FEMEN Protesters Bare All in Mexico to Integrate Body and Message for Maximum Impact Tim Rogers - Fusion
go to original November 7, 2014

Gisela, right, burns the party flag of Mexico’s ruling PRI in a graveyard to protest a “country of mass graves.” At left, FEMEN activist Kika accuses the state of being behind the disappearance of the 43 students in Ayotzinapa. (Tim Rogers)

MEXICO CITY — Naked protest has to be smart. Otherwise, it’s just peep-show politics.

That’s the lesson that Mexican feminist Gisela Perez de Acha learned from her first year of topless protesting — a controversial form of civil disobedience in a traditional, machista society.

“I’m not just trying to hit people in the face with my boobs,” said the 25-year-old lawyer and founder of Mexico’s FEMEN protest movement. “I want people to see and hear our message.”

The challenge, she says, is learning how to integrate body and message for maximum impact. When done properly, she says, naked protest is provocative, disruptive and subversive; it transforms a woman’s body into a powerful political agent for change, rather than a sensual object of prurient lust.

“We’re using marketing tactics to give people what they want to see, but giving them a different message. I could use my body to sell beers, but instead I’m selling a feminist message. And that’s subversion,” the activist says.

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