A blast from the forgettable past: a few years ago, Femen bare-breasted protesters were quite the rage among male leftists who declared them, without an ounce of embarrassment, as the rebirth of feminism. That would be taking mansplaining to the highest levels of burlesque. Or is it the lowest levels?
With no small amount of satisfaction (you can call it smugness if you like), I admit I was among the first to out Femen as Islamophobic, male-dominated, nefariously funded, phony-assed grandstanders & exhibitionists. Those leftist men who had looked forward to prurient protesting (there’s nothing better than combining political outrage & erotic drooling) were not amused, nor were they educated by my ridicule.
At some point it seemed Femen understood it’s 15 minutes of fame was in unwarranted overtime & they were seldom seen anymore. Now in the past week I’ve seen a few photos of them again posing & getting arrested.
Someone has to tell them that naked protesting is so yesterday, so 2010. Women find that wearing our undies in public gets the cogent political message across so much stronger than if our breasts decorated with pasties are swinging in the breeze. That’s not prudery or excessive modesty but an insistence on being taken seriously as political people without demeaning ourselves by stripping to our underwear.