The organization needs “serious people” to communicate with the media. FEMEN are often the subject of negative perceptions. “Russian agents” and “junkies” are just a few of the gamut of popular insults. Some criticize their actions as a tasteless search for the media spotlight: the case of a member exposing her buttocks, apparently in protest against the lack of public toilets in Kiev, is often invoked. FEMEN activism raises hopes, enrages the establishment and, occasionally, estranges families. “Each morning I listen to people reprimanding me for my daughter’s behaviour,” Alexandra Shevchenko’s mother told the Kyiv Post. “I can’t sleep. I can’t eat. I can’t live worrying about her all the time. We tried to persuade her not to take off her clothes anymore. But when she’s in Kiev she does not listen to us. FEMEN leaders have brainwashed girls like her.” Their daughter is ready to defend her actions in public, emphasizing the group’s new attempts to venture out of the feminist ghetto and join the mainstream of Ukraine’s political struggles: “There is a desperate need for a women’s political party, completely different from the existing ones. I think we have every chance of success in local elections.” FEMEN’s first political demonstrations were relatively vague: topless mudwrestlers “struggled with Ukraine’s dirty politics” in the centre of Kiev, while girls in flower wreaths demonstrated in front of the ballot box (“Don’t be a slut, don’t sell your vote”). Over time, the group became more outspoken about their political position. In the spring of 2010, they prepared a warm greeting for the visiting Russian president Dmitri Medvedev. Prevalent Ukrainian fears of Russian intentions to drag the country back into its sphere of influence resounded in their protests with extraordinary force. FEMEN’s performance, called “Scratched by Medvedev,” involved an activist stripping herself naked at
AINE OT A THEL
the door of President Yanukovych’s cabinet, her body painted in what resembled traces of bear claws (as “Medvedev” resembles the Russian word for bear). Prime Minister Putin, visiting Ukraine in September, also became a target. “Ukraine is not Alina!”, the activists chanted, referring to his alleged lover Alina Kabayeva. Domestic politicians were not spared either. In early 2010, FEMEN called the ministers’ wives for a sexual boycott in protest against Prime Minister Azarov’s alleged chauvinism. “A woman cannot rule a country,” Azarov claimed, aiming to justify his failure to include women in his cabinet. “Women are not able to say ‘no’ decisively.” Hutsol replied with a passionate polemic in the Kyiv Post: “Azarov’s sexism is hurting this nation,” she wrote. “Fear is rising in Europe that, after five years of Orange Revolution moods, the ‘strong hand’ of the male is returning to Ukraine – and these hands are more likely to reach out to Russia than to the West.” Yet there is more to FEMEN’s opposition than words, banners and chants (not to mention the obligatory bare chest). The group is now speaking about transforming itself into a formal political party. “If we succeed, we will be the very first Ukrainian independent political party made up of ordinary girls who dragged themselves out of the gutter to become democratic politicians,” an activist commented. “The girls cannot run around Independence Square all their lives,” Viktor Svyatskyi told reporters. “We need to influence the decision-making and legislative process.” Political analysts in Ukraine are lukewarm about the prospect. According to Volodymyr Tsybulko, a Lviv political consultant, “Ukrainian society is conservative enough. It won’t accept any provocative programmes that FEMEN could make. And it is clever enough to judge [FEMEN’s] politics by their actions.” FEMEN members retorted by applying for registration as a non-governmental organization. More may be to come. “In 2017, we will organize a women’s revolution,” the movement’s website claims. “Our God is a woman, our mission is protest, our weapons are bare breasts.” While many doubt if pink will indeed be the colour of Ukraine’s next revolution, FEMEN’s motto is unwavering: “Prishla, razdelas’, pobedila,” their website proclaims. “I came, I undressed, I conquered.”
JOANNA KOZLOWSKA
17