FEMEN v. Millionaire Fair (Nudity)

FEMEN have made the jump to English, with this video against the Millionaire Fair, currently appearing in Amsterdam.


FEMEN Solidarity message to FEMEN Holland from FEMEN Holland on Vimeo.


According to the Millionaire Fair web site:

"In 2002, the organisers of the Millionaire Fair shook the little country of the Netherlands at its foundations by organising an event unparalleled in luxury and size. 'A fairytale for the affluent, a cornucopia for culinary fans and a feast of superlatives', louded the press. Initiator Yves Gijrath (CEO Gijrath Media Groep) and publisher of Miljonair Magazine, launched the idea for the Millionaire Fair on the basic theme of their magazine: 'The Luxury Lifestyle'.  

The Amsterdam launch paved the way for a great success. The next year, in 2003, the Fair quadrupled in terms of size and number of visitors. In 2005, the first international Millionaire Fair was held in Moscow. Since then, this glamorous spectacle has been conquering the world and the Millionaire Fair is known as the World's Leading Luxury Fair. A place where the top of the international luxury industry meet to present their most beautiful and exclusive products and services. In the past years the organisers received some very meaningful reactions by visitors, celebrities and exhibitors..."

Europe is in the middle of a financial crisis and, according to FEMEN, a women's rights one as well. Is there something inherently wrong with the rich carrying on like this at such a time? State your piece below.

Nude activism continues to take over the internet

First PETA. Then FEMEN. Then, last month, Egyptian blogger Aliaa Magda Elmahdy posted naked pictures of herself online to protest sexist oppression.

Now it's Chinese supporters of dissident artist Ai Weiwei who are dropping trou for a cause.

According to Shanghaiist,  Ai Weiwei announced Friday that Beijing police were now investigating his assistant Zhao Zhao for "spreading pornography online" for posting a picture of the artist with four female models, all nude. (Link)

The site, "Listen, Chinese Government： Nudity is not Pornography" is packed with homemade nudes from both well-known outspoken Chinese cewebrities and well-wishers.

What I really love are the group shots censored with AWW faces:

There is no doubt that this will get attention. Naked people always seem to, no matter how many billions of artistic, scientific and erotic nude pictures are available at the stroke of a Google. But as the shock value diminishes with the increasing ordinariness of seeing other humans in their altogether, will the efficacy of the tactic also fade?

I guess we'll just have to see. But as long as places like Egypt and China (not to mention many Western democracies) continue to harshly fight the normalization of naked displays of the human body, there will still be someone to scandalize.

(Thanks to FEMEN for the tip)

FEMEN find a new home on Google+ (painted nudity)

Ukrainian topless activists FEMEN, who seem most at home on old fashioned Livejournal, have never really felt welcome on Facebook. Since their main protest tactic is to take their shirts off and fight with police, it's not surprising that the prudes at Facebook often delete their photos and even ban the group.

Well, now they're testing the waters on Google+. So far, the new social network (unlike Google property YouTube) has not been particularly censoring of content. It will be interesting to see how FEMEN make use of the freedom.

Although, since they update in Ukrainian, I may need Google Translate as well.

FEMEN take on the Pope (nudity)

Not quite as outrageous as Sinead's attack, but still newsworthy.



According to their Livejournal (via Google Translate):

"Alexandra Shevchenko, past the police and security services, made ​​her way into the center of the Vatican in St. Peter's Square and staged topless just share during Sunday Mass under the balcony of the Pope, deploying a banner reading 'Freedom for women.'

In this way, activists protested the papal patriarchal propaganda manipulated by the medieval idea of a woman's social and cultural mission. Condemnation of the use of contraceptives, the international ban on the abortion lobby, the correction of clothing and appearance of women, the ban on women in the ordained - a fetid belch a witch hunt. Sexist policies Vatican has its downside in the form of a wave of sexual crimes committed by clergy against children and women. The women's movement FEMEN favor of a free woman, devoid of prejudice, despising all forms of patriarchal slavery, blatant of which was and remains a church!  

FEMEN  caused panic among Vatican intelligence. Journalists were brutally dispersed, the Italian journalists dutifully adopted a ban on shooting, and were not only arrested the activist movement FEMEN, but also a journalist from Australia. The promoters of the movement had more than four hours in the Roman police, and only under pressure from the media escaped deportation."

 Originally from Ukraine, FEMEN are on a tour of Europe to promote women's rights and stick it to the man.

Is this the work of an agent provocateur?

No, I don't mean the people who do those awkwardly sexualized underwear ads. I mean this anti-pacifism screed that BoingBoing says is being circulated at Occupy Oakland.

I would say that the greatest threat to nonviolent protest is violence from within. Although I have seen those ninja-clad assholes who go to protests just to fight with cops before, part of me hopes this is just the work of an individual anarchist loonie. However, it could also easily be the work of a capitalist loonie who wants to discredit the protests. Either way, the Oakland people apparently weren't buying it.

Me neither. The copywriting is abominable.

F'd Ad Fridays: From "Power to the People" to "Beef Jerky"

Via Another Limited Rebellion

The only way those two statements should be together is if you're making a John Lennon mix tape. Otherwise, it's just really trite marketing exploitation of a volatile political climate.

Yeah, kind of like that.

F'd Ad Fridays: GM insults cyclists, gets its bumper handed to it

Copyranter posted this phenomenally dumb ad from GM, aimed at college students across the United States.

The culture wars between drivers and cyclists are not something the automotive giant wants to wade into. There are already fights in cities all around North America about new bike lanes on downtown streets.

Just this week, where I live, a cyclist was killed as a result of being doored by a careless parked driver, while the trial opened of a man accused of ploughing into five cyclists in his van in the suburbs two years ago.

And right now, social media networks are full of content like this:

I'm not going to say cars are evil. (My wife owns a car.) And I'm not going to beatify cyclists, because as a pedestrian I have been at the receiving end of near-misses by aggressive riders. But I will say that a goddamn car manufacturer — especially one accused of once trying to destroy public transit in the US — is really endangering its social licence by trying to convince young people that they should be embarrassed not to drive a car.

And now even GM agrees. In response to pressure from cycling advocates and lots of Twitter hate, they have pulled the ad.

You knew it was coming to this: PETA to launch porn site

The controversial ".XXX" top level domain is set to launch at year's end. And at the bottom of a Reuters article about how major brands are scrambling to lock down their claims against sexy squatters is this item:

People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals also signed up. However, instead of blocking its name, said PETA spokeswoman Lindsay Rajt, the organization will launch peta.xxx as a pornography site that draws attention to the plight of animals.

PETA has long used and abused sexuality (particularly female sexuality) to get its message across.

The fleshy outreach comes in two flavours: the tasteful celebrity nude and the naked dedication of an army of beautiful young nobodies around the world.

The question arises whether PETA is planning to put these earnest and trusting efforts into its "porn" enterprise. First of all, I doubt many of the actresses or volunteers want a career in porn. With, perhaps, some notable exceptions...

Second, why would anyone pay for what PETA gives away for free?

I realize this is just a publicity stunt. But it should also lead you to question what they're really willing to do for their cause.