Femen: who are they and why do they cause so much rejection?

Femen is an activist and peaceful resistance group that leaves no one indifferentNot even a good part of the feminist groups, who often look at them with suspicion. There are also different theories about its foundation, pointing out some that have served the United States of America as a weapon to destabilize the countries of the Middle East, and others by attributing a role to them as a group financed by businessmen to harm the fight feminist.

Although their public appearances are rare, they always turn out to be extremely popular and manage to appear in the headlines of international newspapers. Their fields of action are usually congresses or political meetings, transnational economic entities or even at inaugurations of women's fashion companies, always with the same modus operandi: call the attention.

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Who are Femen?

Femen defines itself as an international organization that combats sexism and religious impositions against women, In addition to being considered "the special forces of feminism", the militias of the movement, as it appears cited in its Web. They make it clear that

use the transgression of norms to vindicate themselves.

The context must be taken into account to understand the emergence of a group with radical slogans or actions justifying violence. The origin of Femen is Ukrainian, and although it seeks an internationalist sense, the main object of complaint are the sexist abuses that occur in that country, as well as in neighboring Russia. Most of their actions are protest acts carried out by women naked from the waist up, with slogans painted on the body.

Numerous non-governmental organizations, Human Rights entities and local journalists show that in those countries of the There continues to be a sexist line to the detriment of the female gender, both at the socio-family level and at the political-economic. Let us recall the incidents of the feminist musical group “Pussy Riot”, who were imprisoned and dissolved as a group for having broken into a church.

On the other hand, The members of the Femen group are constantly exposed to potential police repression, as well as sentences that can sometimes reach two years in prison, since Ukrainian laws are significantly more severe than in the rest of Europe.

Femen has as one of its main goals to go where institutionalized feminism does not go directly: charge strongly against religion. In 2014 they appeared directly in front of Pope Francis in the Vatican Square, when the usual massive mass was being celebrated, to carry out one of their protest acts.

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The Femin method

As we have already commented, Femen's modus operandi responds to the one that the Suffragettes began in the past at the hands of Emmeline Pankhurst back in the 20th century: street violence and public disturbance to attract the media communication. With one more addition that supposes the naked torso and a clear intention to show the breasts with a message inscribed on them.

Why are they so rejected by feminism?

The most classic feminism, the well-known first and second wave feminisms, are skeptical of the use of the woman's body as a showcase to achieve repercussion, even more so when the activists in question are few representative of the majority of women, being white, with little connection to religion and, in its early stages, close to the canons of beauty. Some associations and institutionalized organizations see this method as counterproductive, and denounce the fact that women's physique is once again exposed at the service of media consumption.

Femen is shunned, too, for a major historical difference: Western feminism is nearly a century ahead of them. Outside of Femen, the protests against sexism no longer focus on the questioning of religion as a simple fact "contaminating reason", but rather tries to include in feminism groups that try to make non-sexist readings of their own religiosity, which supposes a clash of interests in the methodology.

In addition, these feminist institutions decline to support Femen openly because they consider it an ambiguous group and little elaborated in their theories. This group of Ukrainian origin seems to position itself against a very ambiguous idea of ​​sexism, while most feminist groups develop theories based on the concept of patriarchy. In this sense, the orientation of Femen seems to be closer to a liberal conception of gender problems, since that it protests against the violation of forms of repression applied against women as individuals, not as collective.