I am having such a hard time starting this week’s piece because so many factors from previous entries and emotions come into play. If I could sum up what the next five-seven hundred words will say, it would be: FEMEN hates Vladimir Putin. Hate isn’t even a strong enough word to describe FEMEN’s attitudes on the Russian president; they make shirts that say “F**k you Putin” and killed his wax figure (seen in the figure above.) This will be a commentary on the relations between Putin and FEMEN well as an update on the Ukrainian crisis.
For the last fifteen years, Vladimir Putin (a former KGB colonel turned governmental employee) has served alternating positions as Prime Minister and president… rendering him a totalitarian leader. Putin came to power following the collapse of the Soviet Union and despite promise of change from the totalitarian society, the past few years had shown a reversion back to the old ways of the proto-communist regime of the USSR. Liberal freedoms have been taken away from the general population as well as the instillation of governmental propaganda that restricts the rights of the people. Russia has retreated into Cold War-esc weariness and has exhibited territorial aggression and hopes of expansion. These factors have contributed to the various confrontations between FEMEN and Putin.
As far back as I can go in the FEMEN timeline, they’ve hated Putin. Their feelings were especially ignited by the crisis in Ukraine. Their colorful protests include the June protest against the European parliament meeting, G7, in Brussels. International members of the organization came out to “blow Putin” with messages reading: “Today G7, tomorrow G8 again?” and “Wanking today, sucking Putin tomorrow.” The activists kneeled and sprawled out in front of parliament, performing fellatio on fake penises. This week’s image captures a late spring symbolic protest against the Russian leader. A FEMEN activist stabbed a wax figure of Putin at the Grévin, a Parisian Museum. She ended up breaking the figure, his head smashed on the ground and leaving her knife in his chest. The picture above has the great Western leaders positioned around his “corpse.” These protests have generated little positive review from the press. They do show how creative and far the group is willing to go to get their message across.
Putin, of course, already had his own bouts with extreme feminist groups. If y’all recall Pussy Riot and the nearly two year imprisonment of three of its members for “hooliganism.” What the what, Russia? Hooliganism… Are you kidding me? Putin, obviously takes great offense to people who challenge his regime, so go figure he has not been too pleased with the international acts against him by FEMEN. The activist at the Grévin was charged with “sexual exhibition” (which will have its own implications for the group if used as precedent in other cases) and ordered to pay a fine. Putin expressed his disappointment with the ruling.
* Update on FEMEN in the Ukraine:
FEMEN has good reason to hate Putin, considering their founding chapter began in Ukraine and their leaders are Ukrainian political refugees in France. FEMEN has consistently protested the occupation in Ukraine, unleashing a rallying call for the international community to cut ties with Russia and aid Ukraine. Using the popularity of the ALS ice bucket challenge, FEMEN launched their very own bloodshed wars to protest Putin and show solidarity with Ukraine. The “Blood Bucket Challenge” has been accepted internationally to draw attention to the thousands of Ukrainian lives that have been lost in the civil war and occupation. Here’s a link to a video of the challenge: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8gN8kJXI5Q
*There will be provocative images posted on this blog each week, in coordination with the FEMEN protests I will be covering. Any direct quotes or images in this post were from www.femen.org , the official website for FEMEN. I do not own the rights to these images.
**Additional information came from www.biography.com and www.huffingtonpost.com
Laura Cook says
The comments on that video are really surprising to me. I didn’t know so many people didn’t want to get involved in helping the Ukraine against Russia.
Ex. “It seems they want all Europe to join this bloodbath started by them”;
“I shit on you, Ukrainians. You have brought this out – you should deal with it. Shame on EU and US for encouraging you, but I’m not EU – and I don’t give a shit. I don’t want my country to get involve in another uneeded war neither support your domestic conflict”;
“ukrainian scum, just shut up already”;
“f*** Ukraine stupid a** mother f***ers. and i hope all you die.”
Perplexing. How can you hope an entire country dies? Didn’t know this issue was so divisive.
aeb5653 says
As much as I really don’t love Putin (obviously), I think it is worthwhile to consider that FEMEN (and pussy riot’s) opinions of him may not accurately represent the whole Russian opinion of his leadership. Something that I’ll never forget is an interview with a Russian Olympic athlete at the time that Russia began implementing its prejudice and homophobic laws. She said that, although the rest of the world may not agree, it is not other countries’ place to condemn Russia for the political manifestation of their social beliefs. I agree, everyone *should* hate Putin, but it is important to remember that just because they should doesn’t mean they do. Unfortunately, the FEMEN movement only shows one side of the complex web that is a nation’s ideology.