FEMEN threatens to 'cancel' Christmas in Bethlehem

[oberliner]

BETHLEHEM (Ma'an) -- As Christmas Eve celebrations took over the streets of Bethlehem on Tuesday, rumors swirled of a plot to disturb the festivities in Jesus' birthplace.

The plot, however, was not connected to the Israeli occupation, nor to any Palestinian faction or popular resistance movement.

The threat to Christmas this year emerged instead from the Ukrainian organization FEMEN, a women's group that has gained fame in the last five years for organizing semi-nude and topless protests targeting political and religious figures deemed to be complicit in the exploitation of women.

Earlier in December, sources close to the group -- which refers to itself as "sextremist" -- claimed that it was planning to target Christmas Eve mass in the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem this year.

http://www.maannews.net/eng/ViewDetails.aspx?ID=659905

[monmouth3]

1. Getting attention via stupidity...n/t

[geek tragedy]

2. attention-seeking assholes adhering to a front group started by a man. nt

[oberliner]

3. Who are they a front for?

I don't understand the last half of your comment.

[geek tragedy]

4. supposedly a group of women fighting oppression turns out to be a bunch of women

chosen for their attractiveness to men showing off their boobs at the urging of a man who views them very much as Pope Benedict did.

So who's the political director behind this radical feminist movement? A man named Victor Svyatski.

While, there is nothing wrong with having a man be part of a feminist movement, the validity of the movement is in question given Svyatski is the main leader and founder of FEMEN. Still, one could remain open-minded ... that is, until he told 28-year-old Australian film-maker Kitty Green "These girls are weak" during the filming of FEMEN's upcoming documentary, Ukraine is Not a Brothel. The founder is known for calling the female activists "bitches" and "submissive." Sadly, the reputability of the movement has waned.

It's difficult to stand behind a group positioned to end women's oppression politically, sexually, and religiously when these feminist activists are paradoxically led by a dictator they publically oppose. According to the Independent, Svyatski describes his hostile feelings towards the women he "hand-picked" ...

"They don't have the strength of character. They don't even have the desire to be strong. Instead, they show submissiveness, spinelessness, lack of punctuality, and many other factors which prevent them from becoming political activists. These are qualities which it was essential to teach them."

http://www.policymic.com/articles/62167/victor-svyatski-man-behind-femen-picks-prettiest-girls-calls-them-bitches

[oberliner]

5. Interesting

Check this out:

Femen let Victor Svyatski take over because we didn't know how to fight it

Once, we accepted a man like Svyatski taking control of us. But Femen is now a group where women follow their own ideas

Excerpt:

Yes, Syatski was part of the Femen movement. He is not a founder of Femen, nor a creator of our topless strategy and ideology. But he did lead the movement some time ago. This story is not so much about how the movement was born. It is rather the story of how the struggle began.

Femen was founded by group of young female students in a culture in which men talk and women listen. In which men decide and women accept their decisions. In which men dominate and women accept that domination. And this explains why Svyatski could become Femen's leader. After Femen became a known movement in Ukraine, Svyatski, a supporter, took control of Femen's team. Why and how could he do this? Because he was a man. The story described in the film – by Svyatski himself – amounts to nothing other than patriarchy. He is sexism, male domination, and oppression against women personified.

When he presented himself as the father of our new feminism, I was taken aback by such a brave declaration – one that only a man could make in my country. I was surprised: why have we suddenly acquired a father? Where is the mother? Having been born in a country in which feminism was unknown, in the best traditions of patriarchal society we just accepted the fact of a man taking control of us. We accepted this because we did not know how to resist and fight it. From that moment on, I realised that the patriarchy was not somewhere outside. It was right in front of us, in Femen's office. And our global fight with patriarchy started with the fight in our own private life.

This is when I decided to leave Ukraine for France to build a new Femen. A Femen in which women decide and follow their own ideas, not someone else's demands. One year ago I started from the beginning again with new colleagues from France, Germany, Spain, Belgium, Sweden, Canada, Mexico, Netherlands and Tunisia. The Femen fight still involves men – those who support us but do not dominate. Unlike Svyatski, from whom we broke free.

http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/sep/05/victory-svyatski-femen-man

[geek tragedy]

6. Meh. When Femen stops resembling a modeling agency on its offday

and picks on rich white Christians instead of Muslims and the freaking Church of the Nativity (they somehow managed to target one of the few Christian groups on the planet that's genuinely oppressed and in danger of dying out) I'll be impressed.

[oberliner]

7. Shock at Femen activist’s topless anti-Catholic protest in Vatican

Protest at The Vatican:

http://www.euronews.com/2013/12/20/shock-at-femen-activists-topless-catholic-protest-in-vatican-city/

Here's a recent one against anti-abortion laws at a church in Spain:

http://www.hurriyetdailynews.com/femen-bare-breasts-against-spain-abortion-law.aspx?pageID=238&nID=59997&NewsCatID=351

Another in support of gay marriage at the Vatican

http://www.euronews.com/2013/01/13/topless-protest-at-the-vatican/

Here's one at Davos for women's rights internationally:

http://www.theguardian.com/business/gallery/2013/jan/26/womens-rights-protest-davos-in-pictures?guni=Article:in%20body%20link

Plenty of rich white Christians there, for what that is worth...

[Violet_Crumble]

8. I'm surprised half of GD didn't turn up to argue in this thread...

I guess the gender wars up there must have taken up all their time

So, did FEMEN turn up to Bethlehem? They have a tendency to being really haphazard and not putting much thought into their 'targets', for example, disrupting some fashion show and trying to take over the catwalk. One of the models gave one of them a big shove and got her out of the way, and while I was applauding the model, I was wondering to myself how disrupting a fashion show is protesting oppression of women by the church and politicians....