Art exhibit or child abuse

I wouldn’t be furious- I’d be glad that she was protesting. I worry about what teenagers think a female body should look like when I hear preteens saying that they’ve accessed porn online.

Re sauna culture. Germany also has that, I didn’t realise before we visited! But it is only in the sauna area and I never saw anyone naked outside a sauna

Lol, you've obviously never hung out near the Berlin lakes! There are lots of grassy areas near footpaths, nude sunbathing totally unexceptional there. German is much less squeamish about nudity than the UK.

@leatherflamingle
You are suggesting that domestic violence is somehow culturally tolerated. That is most definitely not true. It is probably tolerated and justified (with some victim-blaming thrown in) by ultra right wing men as it is everywhere else but generally it is most definitely not something that is culturally or socially acceptable.

And alright then, I'll turn myself in for exposing myself to my nephew.

This is an art gallery? Not a sauna. Where people expect nudity.

Re sauna culture. Germany also has that, I didn’t realise before we visited! But it is only in the sauna area and I never saw anyone naked outside a sauna so I’m not sure why this would be normal simply because of ‘sauna culture’

Obviously not on the curly wurly slide. But in the spas and sauna complexes

But if for instance you take your children to one of the big water world/saunas in say, Poland, everybody is naked. Not bikinis. Naked. Men and women. Because it’s a sauna .

I think seeing your mum or your grandma or sister naked is quite different to seeing a stranger

yes, that is interesting

the exhibition is horrible, and really not something to take school children to. so very poor judgement there on the part of whoever organised the trip

from my English-speaking perspective I'd be bloody furious if my DS went to an art gallery and a woman exposed herself to him

Context and consent is relevant. No one in that gallery expected to see, nor consented to see , her naked.

^ this is relevant, regardless of the country.

@tiintoon
Although Estonia Latvia and Lithuania are all very different culturally, all three rank very highly on charts that gather international statistics of violence against women and that was what I meant really.
And although violence against women is a problem everywhere, the way it is recognized, the way it’s dealt with and the way the legal system of a country enables report and prosecution is of vital importance. And again all three Baltic countries are woefully inadequate in that regard, sadly. Or whether the legislation exists it isn’t enforced properly by local authorities, for cultural reasons.

tiintoon that's interesting. I think MN (like a lot of English-speaking sites) can often fail to appreciate different international perspectives and norms.

An Estonian here. As people have said before, nakedness is normal. It is not just sauna culture, people are naked at home all the time. In my experience it is not given a second thought if a friend undresses in front of you to change clothes etc. Those boys most likely would have seen all their family and probably grandparents naked. To put it to context, my nephew was around, he is 14 and I was topless a couple of times, feeding my baby and he didn't blink an eye. My DH still finds it difficult to get used to (what if someone sees you etc).
She (Mare Tralla) was a protester, showing a real female body as opposed to the male (the artists's) gaze of the female body.
In response to the domestic violence and women's rights thing - firstly, Baltics are not homogenous, Estonian culture is very different from Latvia and Lithuania. Secondly, the issue is incredibly complex because families are actually very woman-centred, I wouldn't go as far as calling them matriarchal but they're not far off (the wage gap doesn't show it). So it is almost like a clash between these strong females and the issues that all countries face regarding women's rights.
Domestic violence is a problem everywhere, statistics obviously don't often reflect the real numbers, it is vile regardless.
I would say in Estonia it is most likely to be alcoholism-related but that's a whole other topic.

Whoever said it is equivalent to a male flasher... really? How is this a sexual fetish?

How can this do 'harm'?

I know plenty of women who were flashed as children and felt it harmed them

It is a body, a real human body like the ones their mothers have. How can this do 'harm'? What a prudish reaction.

Is her nakedness worse than the silicon nakedness on the table?

I think we'd need to know what the parents were expecting the children to see. If 'female nudity' or 'naked body parts' were expected, then what is one more (realistic) set?

I'd not buy into the tweeter's agenda, to be honest.

If this was not done for her gratification, then it's completely different from a flasher.

Mmm it’s a bit of a different argument though.
It’s more like if there was an exhibition of men, but where all the men had had their dicks chopped off and sewn into flower shapes... then a man turned up to wave his cock around to prove that this exhibition was in fact promoting practices that are violent and dangerous to men.
But I see what you mean, kind of😂

who the fuck thought that exhibition was suitable for a school outing? urgh, that stuff on the table. like a scene out of american psycho

If it was in Estonia this is just a non story.
Nudity is as normalised there as making a slice of toast. Kids see family friends and strangers naked all the time because of sauna culture

By that argument women and girls in Estonia shouldn't complain about male flashers.

Context and consent is relevant. No one in that gallery expected to see, nor consented to see , her naked.

Also please. Google the femicide statistics for the Baltics. They are some of the highest anywhere.

A recent thread on here suggested Lithuania as a wonderful holiday destination. Well. NOT if you are a woman that values your rights.
Have a read around the Baltics, the Istanbul convention , and so on if you need educating further. And please look at the stats. It’s a disgrace.

www.stena.ee/blog/skandal-na-otkrytii-vystavki-v-pyarnu-hudozhnitsa-feministka-razdelas-dogola-no-eto-esche-ne-vs

“I think that in this photograph the real, naked body of the woman (a real human body) makes a very poignant contrast with the silicone body parts (perk breasts, porn style vulvas and vaginas on the table in the photograph. Visually is very powerful to see what an actual female body looks like versus the fake silicone body parts that are now considered 'normative' for female beauty.”

I agree, and I think the woman taking off her clothes is making a good point.

There is nothing offensive per se about naked bodies. Equus the play is suitable for teens and featured male nudity.

They look like young teens, not children, yes to the context of sauna culture , they do look a bit ‘wtf’ but not shocked or horrified.

The number of derogatory comments about the woman’s body suggests that a feminist protest about objectified female bodies in the original exhibition has a long way to go.

I think this is a ‘meh’ issue.

I agree with Anna.

However the art world does need to be held up to a bit of scrutiny.

mobile.twitter.com/barbiereports/status/1105393700614668289

But nakedness is just a nothing there.
It’s as normalized as taking off your shoes.
The unusual thing is that the woman has not been waxed , bleached, silicone implanted, starved , labia sliced, and so on.