Charge of the pink brigade.

FEMEN and the campaign for gender justice in Ukraine

Introduction

Ukraine’s transition from totalitarianism to a market-driven

society began in 1991. On August 24th of that year the

country was on the cusp of an epiphaneous moment—its

successful declaration of independence. With it the nation’s

women began to engage the process of distancing themselves

from their Soviet past. Seeking to authenticate their ethnic

uniqueness by rejecting the collective quasi-masculine

Soviet model of quintessential womanhood in favor of their

own legendary ‘hearth mother’ Berehynia, signifying women’s

empowerment, they created important links with their past by

reaching into pre-history for a lasting symbol of Ukrainian

cultural identity as an historically matriarchal society.

Berehynia’s image was de-contextualized and reinserted

structurally and historically into an era of different

1

circumstances, then it was projected onto the contemporary

culturally-determined female stereotype to reanimate that

ancient paradigm of the ideal woman, exemplifying both the

empowered “domestic Madonna and her modern “mother of the

nation” counterpart. References to Berehynia flourished,

lulling Ukraine’s women into a false sense of their own

centrality, the effect of which was to elevate men even

further to a perceived position of superiority.

During that first wave of rejecting the dominant values

stemming from communist ideology not all women in Ukraine

were content to identify with the neo-traditional image of

femininity, although the cultural connection was strong and

difficult to reject. Some opted for a vision of Ukrainian

women that signified Western-style “sophistication”. Along a

continuum of rejected societal norms a kaleidoscope of

lifestyles contributed to the early formation of a new model

of female identity. This particular departure from the

stultifying collective past projected a sense of

2

individuality and personal freedom-- an important

psychological distancing from the common herd.

The reforming objectives, however, contained a fatal

weakness. In the prevailing conservative post-Soviet

environment so many women, often including the reformers

themselves, still seemed unable to grasp the full

significance of the hegemonic patriarchal culture of the

transitional world in which they now lived, to see

themselves as lesser beings in support of a male dominated

system of power that mediates their subordination by

persuasion, through an effective process of acculturation.

Ukraine is laden with such historical baggage, the result of

which is that gender inequality has proven to be much more

intractable than originally anticipated; this has inhibited

meaningful change.

A major source of weakness in promoting women’s rights

was the world view of the women themselves. With few

exceptions the first wave (or proto) feminists applied their

energies to lobbying for short-term gains with repeated

3

appeals for the creation of conditions that would allow for

special concessions for women. They emphasized especially

the desire for the integration of women’s maternal

obligations and their professional lives, in a word-- an

environment where “women could be women”. A spreading cult

of the essentialist motherhood unmarked paradigm, cloaked as

a call for the redress of women’s inequality, obscured the

need for a more effective paradigm of the ideal woman and

gender parity. References to women’s essentialist qualities,

and an almost mechanical belief in the power of intention to

determine the outcome of policy implementation inhibited

both the scale and pace of reforms. As a consequence,

notwithstanding the undeniable, if limited, advances in

eradicating gender-based discrimination achieved by the

pioneer reformers (proto feminists), many of their important

goals remain unfulfilled. Their uphill struggle to eliminate

the negative stereotyping and continued exploitation of

women have shown how intractable genuine reform could be.

Before long, they were faced with the hard fact that

4

building any large-scale pressure group with real

transformative possibilities requires a prolonged struggle,

and failure must always be considered a possibility.

What is to be done?

Any emergent social movement faces obstacles, proceeds

unevenly, and with difficulty, as it works its way through

the people’s resistance toward cultural change (Dobash &

Dobash 1992). In Ukraine, the decades ahead will present

ever greater challenges to building a consensus on women’s

rights, even as people’s awareness of the patterns of anti-

woman discrimination increases. And finally, in any pursuit

of gender justice the one important thing to be borne in

mind is that periodically a cause needs to reinvent itself

if it is to remain relevant to the needs of the times. This

is especially true in Ukraine’s current fluid political

atmosphere.

To extend and strengthen the level of widespread

cooperation, organizations committed to protecting and

5

promoting women’s rights did begin to form, but many more

are needed if women are to transcend the patriarchal

constraints under which they live. The ascent to power in

2010 of a new and blatantly sexist administration, based

upon a dominant hegemonic patriarchal value system, is

presenting severe impediments to gender justice, although it

is not inconceivable that at some juncture its coercive

measures will miscarry and inspire fierce resistance. As

advocates of women’s rights take stock of their progress

over the past two decades, they are coming to the

realization that in light of such jeopardy the time is ripe

for taking resistance to a higher plane, to foster more

effective social networks for change.

In such a state of new awakening, politically

radicalized youth, and gender activists seeking to give

women a voice and promote their equality, came to prominence

as early as 2008. They ushered in the beginnings of a wave

of opposition to the recently established post-Soviet value

6

system, rooted in the neo-traditional views of women which

replaced the earlier communist ideals.

Charge of the pink brigade

In the words of D. L. Hodgson & E. Brook (2007) “Age emerges

as a fascinating dynamic location that shapes the modalities

of activism. It was precisely the various youthful groups

which began to rise to the challenges left unmet by the

previous generation, notwithstanding the latter’s best

efforts. Current examples of disaffection are diverse, but

they have one thing in common--they tend increasingly to be

the actions of young people exhibiting radical shifts away

from the past in their views and observations. They are now

insisting upon an increasingly proactive role in advocating

solutions to social problems.

By the spring of 2008 the initial post-Soviet status

quo in Ukraine was facing the prospect of being dethroned.

This looming rearrangement emerged in 2007, in the wake of a

year-long UN-sponsored nationwide public information

7

campaign titled “Ukraine 2015. Although still in its

declarative stage, change was clearly in the air. Riding the

crest of this reforming surge a unique (for Ukraine) cohort

of activists--in the form of a grassroots organization of

university students in Kyiv calling itself FEMEN--began its

ascent to prominence by redefining the nature of public

dissent. The organization turned to subversive parodies

designed to destabilize a corrupt power structure, in the

interest of gender justice. Unlike its predecessors this

postmodern group of radicalized young women had grown to

maturity in an open, democratizing society. From her visit

to Bethlehem PA in 2007, on an exchange program for leaders,

the organizer of FEMEN Anna Hutsol had come away persuaded

that if the desperately needed changes were to translate

into reality, the women themselves would have to take the

initiative and become the agents of their own

transformation.

Accordingly, in May of 2008 Hutsol founded FEMEN, a

group without organizational or historical antecedents in

8

Ukraine, whose motto became “Ukraine is not a brothel”, and

pink its signature color. Hutsol’s stated objective was to

advance women’s activism and encourage them to voice their

protest against the destructive fallout from the host of

injustices that women faced. At the same time, she and her

adherents rejected the feminist label (albeit without

understanding its meaning, although their cause clearly

supported its values). They launched their protests with

rallies against prostitution, which soon gave way to a

series of tongue-in-cheek parodies of misogynistic practices

in the form of street theater simulating physical attacks,

rape and exploitation of women. This street theater became

for them a realm of play, creating a space for interactions

with a wide variety of passersby aimed at reshaping, through

parody, the damaging anti-woman stereotypes. Although it

would soon come to exemplify their protests, toplessness did

not instantly become part of FEMEN’s dissident profile.

9

Rally against prostitution. FEMEN site

FEMEN built upon the growing quest for gender justice

inaugurated during the first wave by the ‘proto-feminists’, but

opted for radically unconventional forms of dissent to replace

both the residue of communist values and the neoconservative

configuration that supplanted them. Long-term plans of this

nonconformist organization included attracting a core membership

of three to four hundred activists, exhibiting a fervent social

consciousness and leadership skills capable of successfully

challenging government malfeasance and the country’s range of

social ills. Hutsol saw this interest group--a frequently pink-

clad brigade of what is described as the most radical feminist

movement in Europe today--as a precursor to a formal political

organization. Her ultimate dream was to found a women’s party,

and make it the most influential female political force in all of

Europe, but for the present Hutsol is concentrating on activism

as an effective preliminary step in building a coalition of

women’s rights advocates in Ukraine.

A comment from Dorothy L. Hodgson and Ethel Brooks,

expressed in a different context, captures the spirit of FEMEN‘s

dissident activities: “Images and actions can broaden,

complement, enrich, and complicate what cannot be communicated by

words alone (2007)”. FEMEN’s adherents began to convey their

opposition to the dominant social codes through an array of

daringly innovative images and actions--scandalous

demonstrations, bizarre street theater in which role playing

simulates physical attacks, rape, and exploitation, contentious

confrontations with authorities and, lately, ever-increasing and

more overtly political rallies and expressions of civil

disobedience. More often than not the shocking nature of their

maneuvers, particularly the notorious spectacles of near-nudity

11

in the public arena, is misunderstood by the public, or regarded

with suspicion, hence disparaged by many onlookers, especially

those lacking the necessary analytical skills to process the

issues being parodied and theatricalized.1 But, as Hutsol

continues to insist, although the tactics might be extreme (and

offensive to some), shedding clothes is the most effective

measure in the process of drawing attention to FEMEN’s cause,

inspiring the public imagination, promoting public discourse

about women’s problems, creating social connections, developing

networks and alliances, and mobilizing active public support for

gender justice.

1Notes

? “The movement is often called tasteless or incoherent, and some even

doubt the motivation behind it, but in a society where disappointment

and passivity have been the general mood over the past years, having

such a bold activist group seems to be a positive thing”. Available on

line at: “Ukraine goes topless again in protest - Forbes” (6/23/2012).

A brief report on FEMEN’s activity during the Euro 2012 games in

Ukraine.12

Although FEMEN’s initial protests were directed against the

twin evils of prostitution and trafficking in women, organizers

soon added sexual exploitation in institutions of higher

education to their agenda. Inasmuch as FEMEN’s membership

consists primarily of students, this would appear to represent a

natural segue into an expanded protest. Young women, particularly

those from provincial universities, had begun to share their

chilling stories of coerced sex (sometimes leading to student

suicides) in exchange for admission to a university, or in return

for government-sponsored stipends, student housing, or decent

grades. In a highly publicized drive for accountability and

reform, FEMEN’s demonstrators mounted dramatic protests against

sexual harassment from ‘sex-for-grades-and-stipends’ college

administrators and professors. One of the most startling displays

of opposition to the corruption in institutions of higher

learning was a near-pornographic ‘theater-of-the-absurd’ staging

in front of the Ministry of Education building, featuring the

tension between a resolve to learn, and its contemptible price in

13

Ukraine’s institutions of enlightenment--the corrupt academe.

This particular street performance portrays a student (on

the left) in the process of submitting an assignment to her

professor, whose image invokes thoughts of a pimp more than those

of an academic. The student’s provocative stance leaves little to

the imagination. To all appearances, in exchange for a grade a

sexually explicit ‘Faustian Pact’ is seemingly being struck. Next

to her in the same frame is the image of another student with a

dogged resolve to pursue her studies, even while exposing its

obscene price. Her discordant attire can also be read as

signifying the incongruity between a notoriously corrupt

educational system in Ukraine (with sex the medium of exchange),

14

and an earlier era of decency and respect for scholarship. She is

wearing a fashionable miniskirt--reflecting a contemporary

trend--offset by red boots and a beribboned wreath--classic

markers of a single woman’s traditional folk outfit. The garland

also symbolizes a medieval myth of mysterious female powers over

men, attributed to legendary wood sprites and water nymphs.2

Despite the fact that the student is still in possession of her

magical wreath, corruption is clearly threatening both her virtue

and her ability to proceed with an education. Several

interpretations of this image are possible and have been put

forth, but what they all come down to is a dichotomy of past and

present, its respective values reflecting the nature of society--

then and now.

2 Women’s legendary powers over men were such that rituals such as

wearing “magical” wreathes by single women until they exchanged them

for a matron’s headdress on the eve of marriage, thus protecting the

groom from the bride’s magical powers. They survived into the 20th

century and even now can occasionally be observed on a purely

evocative level.15

The power of politics

Even though initially politics were not on FEMEN’s agenda, in

time issues having a less direct connection to women’s problems,

occasionally even none, became an important target of the women’s

opposition to a broken system. As an example, calculated to

attract the attention of cabinet members, on 19 October 2008

protesters stripped down to bikinis and staged a high-spirited

mud-wrestling event in front of the Ministerial building; their

message was to bring to light the dirty nature of Ukraine’s

politics.

As the organization’s media exposure and global popularity

rose, the targets of FEMEN’s protests shifted from their primary

focus on prostitution and eradication of Ukraine’s international

image as a huge brothel selling cheap sex, toward a radical

opposition force aimed at an expanded array of political, social,

and economic issues. Carnivalesque attire remained in evidence,

but by 2009 FEMEN demonstrators were also topless and street

16

theater had given way to rallies and a host of political

confrontations.

During Ukraine’s runoff election for president in February

of 2010, for instance, FEMEN protesters demonstrated their well-

founded fear of the deteriorating nature of Ukrainian politics.

On the day of the election, six protesters gained access to the

polling station where Yanukovych was slated to cast his vote, and

staged a demonstration against electoral fraud, as well as

overall corruption. Except for some blue tape crisscrossing their

nipples the protesters were naked from the waist up. Polling

station workers stared in disbelief as the demonstrators unveiled

placards, concealed under their coats when they arrived,

emblazoned with the words: “Don’t sell your vote! Don’t be a

slut!” Then, “The politicians are raping us”, shouted one of the

protesters, while a security man attempted, unsuccessfully for

the moment, to evict the demonstrators from the premises.

Eventually they were turned out of the building and once safely

out of range of the cameras they were arrested and accused of the

all too familiar catch-all crime of hooliganism. FEMEN organizers

17

judged the incident to have been highly successful, inasmuch as

it had attracted widespread media coverage that drew attention to

the political issues that FEMEN strove to highlight.

Victor Yanukovych won the election by a slim margin and lost

no time in filling his cabinet with like-minded misogynistic

Soviet-era “retreads”. He appointed his closest ally Mykola

Azarov (often described as an unreconstructed dinosaur) to the

post of Prime Minister. Both men were guilty of inflammatory

sexist comments which violate Ukraine’s constitutional guarantees

of equal rights. During the runoff election campaign (between

Yanukovych and Tymoshenko), the former was heard to remark that

his female competitor ought to indulge her whims in the kitchen,

where all women belong. Subsequently, the new Prime Minister

Azarov contributed his own judgment of women in leadership

positions. When asked why his cabinet was restricted to males, he

responded with: “Conducting reforms is not women’s business …” On

May 24th of this year male legislators gave a dramatic

demonstration of men’s ability to conduct reforms by an ugly

brawl that broke out during a parliamentary vote on Ukraine’s

18

language issue. Fists and objects at hand constituted their

“voice of reason”. Meanwhile, Azarov’s comment set off a fire

storm of criticism throughout Ukraine as well as Western

Europe, while the media stoked the fires with sensational

coverage. Patriarchal norms lodged themselves ever more securely

into such an environment. An outstanding example continues to be

reflected in the political participation of women, which in the

Verkhovna Rada (Parliament) is a dismal 8%, with a further

reduction anticipated due to new electoral laws.3

In reaction to the corrosive sexist comments, and sensing

more determined opposition from the newly appointed ministers,

FEMEN modified its tactics, temporarily exchanging their trashy

image for a conservative look. White shirts and earnest-looking

grey trousers replaced their customary near nudity when they

3 Available at: Suslova O 062312 CYA/WFUWO meeting. Available at:

https://mail-attachment.googleusercontent.com/attachment/u/0/?

ui=2&ik=fad40f3bfe&view=att&th=13882033e3061369&attid=0.1&disp=safe&zw

&saduie=AG9B_P_VGOOPlsb3aRvtlIYo94x9&sadet=1342241327280&sads=sFNTm9WV

2WFIGvtN86uZLkVPHJI&sadssc=1).19

sought an audience with the ministers. Compared with the

previous, “more civilized” response to its grievances, this time

FEMEN confronted a hostile wall of riot police determined to

block contact between the two sides. Eventually, the standoff

escalated into a shouting and shoving match, with police forcing

FEMEN demonstrators to the opposite side of the street, arresting

one token protester, and once again leveling the well-worn charge

of hooliganism.

In two short years, FEMEN had evolved from a women’s-rights-

oriented organization into a radical political opposition to what

it perceived as the current administration’s Kremlin-style

tactics. Its public activities now included dramatic protests

against the curtailment of free speech and democratic liberties.

As highlighted by Davis Ferris,4 both FEMEN’s influence and

visibility continued to expand.

Quo Vadis?

4 On line: “Interview with Ukraine’s Rising Young Activists” 2010).20

Currently Ukraine’s political landscape is being radically

transformed in spite of the reactionary government that recently

came to power. The process of challenging the silences and

complicities of everyday life has assumed new complexities and

greater seriousness. Ukraine’s failure to resolve its critical

social ills under the previous “Orange regime” brought to the

forefront two conflicting forces: an administration trending

toward a police state; and a postmodern generation of radicalized

activists prepared to challenge the creeping authoritarianism of

the dominant hegemonic power structure.

At the end of 2004, Ukraine’s Orange Revolution mobilized

masses of young people in a collective response to electoral

fraud. In the words of Hodgson and Brooks: “Clearly the possible

modes and expression of activism … depend on the conjuncture of

historical moment and geographical place”.5 Ukraine’s historical

moment appeared to arrive with the democratic Orange Revolution,

signaling that consolidated democracy was at hand. Yet by early

2010, it was quite evident that the revolutionary euphoria had

dissipated, and the Orange leadership had betrayed its

21

revolutionary charge by indulging in the debilitating infighting

that brought it down and elevated to power the previously

discredited regime of Victor Yanukovych. Almost immediately the

country began its distressing backward slide toward a return to

Soviet-style authoritarianism. This begs the question: Will the

present power brokers succeed in suppressing the youthful

enthusiasm of non-conformists such as FEMEN and its adherents,

together with the organization’s goal of engendering a

comprehensive democracy? Or will the new political leaders make

the same mistakes that so many repressive regimes have made in

the past by overplaying their hand to court the very opposition

they seek so brutally to suppress?

On 25 February 2010 Victor Yanukovych, that twice-convicted

felon, was inaugurated as Ukraine’s fourth president. Exhibiting

an almost pathological fear of public criticism, he and his

cronies moved swiftly to curb public assemblies and muzzle the

press, often resorting to brutal police tactics to achieve their

5 In the “Introduction” to: Activisms.Women’s Studies Quarterly 2007. 35(3–

4): 14–25.22

ends. Consequently, a peaceful assembly of young people opposing

the proposed legislation barring public assemblies without prior

government approval brought hundreds of youthful activists to

Kyiv’s central square on 17 June 2010 in protest. They did score

a temporary victory but, as subsequent developments would

demonstrate all too soon, the victory was a pyrrhic one.

The rally for freedom of assembly followed on the heels of a

FEMEN demonstration on 3 June 2010 against limitations on

democratic liberties and freedom of the press, timed to coincide

with Yanukovych’s first 100 days in office. On 2 July 2010, FEMEN

demonstrations assumed a quasi international coloring. In an

audacious breach of protocol a bare-breasted contingent of

FEMEN’s women welcomed U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in

Sophia Square on the occasion of her visit to the city in 2010.6

In this semi-nude state, they petitioned her to advocate for

women’s rights during her upcoming meeting with President

Yanukovych (2010).

6 Available on the FEMEN on line site under ‘Clinton Greeted by Bare Breasts of Ukrainian Women”.

23

Putin’s visit to Ukraine in November 2011 provided yet

another incentive for expanding FEMEN’s dissident politics--

namely Russian meddling in Ukraine’s internal affairs. Wearing

the traditional garlands on their heads, and adding Ukrainian

flags as adornments, the demonstrators chanted “Ukraine is not

Alina”--a reference to Putin’s affair with a Russian gymnast, and

signifying that Ukraine was not Russia’s mistress.

As FEMEN’s notoriety increased its targeted causes

multiplied and spread to foreign countries, where the

demonstrators took on broader international issues. This led to

arrests (Turkey and Switzerland come to mind, amid a number of

others), and even savage retaliation by local forces, such as the

treatment of FEMEN protesters in Belarus, where three of their

number were brutally abused before being driven naked to the

Ukrainian-Belarusian border and abandoned without documents or

money. Below is an illustration of a segment of the demonstration

that catalyzed such retaliation.

24

During the initial months of FEMEN’s existence Ukrainian

authorities appear not to have taken the organization very

seriously, but by 2011 FEMEN was being perceived as a formidable

pressure group, and its members were becoming increasingly

vulnerable to arrest. Earlier, they had simply been taken into

custody, charged with hooliganism, then generally released the

same day. Currently, to quote Inna Shevchenko: “They have put a

system in place for arresting us”; (suggesting serious prison

time; she recently spent three days under administrative arrest).

The Secret Service is also known to make late-night calls to

25

harass and intimidate FEMEN’s leadership with demands that they

suspended collective actions or face dire consequences. Some of

the men from the Ukrainian intelligence service (SBU) forced

their way into Anna Hutsol's apartment one night for

"preventative talks" and threatened to "break the arms and legs"

of the FEMEN chief.7

Impact of dissent

The question of FEMEN’s enduring viability is raising some

serious concerns: Have these activists become precursors of a

historical process generating a bold new protest pattern, or has

FEMEN been reduced to a cliché, an organization of exhibitionists

protesting simply for the sake of protest? No matter how powerful

7 Benjamin Bidder published “Kiev's Topless Protestors 'The Entire

Ukraine Is a Brothel'”, in Spiegel Online International on June 23, 2010 Femen

activists canceled a previously-scheduled action in front of the SBU

in connection with the threats from unnamed law enforcement officials

on Ukraine. Vacation Guide.

http://ukraine-vacation-guide.com/news/femen_ukraine/2011-06-16-314.26

the impact of dissidence becomes, sooner or later even the most

scandalous expressions of protest lose their shock value, and

need to be reinvented in order to remain relevant. As it has

evolved, has FEMEN become a sufficiently effective, an effective

vehicle for bringing Ukraine’s mounting problems to the attention

of the public, of causing people to think about them?

It is not our task here is to speculate on the future of

FEMEN, but rather to examine the nature and efficacy of the

organization as a civil disobedience force capable of making a

difference in our own time. In so doing, we must bear in mind

that the organization generates and answers questions relating to

human rights, government corruption, gender justice, and

Ukraine’s global image as a thriving sex tourism destination for

“sexpats”, even though it lacks a consistent agenda and coherent

theoretical foundation. FEMEN is a compilation of several

ideological leanings, not the least of which is feminism,

although the term is one of such opprobrium in Ukrainian society

that its adherents deny it as a self-descriptor. What prompted

FEMEN to broaden its agenda to address such issues as vote-

27

rigging and media censorship, not to mention international causes

at times unrelated to women’s concerns, while its initial

mission--raising awareness of the evils of Ukraine’s sex industry

and sex tourism, both of which are running out of control--took a

back seat. Indeed, since the movement’s inception, prostitution

as an industry has expanded exponentially. Initially, FEMEN’s

organizers lobbied for a Constitutional amendment that would

criminalize prostitution. Hope for this has faded since the

advent of President Yanukovych. Prostitution is now a lucrative

national industry, too lucrative for the power brokers to

consider criminalizing it. Brothel owners are closely tied to law

enforcement personnel, and corrupt legislators are said to be

profiting handsomely from the proceeds of this illicit trade. In

the past year alone, revenue from the activities of the sex-for-

hire industry has roughly doubled, from three-quarters to one and

one-half million dollars. Under the present administration, the

political will to outlaw it now has even less chance than ever.

Nor has the image of women as equally valued partners in the

transitional society we call Contemporary Ukraine improved,

28

despite modest gains. This was illuminated by Kyiv Post in a piece

about a recent parliamentary session during which bringing more

women into the political mainstream was debated. In the course of

the proceedings Parliamentary Speaker Volodymyr Lytvyn

underscored the popular belief (allegedly including his own) in

women’s inferiority with a reference to the biblical account of

her formation from Adam’s rib.8

And what is one to think about the government’s stated

commitment to bringing more women into the political mainstream

when confronted with reports such as the action of Deputy Petro

Melnyk’s (Party of Regions). He made a violent attempt to eject a

female deputy (Irina Herashchenko, BYUT) from a polling station

during the election for City Council Chair in Obukhiv (Kyiv

region), along with the comment: “What are you doing here? Decent

women are at home sleeping with their husbands.”9

8An account of this retrograde thinking is available at:

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/nation/detail/123779/#ixzz1qC5J7Df4.

9 One can read about this in detail on You Tube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?NR=1&feature=endscreen&v=0ScbCNX2ksU.29

The recent harrowing story of 18-year-old Oksana Makar’s

gang rape and murder by fire also attests to the value placed

upon women as human beings. Sadly, it is not unusual to learn

from the media about the judgments of ordinary citizens,

including the mother of one of the perpetrators Larysa Pohosian,

condemning the victim’s actions. Like so many others, Pohosian

attributed the contemptible conduct of three young men (sons of

officials) to Oksana’s own provocative behavior. This judgment

emphasized a popular belief that she got what she deserved as a

“loose woman” (not proven); the attitude is not uncommon among

Ukrainians. The country has a long history of condoning

perpetrators’ abuse of women (boys will be boys; girls must

answer for their own misfortune when they put themselves in

harm’s way). The victim is impugned, and put on trial by society

while the assailant often finds himself being defended. Ukrainian

women, those “inferior beings fashioned from Adam’s rib” are held

to a higher standard than “the men whom God allegedly created to

rule over them”! They are the ones who are required to behave

responsibly. This bizarre legacy was played out in another sphere

30

as well: large sums are said to have poured in for the defense

of the sadistic monsters who attempted to immolate this young

woman in order to cover up their gang rape.10 Ironically, this

abomination of Ukrainian justice was played out during “Women’s

10 Almost three weeks after the attack she died from injuries suffered

while smoldering for ten hours in a ditch where she had been tossed

and set alight.

31

History Month” (March). And it began on the day after

International Women’s Day, when Ukrainian women are routinely

eulogized as the best, the most desirable, most beautiful, most

intelligent women in the world.

References

Bidder, Benjamin (2011). “Kiev's Topless Protestors, 'The Entire

Ukraine Is a Brothel'”, Spiegel Online International. 05 May.

Dobash RE and RP Dobash (1992). Women, Violence, and Social Change. London

and New York: Routledge.

Ferris D (2010). Interview with Ukraine’s rising young activists. Part

1 of 2. studentsineurope, 7 May.

Forest BJ (2010). “Fade to Gray”, Diplomatic Courier. 6 July.

Hodgson DL and E Brooks (eds) (2007).“Introduction, Activisms. Women’s

Studies Quarterly32

Sadly, so many of Ukraine’s women are still flattered by

such public declarations of “esteem”. They provide no hint of

understanding that in welcoming this sort of patronizing

“Hallmark” salutation as a tribute, they reject their own

interests as fully valued human beings deserving of equality and

respect. To regard such salutations as something more than a

condescending “greeting card” message is to diminish all women,

to infantilize them as subjects requiring the care and protection

of “masterful” men. Often the same women who condemn the behavior

of spirited young women when the latter meet a tragic fate

“brought on by their own conduct” support such saccharine

messages as an endorsement of their own “femininity”.

35(3–4): 14–25.

Mueller C (1994). “Conflict networks and the origins of women’s

liberation”, in Laraña E and Joseph JR Gusfield (eds) (1994). New

Social Movements. From Ideology to Identity. Philadelphia, PA: Temple

University Press, 234–263.

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As for the nature of FEMEN’s expressions of protest, before

rushing to judgment about their appropriateness (as so many have

done) we might ask ourselves: “Is there a more effective way to

“market” their messages than resorting to women’s half-naked

bodies”, bodies that are so often used successfully to market

commodities? To be sure, semi-nudity must eventually, inevitably,

lose its force as a political statement, but for the present it

could be the most viable means of generating public dialogue on

women’s rights as a preliminary step toward achieving that

elusive goal of gender justice. Finally, who is to say that FEMEN

is not in the vanguard of some cataclysmic changes as proponents

of feminist ideas, even without styling themselves feminists,

demonstrators swimming against the tide of the women’s

essentialism and the dominant hegemonic patriarchal system of

values in which they live? From its position as products of a

free and open society this generation of protestors must conduct

its activities in a growing atmosphere evocative of Soviet-style

authoritarianism. Although FEMEN approaches the challenges from a

different perspective, many of its protest objectives parallel

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the changes sought by first-wave reformers, even as scandalous

methods have replaced the earlier, more sedate attempts. And so

the struggle for justice for women continues.

In sum

For the present, contrary to the best efforts of both waves of

reformers, the goal of gender justice remains an elusive dream;

it has reversed course since 2010 and is trending in the opposite

direction. An outstanding example of how far backwards this

tendency has already moved is to be found in the recent attempt

by Ukraine’s male leadership to push through a draft bill

outlawing abortion, in the interest of augmenting the country’s

declining population! Aside from this blatant violation of a

woman’s basic right to choice such a legislative action carries

the potential for severe repercussions, even for the legislators.

To offer an extreme illustration, let us recall where such a

policy led Romania's Nicolae Ceausescu: In 1966 laws were

introduced in his country to engineer an increase in the size of

the population. "The fetus is the property of the entire society"

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Ceausescu thundered! The birth-rate almost doubled as a result,

but it was accompanied by a leap in infant mortality, with the

rising numbers of handicapped, orphaned and abandoned children

being placed in decrepit institutions under state care. After the

fall of Ceausescu in 1989 over 100,000 handicapped and orphaned

children were discovered living in horrific conditions. On a more

positive note, however, such attempts to introduce an anti-

abortion bill in Ukraine have caused FEMEN to move closer to its

original mission of bringing attention to specifically women’s

causes.

A revolution in pink

Today’s protests are not the actions of a generation schooled in

the old-style authoritarian principles of a once-disgraced

regime, which, to borrow a phrase from Brian J. Forest (2010) “is

stretching its claws to reclaim influence …” but rather those of

a seemingly fearless postmodern generation of young people who

have come to adulthood with life experiences and expectations, a

set of values and proposed solutions to their problems that

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differ dramatically from those of their predecessors. They know

what it means to exist without the ideological constraints that

regulated the lives of a generation living under the earlier

authoritarian regime. Can such youthful protesters as FEMEN’s

adherents successfully seek and find solutions to the nation’s

problems? Is the average person capable of appreciating the

seriousness behind their often scandalous tactics as FEMEN goes

about the business of dissent? Will their unorthodox means of

challenging existing patriarchal values translate to difference

in influence, or will the shocking nature of semi-nude protests

so offend the sensibilities of would-be supporters and detractors

alike, as to halt any progress in the achievement of women’s

rights? All are open questions.

Finally, does FEMEN have the capability to move from the

level of an organization to that of a mass movement?

Theoretically, it does meet the formal criteria for a movement,

described by Carol Mueller as: “specific individuals must be

identified who have formed emotional bonds from their

interaction, negotiated a sense of group membership, and made a

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plan for change, [creating] a collective identity (1994)”, with

interaction based upon a shared sense of injustice, although it

lacks the critical support by the general public so necessary to

the formation of a mass movement. Nonetheless, through devices

such as special programs, press conferences, slogans, costumes,

rallies, political demonstrations, civil disobedience, and street

theater this postmodern generation of radicalized young women is

creating a network with the potential for coalescing into a national

movement of opposition to the value system of the present

retrograde society. The ability to reinvent themselves as time

goes by will determine FEMEN’s evolution as an important social

force for change, and future newsworthiness as a mass movement.

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