Sunday, April 27, 2014

Via: seattlepi.com

When a topless woman runs toward you, you’re going to pay attention, no matter what your gender or background. But are you going to be changed? And will you learn anything? When she’s shouting an obscenity-laced provocation such as “F-‍-‍- Putin!” or “F-‍-‍- the Church!” the answer might be yes. Or the kind of resounding no that starts a national argument. But it’s rarely indifference. “As a woman, you usually have to beg to speak,” says Inna Shevchenko, leader of the Ukrainian protest group Femen. “We don’t beg. We force them to hear us.” Femen started in 2008 >>>

When a topless woman runs toward you, you’re going to pay attention, no matter what your gender or background. But are you going to be changed? And will you learn anything? When she’s shouting an obscenity-laced provocation such as “F-‍-‍- Putin!” or “F-‍-‍- the Church!” the answer might be yes. Or the kind of resounding no that starts a national argument. But it’s rarely indifference. “As a woman, you usually have to beg to speak,” says Inna Shevchenko, leader of the Ukrainian protest group Femen. “We don’t beg. We force them to hear us.” Femen started in 2008 >>>

The radical feminist protest group FEMEN staged a topless demonstration in Paris today to protest the announcement of the far-right French National Front party's candidacy in the European Parliament elections next month.Nearly two-dozen FEMEN activists from around the world marched outside the building and blocked the door where Front National leader Marine Le Pen was holding a press conference. At least two members of the group were arrested by French police and subsequently released.One of FEMEN's leading members left Ukraine after chopping down a holy cross with a chainsaw — topless, >>>

Femen activists have held a topless protest in central Paris to confront the National Front. They gathered outside the Maison des Centraliens where far-right leader Marine Le Pen was launching the party’s European election campaign. The women had the Nazi symbol in the colours of the European flag painted on their chest and moustaches drawn on their faces. Femen leader Inna Shevchenko said: “We are today here to announce that fascism, a fascist epidemic is spreading all over. Today we are starting our international campaign, there are activists who are coming from all over Europe today >>>

For Inna Shevchenko, Ukraine is particularly pertinent. She fled her birthplace in 2012 after cutting down a holy cross in Kyiv in a protest that inflamed the former president Victor Yanukovych. Since then Ukraine has undergone violent revolution and creeps dangerously close to a violent standoff with Russia. Speaking to Channel 4 News from Paris, Ms Shevchenko says the revolution and overthrowing of the president was inevitable. "We were one of the first victims and political refuges of [former president] Yanokovych's regime. >>>

Femen leader Anna Hutsol has posted an artistic video on YouTube entitled Women Spring Is Coming. It's age-restricted, but can't be described as pornographic. In the video, another Femen leader, Inna Shevchenko, declares that she and her colleagues in the international feminist group are in a war for civil rights. She implores viewers to help her group allow women to hear their "scream of freedom". Femen was founded in Ukraine in 2008 and has focused a great deal of attention on Russian president Vladimir Putin's antigay legislation. The group also opposes the Catholic Church's stance on same-sex >>>

Ukraine's most famous political figure and presidential candidate (Yulia Tymoshenko) and protest collective (Femen) may be women, but according to the government in Kyiv only men pose as a formidable threat. How else do we interpret the curious decision to issue an entry ban to all single Russian men between the ages of 16 and 60? According to Russian press sources, about 45 Russian citizens were pulled from their Ukraine-bound flights since the entry restrictions were put in place by the Ukrainian borders service today.The full document outlining this policy >>>

If you consider yourself a feminist (or have feminist leanings), are passing by Paris, and keen for a non-postcardesque experience of the capital, take the Métro up North to the outskirts of Clichy. From Saturday onwards, riotous activist group FEMEN (identifiable by their bare slogan-bearing chests and floral head pieces) are opening their headquarters. The space, a large factory formerly used as film production company, will become a permanent home to eight members and welcome women worldwide. “We want this to be a women’s house, open to anyone interested. Our action takes place on >>>

Femen and Everyday Sexism are two breakthrough movements to emerge in recent times, and they bring their own distinct “manifestos” in book form. Both confirm that feminism is no longer a dirty word among twentysomethings but also that the ideology manifests itself differently from their campaigning Second Wave predecessors.Femen was born out of Marxist theory and performance protests in the Ukraine in 2008, Everyday Sexism from an online forum begun in 2012 that has turned into a global collective, of sorts. The former wear flowers in their hair and not much else; the latter aims to unite >>>