Flesh Is the Argument

Femen are a Ukrainian feminist collective who stage their protests topless, slogans painted across their chests, screaming into the faces of politicians and priests. The politics are serious—anti-patriarchy, anti-trafficking, anti-church domination—and the women are serious about them. I’d still be lying if I said the first thing I noticed was the manifesto. The body is the medium and the distraction simultaneously, and I’m fairly certain that’s a deliberate calculation on their part. Whether that makes them brilliant provocateurs or just very effective at getting cameras pointed at them is a question without a clean answer. Both, probably.