A Protest For Peace In The Buff

[WDWHound]

Sometimes people amaze me. To protest the possibility of war in Iraq, a group of women stipped naked and lay down in the grass, using their bodies to spell the word "Peace".

I was having a hard enough time taking this seriously, but then one of them had to go and say:
"By the time we'd stripped, with a lot of squealing and giggling and whooping and hollering, it was really raining, but we had fun. It was very empowering."

Empowering? Oh please. How does lying naked in the grass empower you?

Here is a link to the story:
http://www.cnn.com/2002/US/West/11/18/offbeat.nude.protest.ap/index.html

 

[Deb in IA]

I'm just DYING to see what EROS has to say about this . . .

 

[LunarLady]

MY WORD!!

 

[Olaf]

One of them was 72 years old! I don't want see that!

 

[EROS]

I LOVE NAKED WOMEN..........AND I LOVE PEACE. WHAT A NICE COMBINATION .

Of course, we also have some nicely dressed, female war-mongers over on the Debate Board. Perhaps they'd feel better if they loosened their bra straps .........

 

[glo]

 

[TheLionKing]

I guess one may feel empowered by doing something unconventional to make a statement that you feel needs to be communicated to the masses.

If they just laid on the grass with their clothes on, would you have posted a link of the story here?

 

[Dan Murphy]

Some adults will always act like adolescents, always trying to seek attention.

 

[WDWHound]

Originally posted by TheLionKing
If they just laid on the grass with their clothes on, would you have posted a link of the story here?

No, but I posted a link here because I felt what they did was useless and silly. In my opinion, what they did did nothing to promote peace, it just made them look silly and ineffective. It was all "feel good" sentiment with no actual impact.

While I don't share their views on Iraq, I applaud anyone who is willing to fight for their beleifs. However, I feel that these women did more to damage than good to their cause by performing such a useless and silly gesture and then calling it empowering. There are so many actions they could be taking that might actually have an effect and change peoples views. I suspect all this stunt did was to get people to ogle and laugh at them.

 

[LunarLady]

Kinda reminds me of what John Lennon and Yoko Ono did with their little "Bed Peace" thing and how well THAT worked at stopping the war.

But it DID give them good PR.

 

[EROS]

WOW..............the DIS crowd can be pretty righteous and tough .

I'm sorry that these 50 women didn't hold a press conference wearing CHANEL suits to detail their resistance to the impending war. It appears that they hoped that the proceeds from the pictures taken would go to assist the peace movement. Isn't that just horrible???? . They probably should have gone door-to-door, fully dressed, with tin cans to solicit funds..............then all DISers would have stood up and cheered .........

 

[WDWHound]

Originally posted by EROS
WOW..............the DIS crowd can be pretty righteous and tough .

I'm sorry that these 50 women didn't hold a press conference wearing CHANEL suits to detail their resistance to the impending war. It appears that they hoped that the proceeds from the pictures taken would go to assist the peace movement. Isn't that just horrible???? . They probably should have gone door-to-door, fully dressed, with tin cans to solicit funds..............then all DISers would have stood up and cheered .........

(Sigh) What does rightiousness have to do with it? Its amazing how quickly and easily you leap to that kind of conlusion.

I am not saying their nudity was a sin or anything like that. I am saying what they did was useless and silly, just like the "Bed Peace" example given earlier. Now if they do sell those pictures to fund peace (and the article says they are not yet sure if they will), I will grant that will have at least accomplished something. Still, I can help but think they could be more productive. The nudity here was simply a destraction.

If the cause is that important to them, why don't they take actions that will cause people to take them and their opinoins seriously and have a real impact. They could organize a grass roots effort to lobby their congressman or plan a demonatration at the capital so that they could explain the reasoning behind their cause to the press. Do you really think this will change many minds or raise much money?

Ah well, I am now offically constucting a fully equipped mountain (complete with snow capped summit and mountain streams) from a very small and unimportant molehill, so I will drop it.

 

[EROS]

Which sight is more intolerable?????

50 women lying naked on the ground forming the word,PEACE??

or

50 Brave American soldiers lying on the ground in body bags in Iraq??

The true OBSCENITY is WAR .

 

[preshi]

Standing up and clapping for EROS

Wow EROS I agree with you again...




P.S. sorry about your Pats

 

[Saffron]

I like it. I like the picture and I like the sentiment behind the picture.

The protests I remember during the Vietman era, the one's like the Death March across the bridge from DC to Arlington, John Lennon's, Convention protests, No Nukes Festival (post Vietnam), were all people doing something they believed in, even though at the time and even now, some people disagreed with what they were doing. I don't think it matters that they didn't change anything. What matters is that they were heard, and future generations learned that it's important to stand up for what you believe in, even if you can't change events.

Those women will not make a difference, the Bush administration will do whatever it is they want to do, but those 50 women have raised more money for the anti-war campaign than many others have. That's something. Laying in the grass naked isn't empowering (well, who knows, maybe it is ), but doing something you believe in is.

 

[preshi]

Also may I say Point Reyes Station is in MARIN.... thats all that I need to say.

 

[robinb]

For those who care, here's the picture:
http://www.ptreyeslight.com/stories/nov14_02/peace_rally1.html


I think it's great! The picture really strikes a chord with me . A bunch of women of every size, shape, and age stripped nekkid in protest. I think it makes their message more personal and gives it more impact. Did it empower them? Yup, I bet it did.

Brava!

 

[WDWHound]

Originally posted by EROS
Which sight is more intolerable?????

50 women lying naked on the ground forming the word,PEACE??

or

50 Brave American soldiers lying on the ground in body bags in Iraq??

The true OBSCENITY is WAR .

Again, who said seeing naked women was intolerable? Funny how you keep using words I didn't. I only claimed what they did was useless and silly, not intolerable. Please address your comments to what I am saying, not to your completely inaccurate and stereotyped preconceptions of what you think I feel. (Bonus points if you can do it without the use of BOLD fonts. )

I am not a fan of war, though it may be necessary in the case of Iraq. Even so, this act does nothing to prevent war. These women can run naked through the streets for all I care (jeck, I'll come out to watch ), but lets not pretend this action has any impact on real world problems.

 

[robinb]

Originally posted by WDWHound

I am not a fan of war, though it may be necessary in the case of Iraq. Even so, this act does nothing to prevent war. These women can run naked through the streets for all I care (jeck, I'll come out to watch ), but lets not pretend this action has any impact on real world problems.

Of course it does! Will GW give a rat's butt that 50 crazy SF women got naked in protest? No. The whole idea was to make the American people think, talk and write about it. I think they did a fine job.

 

[WDWHound]

Originally posted by Saffron

Those women will not make a difference, the Bush administration will do whatever it is they want to do, but those 50 women have raised more money for the anti-war campaign than many others have. That's something. Laying in the grass naked isn't empowering (well, who knows, maybe it is ), but doing something you believe in is.

I guess this sums up why I don't like it. I am in favor of the Bush administrations actions, but I hate to see people who disagree with me stating they can have no impact. In my opinion, publicity stunts like this help this attitude along by providing the illusion of action with out actually taking action. If all people do is to engage in meaningless gestures, nothing will ever be changed. All that will happen is that the opposing side will take them less seriously.