Foie Gras and Naked Protests

Last week four English PETA’s activists protested against the selling of foie gras outside the Fortnum & Mason store in London. One of their motto was “Foie gras is unEnglish” and Ms. Mimi Bekhechi, one of the activists, better explained: “"Marketing your wares on your English heritage and then selling a product that"s illegal to produce in the UK because it’s the result of animal abuse is both cruel and the height of hypocrisy". The important part of the news for that one interested in gender equality and gender policies in genera is that the four brave girls were wearing just underpants and body paints. That is not the first time of a protest like this one and the PETA’s activists usually use their body to express their messages to protect animals’ rights.

They have done pretty the same with the “Would you wear your pet?” or the
“Go Vegetarians!” campaigns, just two give two examples. But the PETA’s girls are not the only ones using their bodies to make their protests more visible and, let’s say, shocking. In different contexts the Pussy Riot and the FEMEN have done the same.

Not everyone is agreeing on that, but this is a different way of using bodies in a smart and fruitful way. For women this is a way of express freedom and finally use their body independently while most of times men are using women’s bodies to promote very stupid things. However, I want to underline the right to “stay covered”, because sometimes this “naked” way of express ideas can be confused with a fight against the women that, for religion of personal identity, decide to not show their bodies.

Every women, naked or covered, is free until is able to decide by herself about her body!

Agnese Cigliano