Poll: Do you support Amina's goal to prevent anti-women Sharia laws from being adopted in Tunisia?

[Scootaloo]

135. I don't "oppose Femen," Steve

I think the patronizing "we need to save them from themselves!" attitude presented towards Muslim women is insulting and counter-productive. As if they are stupid beasts incapable of thinking or knowing what's good for themselves, in need of a benevolent and enlightened white western hand to show them the true way.

I don't even "dislike the tactic." It has effective uses. I'm just not sure that it's being used effectively in this case.

1) Baring your breasts on a Barcelona college campus isn't going to do anything for a woman in Saudi Arabia. Breasts do not have intercontinental liberation rays that are blocked by cotton. While maybe your heart is in the right place, it's just not going to help much.

2) The "movement" seems to be heavily reliant on conventionally-attractive younger women to spread the message. This makes it look much more like a PETA-style "get on camera" tactic, more than any sort of popular movement with broad support and meaningful goals. Of course appearances can be deceiving, but if the movement is trying to grow solidarity with women in the middle east, maybe a realization that chadors are not always filed by hidden pinup models is in order.

3) Speaking of that solidarity, the majority of middle eastern women are conservative about nudity. You can huff and puff about whether this is a rightly-held belief of theirs or not, it doesn't matter; it's what they believe. If FEMEN or other groups want to connect with these women, then actively being hostile to them is not a great way to do it. There's a real "our way or the highway" approach on display, where the only "valid" feminists in this particular discussion are the ones stripping down for the camera and anyone else is - as you put it, "advocating Sharia because they hate boobs."

4) Finally, I'm not convinced that showing misogynistic men one's breasts is going to do much to make them reconsider their position. In fact they likely see it as a reward for and confirmation of their beliefs.

So it's not an opposition to FEMEN, and certainly not ot nudity. It's a questioning of whether what they are doing is effective, and whether their primary method might actually be counter-productive for their stated goal.

Basically, just ask yourself if this ad makes you want to stop eating beef:

or whether it's simply an attempt to use the female body as ad space