FEMEN is a protest group that originated in Ukraine and gained international recognition for their controversial protests. Adorned in crowns of flowers, bright colors and painted slogans on their bodies, FEMEN participants protest in scanty outfits, or even topless. As an article published by Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty notes, FEMEN's antics and media attention have created what is arguably the most visible advocacy group on women's issues today.

According to the organization's website (NSFW), the objectives of the movement are "to provoke patriarchy into open conflict by forcing it to disclose its aggressive antihuman nature to fully discredit it in the eyes of history;" "to ideologically undermine the fundamental institutes of patriarchy -- dictatorship, sex-industry, and church -– by putting these institutes through subversive trolling to force them to strategic surrender;" and "to instill in modern women a culture of active opposition to the evil and of struggle for justice."

Given the group's controversial tactics, it's no surprise that FEMEN has a wide range of critics. As Reason.com's Elizabeth Nolan Brown states: "Femen's philosophy is incoherent, and its tactics nonsensical -- but they do know how to create a spectacle." One feminist blogger derided the organization for "sexing up feminism for the media." And of course, given all of their opposition to Russian President Vladimir Putin, Russian media outlets frequently target FEMEN, calling the group's members "ridiculous" and "vicious."

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Via: news.discovery.com

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