by April Callen

For those of you who may have missed the memo, Monday was “Boobquake.” Challenging Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi, women around the world were asked by feminist blogger, Jen McCreight, to participate. Would the combination of millions of pairs of semi-exposed breasts shown at the same time shake the ground we stand on? Not Bill Nye’s kind of science, but science nonetheless.

McCreight’s proposition was met with Facebook fan pages, event profiles, Twitter hash tags (#boobquake), and t-shirts. Many feminists asked if this was “cute feminism” or “male-friendly feminism,” and why would women want to sexualize and objectify themselves when all of society does it for us on a daily basis. Negar Mottahedeh and Golbarg Bashi reacted by starting their own cyber movement: Brainquake. To honor Iranian women who live with the sort of oppression that Sedighi’s comments reflect daily, Mottahedeh and Bashi thought it would be more appropriate to show off resumes, blogs, and anything else that highlights our creativity, intelligence, and ingenuity as women. Quickly the dueling “quakes” became less about moving the earth (obviously) and more about how we view women’s ownership of their bodies, and minds.
As an intelligent, creative, and enlightened individual, I would like to show off my brain and boobs (if I feel like it). Most of the critiques surrounding the quakes suggested that by participating in Boobquake, I would be objectifying and sexualizing myself. For me, brains and boobs are not mutually exclusive. I try to love them equally, even in the face of objectification, shaming, and attempts at violence. All women desire that and are seeking it out on a daily basis, no matter where they live or what oppression(s) they face. Women can be objectified wearing anything—clothes are often the scapegoat—but it is really about a person’s, often men, entitlement and a perceived right to a power over others, usually women.

Ownership and education foster confidence, which gives women the power to speak up and act out. By ownership, I mean the freedom to wear and do as one pleases, without the threat of harassment and violence. Naturally, if a woman wears a low cut shirt, a heterosexual, cisgendered man may be inclined to look, but at the same time, if a woman is wearing a hoodie, and she is harassed, her clothes are obviously not the problem, nor should they ever be accused as such. As women, we should be encouraging one another to speak up when we feel objectified and sexualized. As a society, we should be creating spaces of support where we women feel comfortable and safe enough to speak up about objectification and the sexualization of our bodies. Men should understand the need for that type of space as allies, and not be complicit in the problem by reinforcing those oppressions either through their own acts of objectification (e.g. verbal and physical harassment—drunk or sober, offensive clothing, etc.) or through “innocent” comments like, “ Well, you do wear clothes that make you stand out.”

The idea of “male-friendly feminism” isn’t inherently bad, either. There is a way to enlist men without diluting the mission. Showing off cleavage to get them to pay attention is obviously not the way to go about it, but I do not think that was most Boobquake “participants” intention or expectation. If we are looking for allies in our quest for equality and respect, we are probably going to have to start drafting a message that more people understand. Step one in gaining that support would be to approach men, and non-feminist identified women as potential allies, and not as probable perpetrators. We are all a part of a sexist, racist, homophobic, and classist society, and the only way to deconstruct that is to talk to each other—process those images together, and give women the confidence to speak up when they do not like men staring at their bodies, instead of saying, “Well maybe you shouldn’t have worn that shirt.”

Concern over the quakes was a bit trivial and distracted us from real issues. I know there were plenty of men, and unfortunately a lot of women, who, on Monday, missed the larger message about women owning their bodies and their brains, and the freedom to show off both. At the end of the day, though, it is Facebook, and if we somehow think starting a fake movement, fan page, or group is enough to challenge the world we live in, then our problems are clearly far greater than a battle of boobs and brains.