Agitated Bodies

When you're not feeling well, when you have been ill for a considerable amount of time, you end up finding strange articles on the Internet that, perhaps, usually you would not find.  And so, there was this: "Topless Femen Activists Arrested Protesting Pope's Anti-Gay Policies."  Being a good researcher that I am, I did some more digging. 

FEMEN is a women's protest group, first founded in Ukraine, but has spread throughout the world.  They protest religion, sexism, anti-gay-ism (is that a word?), marriage, and other international "issues."  And they do it topless.  They want the women to have a voice.  They want women to stop being silent.  The reason for protesting topless they say is because "this is the only way to be heard...if we staged simple protests with banners, then our claims would not have been noticed."

Perusing through the website of FEMEN, I was reminded of another women's protest group called SlutWalk.  The mission behind this group is to reclaim their bodies and fight against rape.  They too protest either topless or dressed, as the name implies, as "sluts." 

Ok then. 

As an observer (and as someone who really does not like protests of any kind, let alone of this variety), I must ask what is the purpose of stripping, walking around naked, while at the same time attempting to solve political conflicts?  If indeed these young women (and they're all very young, mainly in their 20s) have intellectual awareness that certain political issues do exist, then wouldn't it be more profitable and productive to engage into a debate about such issues?  Ranting against God while showing bare breasts is a phenomenon I honestly cannot understand. 

It is obvious that there is some suppressed rage in these women directly related to the environment they are living in.  But how many of such protests are done simply to be part of the world group of protests?  Agitate, agitate, agitate.  There is a way to stir the pot, to shock, to wake up people from their comforts.  Turning your naked body into a symbol of agitation, with unclear message is not one of them.

Maybe it is all a phase, kind of like puberty, and you grow out of it.  And these girls will look back and will either reflect on the glory days or the days of stupidity.  Either way, the existence of such groups reveals that we have no clue what the feminine is, and what's worse, we don't care.  

A bigger damage is being done with such acts.  It is a metaphysical damage.  By degrading the body, one degrades the soul.  Our embodied selves are mysterious just as our souls are.  The body is a gift.  Why treat it with such irreverence?