i recently found out about this amazing ukrainian activist group called femen. they are a group of women who organize to do political protests, topless. they use their bare breasts as weapons of political protest. i have so much respect for them. after finding out about them, i got really excited and posted a bunch of their pictures on facebook. this resulted in my account being deleted. my new account is here. add me up. what this experience has taught me is that breasts are fucking powerful. the monopoly of sexist culture on the production and circulation of images of breasts strips women of power and ownership. we are never allowed to represent our own breasts and what they mean to us. they might be tools of protest. they might be just a part of the body, like an arm or nose. they might be for feeding kids. the might bounce around when we run. they might be different sizes. they might be sources of pleasure. they might be part of the embodied lived experience of our lives. men control the meaning of breasts in sexist culture and decide when and how they will be shown, normally only showing them in the context of the male gaze and male pleasure. femen aggressively takes this power back. they use their breasts as weapons of protests. and i got my facebook account deleted over how much i respect these grrrls. here’s some photos of femen.
so, please check out the work femen does and spread the word about these activists. also, add my new facebook cuz i need some more friends. ;)
So its actually legal for women to be topless in many places in the United States–New York being one of them and Washingtron DC another, as long as they are not associated with a commercial enterprise or engaging in lude behaviour (ie topless waitress needs topless bar licensing)http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/06/topless_bowery.php . Now the Police Officer that explained this to me in DC said it was a woman in New York who went jogging topless and repeatedly got arrested in order to push her case to the NY Supreme Court, and won–and this DC officer made it sound like it went to the Supreme Court, and became national law, but I can’t confirm this right now, so don’t go getting arrested on my account…it is rather cold right now anyway…maybe someone who researches better than I can find it…
yeah, in ontario a woman was arrested for going topless and she fought it and won. but it isn’t legal in all if canada. the idea of it being illegal for me to take my shirt off is disturbing.
Wow that is so cool! and so fascinating that it’s legal. Well the world naked bike ride is coming up soon and my boyfriend helps organise the canberra one so i think maybe i will actually get to do it!! yay!!
a naked bike ride sounds awesome!
Wow these women are so cool, thanks for posting. facebook is so ridiculous like that, you can’t post photos of a woman breastfeeding even if the breast is hidden. yet there are all those sexist facebook apps and groups all the time.
Almost everyone has breasts and just because on average women’s are bigger than men’s, and especially because we can breastfeed with them which fucks up the patriarchy’s desire to sexualise them, our breasts are seen as inappropriate or dirty. i was thinking about this the other day when i was riding and i saw a guy riding his bike shirtless. i want to do that! I haven’t gone outside topless since i was 7! Sorry for the ranting, it just makes me very passionate. I’m glad I stumbled across your blog :)
thanks for the comment! i actually rode my bike around the city topless last summer. it was very liberating. it’s legal here in ontario for women to go topless, but it is not socially accepted at all. i got tons of stares and lots of comments and my boyfriend got mad at me. but it was such a nice experience to go bike riding topless.