Pussy Riot pitch invasion

Utterly devastating? Crumbs. Head wobble time I think.

Puts the level of bravery and heroics involved in peaceful protest in the UK rather into perspective though.

Arrest and high likelihood of years in Siberian forced labour jail vs being allowed to walk in front of a parade handing out leaflets for 20 mins in full view of the media, then left to your own devices to go home or to the pub for a gin while you get busy on social media.

We have great privilege here in rights to protest and to speak out, and take it for granted at times.

I can't agree that anyone would be utterly devastated. Perhaps mildly annoyed, irritated possibly.

I want to like Pussy Riot. And I did when they firt made headlines. I don't think showing your body off in protest is necessarily porny. I think it depends on the context, women's bodies should simply be bodies. Women's breasts aren't porn. If #manfriday decides to a topless swim, I certainly wouldn't call it porn.

BUT Then I read that they were run by a bloke who chose the pretty ones to get their breasts out.

I wasn't talking about the 'men players', I was talking about the people watching in the stadium and around the world on TV. What might be seen as some to be a legitimate protest at a world cup final would be utterly devastating to some watching the game. Imagine if England were playing and were 1-0 down to France? What do you think would have been in the media today?

Football is really important to a lot of people, men and women. I have already detailed above how Pussy Riot in their protest events have upset and harmed ordinary people in a museum and a church.

Yes their cause is an important one, but I don't have to agree or like the methods to which they go about highlighting it.

And in other interesting Pussy Riot news, if you use Pussy Riot as the reference for a BACs transfer with Barclays you get a message saying "Please change your reference, it is incorrect". We had to change it to gig tickets to get it to go through.

Begs the question, would the same happen for cock party, or dick disco

Pussy Riot is not an exclusively female collective. Just saying.

As this is the feminist board can give ourselves permission to Centre the cause for which Pussy Riot fight rather than football’s future?

It's a classic example of whataboutery. On a thread about the actions of a group of women, Pussy Riot, they come to say what about the men players.

think the poster meant they were prepared to be hurt by the security guys who apprehended them. Not the footballers.

In fact one of the Croatian players tackled one of the protesters. What a brave man.

No one in France or Croatia seems to be saying how hurt and upset they were by the protest. The French certainly don't think "their" World Cup was ruined given how many of them were out celebrating afterwards.

When discussing this World Cup in terms of football in future, no one will mention the brief interruption.

Putin has been using the world cup to "enhance" his reputation. Everyone else seems to have forgotten the human rights violations carried out by Putin and his government. What better than the final in the gaze of the world to remind everyone.

I hope the women are well treated. They are very brave.

If the Russian team had been in the final it would have made more sense. Russia was hosting the tournament but the final belonged to France and Croatia.

Do you not think the people of France and Croatia might have been hurt by this action at their World Cup Final?

I doubt the players were bothered at all. I'm sure they've all experienced pitch invasions of various kinds before. I think they'd probably be far more worried about opposing fans invading than some protesting women.

And TV coverage never shows pitch invasions these days, it's a standard policy which I'm sure these women would be well aware of. It made the news which is what they wanted.

Their action got worldwide media attention (including here). I doubt they were concerned about the English-language sports commentators. Seems to me like a success from that point of view.

“I mean, this is just bonkers. Utterly daft. Won't anyone think of the poor players??!”

Ffs, yes won’t someone? They were playing the biggest match of their lives and careers. Why is that so hard to get your head around? What’s bonkers is people like you thinking it’s ok for someone to disrupt a sports event with their stupid demonstration.

I like how the cameras didn’t give them time of day and the commentators didn’t dwell a second on it either, so more fool them.

They were wearing policemen's uniforms. They didn't get their tits out. It was about democracy the Russian police's abuse of power.

Here is an article by Masha Gessen about the protest www.newyorker.com/sporting-scene/replay/world-cup-2018-the-moral-clarity-of-pussy-riots-protest

"So who would’ve got done for that then? A poor player who has nothing to do with anything, would’ve accidentally kicked a ball into their head and caused concussion. The guilt probably would’ve made him play a shit game.

It was a selfish act. And to be prepared to be hurt is such a shit act of courage when the person hurting them would suffer unintentionally. Selfish and stupid."

I mean, this is just bonkers. Utterly daft. Won't anyone think of the poor players??!

Brave indeed. I dread to think what might happen to them.

The Trump protests in London made me feel uncomfortable and I can't work out why. Maybe you have a point Lass.

Saw some of them last year at a tiny venue. Best gig/political event I've ever been to by a very very long way. Most diverse and inclusive audience I have ever been part of in that rural an area. Properly wonderful, memorable, visceral, political and musical.

Not even remotely porny or porn culture. You can dislike their tactics, but calling them porny is just a lazy slur.

They are a collective, not a single unit under the control of a dude as far as I know.

Everyone can be pussy riot.

It made me realise I needed to step up more and not be fobbed off by my MP with a tinned response to every email. Seeing them directly gave me the courage to be a better and braver advocate and ally.

I went to see Bananarama a few weeks after that gig. Never has pop seemed more banal and shallow. Their video and performance of "love in the first degree" did not stand up well in comparison to Masha firing out her story of years in a Siberian prison for playing guitar in a church.

I agree with you LaSquirrel. I see them as nothing more than agitators.

I understand that one of their 'protests' was to go into a museum with husbands/partners and have sex up against exhibits. This was in front of museum visitors including children. And the one in the church I thought was very disrespectful. I'm an atheist but I wouldn't dream of protesting in a place that was spiritually significant for other people. It seemed to me that in both these cases they were hurting ordinary people not the Russian state.

Well it made me look up what women's rights are like in Russia and I was depressed to see that domestic violence has been pretty much decriminalised in the last year under Putin. Seems worth a protest to me.

Pussy Riot are under the control of a dude. Most of what they do is very porny. Getting your tits out (and worse, I might add), is not a feminist act, just more porn culture.

Hit accidentally by ball versus years in Russian prison.

Yeah, I could see how fit might think the former was scarier (if fit had just arrived on our planet).