâre trying to question⊠Itâs very interesting to call them radical, because theyâre actually not radical. Theyâre just going out and pushing the exact same norms that have been thrown at us for centuries. Itâs pretty much like looking at a billboard and having maybe the word feminism cut across it. This leads me to believe that FEMEN is just the PETA of feminism.â
Bam!
The fact that the toplessness that is central to FEMENâs âprotestsâ is merely a way to derail feminist discourse and the feminist movement was made all too obvious when Shevchenko was pressed to address her comments around the burqa: âbetter naked than burqaâ. She responds vaguely, saying âwomenâs bodies are [an] indicator of womenâs freedomâ right before taking off her top.
Riiiight. So the fact that women are only paid attention to when naked and sexualized, as womenâs bodies routinely are in a porn culture, has no bearing on the status of women in this world?
And guess what the media got out of this conversation â one that was meant to be about âthe future of feminismâ? This headline says it all: FEMEN activist takes tops off on live Al Jazeera program. Not, âHey you guys! Women are being oppressed! Letâs do something about it!â Nope. Itâs âHey look! Boobs!â Which was esesntially Shevchenkoâs response when questioned about her comments on the burqa â âWhat? I donât know! Hey! Look over there! Boobs!â
If her top came off âfor her own reasonsâ, as she claims, one would think that Shevchenko wouldnât have chosen to do it on live TV. What was she protesting? Feminism?
Not only are Shevchenkoâs arguments convoluted, but the animosity and disrespect she conveys about feminists and the feminist movement shows, undeniably, FEMENâs lack of connection to this movement. She uses every classic, sexist stereotype thatâs been used for eons in order to discredit feminists, calling them spoiled, ugly, and âunsatisfiedâ women; going on to say that âclassical feminism looks like [an] old, sick lady.â Iâm sorry, whoâs âspoiledâ again?
She seems to have zero understanding of or interest in the history of feminism or the feminist work thatâs being done all around the world and actually seems intent on erasing all of that work, as I point out near the end of the show (at which point I am practically livid).
Chrissy D sums this up nicely in the post she wrote about the show:
“The number of objections I have to women walking around with no shirt on is nil, breasts or no breasts, but thereâs a sense that radicalising the action of removing clothing for attention detracts from the greater global issue of womenâs oppression.”
Really. Câmon girls.