Reuters reports that two topless women painted with the slogans “Olympic shame” and “No Sharia” protested in front of London’s City Hall on Thursday to draw attention to what they called “bloody Islamist regimes” taking part in the Olympics.
They were members of Ukrainian women’s rights group Femen, which has staged numerous topless protests across Europe, including at the Euro 2012 soccer tournament in Poland and Ukraine where their concern was prostitution in host cities.
“The regimes are fascists of our time, they treat women like third-class citizens,” said protester Reza Moradi, without specifying any countries. “This is what we object to, this is what they are protesting against.”
Smeared with fake blood and wearing floral wreaths on their heads, the two topless women ran around the entrance of City Hall in central London for around 10 minutes chased by a third protester before being covered up and led away in handcuffs by police officers. A spokeswoman for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) had no immediate comment.
This is not apparently not offensive.
This is not apparently not offensive.
Even this is apparently not offensive.
This is offensive. Hell, yes it is. But not for the reasons the police used.
So my question is this. Why were they led away by police officers? What law were they breaking? Why is it legal to go topless on a beach, but not outside City Hall? (Had it been New York, it would have been legal, by the way: see below.)
Most importantly, would they have been led away if they had been men, topless? Would they have been breaking any law?
After all, topless men – often with bodies that really shouldn’t see the light of day – are very common at British football matches, and in British parks, and so on.
So why is it an arrestable offence for a woman to be topless, and a man not?
Why is a woman’s body offensive, and a man’s not? Is it because female breasts are somehow “dirty”?
Why is it a furore if Janet Jackson reveals a nipple (still covered) or Madonna, but not if Mick Jagger does it?
Is it because female breasts are an erogenous zone? So it’s really all about our paranoia about matters sexual, yes? But surely that is not reason enough, as I know plenty of men who consider their own nipples to be erogenous too.
I think I have made my point. Or points, if you get my meaning.
Nipples? Tits? Get over ’em, already.
Related articles
- Olympics 2012: Video – Topless Women Protest Near Tower Bridge (london) (madnewsuk.com)
- Olympic protest staged by topless against the sharia they are right ….. boobs and all (atlasshrugs2000.typepad.com)
- Topless in NYC (wtf.videosift.com)
- All Topless in NYC is Legal – But 16+ ounces of sugary drinks aren’t. Hmm…seems like a good trade. (realthinktank.com)
- Topless protester pursues Russia church leader (miamiherald.com)
- Keeping abreast of the situation: More topless protests in Kiev (mirror.co.uk)
- Topless Euro protester interrupts psychic pig’s feeding (lfpress.com)
- Saudi woman allowed to compete in hijab (lfpress.com)
Well, This Is What I Think 
Sorry. Didn’t this happen in the UK? I think you can leave the British to deal with this.
LikeLike
Yawn. It’s an international campaign, and an international matter. Anyway, I am British. Are you?
LikeLiked by 1 person
Surely we now live in the global village? What happens in one part of the village can and should be of concern to those who live in others parts of it. In the UK we had a view about what was happening in Boznia. We sent troops there. We didn’t “…leave ythe people in Bosnia to deal with it..” Sometimes, a humble blog can contribute to advancing the lot of humans by chronicaling the absurd.
LikeLiked by 1 person
Precisely right, Bill, thank you for making the point.
LikeLike
You’re Australian. You live there. You pay your taxes there. You have an Australian Passport.
If you want to puff about ‘double standards’ do a piece on the Aboriginies.
Yes, I am British. I love here, currently. Pay my taxes here and have and USE a British Passport.
Should that ever change I will let you know.
LikeLike
Oi! I have a British passport. And I pay taxes in Britain. Not quite as much as you, but then I am not a fabulously wealthy oligarch like some I could mention.
LikeLike
LOL. And I live here as well as ‘love’ here.
LikeLike
Only until you become a “citizen of the world” and promptly start spouting off your nonsense about the auld country. Besides which, what gives you the right to witter on abut the perfidious Greeks, when the Germans are bailing them out, and the British haven’t contributed a penny?
LikeLike
My Grandfather often made the same argument and would go on about it for hours. He sure did love boobies. another favorite gripe he had was paying for an r-rated movie and only seeing one or two titties . Thanks for the mammeries . : )
LikeLike
Guys, just because it’s a ‘British matter’, it doesn’t mean that only the British can have their say on it. I also agree with this article; I, like many others, have no desire to see a man walking round with no top on. And, frankly, now that people are considering having their jeans and boxers lower than the hip, it’s bordering upon actual nudity. If a man should be allowed to go topless for matters no greater than ‘I feel like it’, why shouldn’t a woman be able to go around topless for protesting against issues that actually concern the social health & evolution of the human race?
LikeLike
Thank you Stephen, the voice of sanity.
LikeLike
I have never liked double standards, but I do like how women the world over are using this one in a martial arts way – making a non-violent weapon out of what is perceived as a weakness. There’s a great story that opens Dennis Linn’s “Dont Forgive Too Soon” about how women in an African village, with the men absent, saved their village from Afrikaaner soldiers by stripping – the men were appalled and simply left.
LikeLike
Yea, I love the way they are using their bodies to make the simple point that it is not wrong or dirty to be a woman.
What they are doing is deeply discomforting for the establishment, and for men in general in particular.
“Good!” say I.
LikeLike
[…] which we can only say, “HEAR HEAR”. This is a topic we have discussed on this blog before, and will again. This double standard is simple sexism, and should be done away with. Womens’ bodies are not […]
LikeLike