The rally was in honour of French icon Joan of Arc, who has been adopted quite against her will as a mascot of the far right in France.
FEMEN founder Anna Hutsol describes the group as the new wave of radical feminism. That's good news I suppose; who isn't beyond sick and tired of the old wave of radical feminism?
While there does not appear to be a unifying theme to who and what they protest, if you connect the dots between their targets you can see a pattern of sorts:
- human trafficking
- sex trade
- Islam
- Christianity
- Strauss-Kahn
- Berlusconi
- Putin.
- Pope Benedict.
As you can see, they seem to hold a grudge against anyone who ever told them to sit down and shut-up.
I like that about them.
They are also consistently against the many faces of sexual exploitation, and that too is worthy of support. They've also protested the lack of public toilets in Kiev, although I'm not sure how that ties in with the broad strokes of what appears to be an anti-exploitation agenda.
They have protested the Davos summit too, although there is no explicit anti-capitalist plank in their somewhat chaotic platform.
What's noteworthy is their methodology. Plenty of middle-aged men and women have been protesting the National Front for years, but you don't see them making international headlines, do you?
But get a few attractive young women to remove their shirts, and suddenly we have front page news.
Which raises the question; is the international news-consumer interested in their message or merely in their breasts?
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