Made in Ukraine: Sextremism

Ukraine is well known as a country but what is it most popular for anyways? Off the top of my head nothing comes to mind. A quick check in Google and the orange revolution pops up (ignoring Chernobyl disaster). For lovers of soccer, it’s not a really difficult question because Andriy Shevchenko quickly springs to mind. A different Shevchenko might spring to mind for those not interested in sports. Inna Shevchenko, FEMEN (nsfw) leader and self-professed sextremist has been drawing a lot of attention to Ukraine, the birth place of a new kind of feminism called sextremism. She’s now based in Paris where she has established a training centre to train even more sextremists.

Why do people say “grow some balls”? Balls are weak and sensitive. If you wanna be tough, grow a vagina. Those things can take a pounding.” ― Betty White

It’s hard to define feminism, virtually all women who have and express strong opinions about issues concerning women are feminists these days. What started as women’s right and evolved into feminism seems to have lost its edge and seriously needs an injection of fresh ideas. Nothing wrong with women standing up for women, after all someone’s got to throw a spanner in the works of male world domination; Inna Shevchenko and her crew have gallantly taken on this challenge and their unique movement is gaining momentum. FEMEN is promoting nudity as a weapon for feminists, a strange weapon isn’t it? Considering the fact that rape has been used as a weapon of war and one out of every three women on the planet will be beaten or raped in their lifetime, women exercising their right to bare arms is a no-brainer.

Watching FEMEN sextremist protest to me looks like watching a group of misbehaving undergraduates on a Friday night, it is attention-grabbing  and I like how they see a feminist cause in any issue or event. They have protested against the sex-industry, they were at occupy wall street, Euro 2012, against internet censorship, the pope decides to resign and of course, FEMEN has to protest. The movement now spans the globe all the way from Ukraine to Brazil and who knows, maybe  sextremism is what feminism needs to capture the attention of today’s sex obsessed media and oversexed public.

Not all sextremist protests are cool though, these ladies need a crash course at Inna Shevchenko’s training centre, better still, FEMEN could lend them a helping hand.