Athena in Portland's naked protest

[vivariumvivariumsvivaria]

This page is full of clever minds - anyone want to help me pick through this woman's naked protest? nationalpost.com/news/protester-strips-naked-in-front-of-anti-riot-police-in-portland-she-was-incredibly-vulnerable

She's in a stand-off with riot police during the anti-racism demonstrations in Portland. She strips naked, strides in front of the police who were firing rubber bullets, and starts doing yoga for 10 minutes. She sits and spreads her legs. The police leave.

I think she's incredibly brave - being hit by a rubber bullet on a naked body is bound to hurt.

Part of me wonders what would have happened if she was not a slim, fit white woman - if she looked like me (too old, too heavy, too hairy); or was a black woman, or a man.

Was it just her startlingly zero-fucks that changed the mood of the evening? Or was it the shock of a vulva, light up by the glare of the police lights, that took the tension out of the crowd?

It's an amazing photograph.

Probably that's it. We've been doing GC feminism wrong. The real power is in our naked bodies.

ResIpsaLoquiturInterAlia that Guardian video leaves more questions unanswered that it actually answers.

It doesn’t mention the fact that Mayor Ted Wheeler, who also happens to be (unusually for a city mayor from what I understand) Chief of Portland PD. He refused to order Portland police to defend federal buildings against attacks by Antifa and instead they should be guarded by federal law enforcement from INSIDE the buildings.

Antifa have used powerful lasers to attempt to blind law enforcement. They have attacked the buildings and personnel with homemade missiles as well as fireworks. They Violently attack any journalists they do not believe are supportive of them and steal/smash their phones.

When Mayor Ted went out to speak to them a couple of nights ago he couldn’t be heard over the shouts of ‘Fuck Ted Wheeler’.

Antifa don’t give a shit about justice or democratic process or the rule of law. They are not peaceful protestors being attacked by an overwhelming military force. They have turned downtown Portland into a complete shithole and seem to think this is a good thing.

And Antifa violence is certainly nothing new.

The most dangerous people are those who feel their righteousness gives them a free pass to harm people they don't like.

I think accuracy is important @Floisme.

The most dangerous people are those who feel their righteousness gives them a free pass to harm people they don't like.

100%

Warning - video shows violence. It pretty much sums up Antifa.

I think accuracy is important.
Fair enough. Is your point that the man who took the woman's photograph and published it is a writer, but not a photographer for Playboy?

Sorry, accuracy is important:
Is a writer - but not a photographer - for Playboy?

I think local writer, has a distinctly different meaning to men's lifestyle photographer. I also think that it matters when it fuels such misrepresentative posts as There justhappenedto be a Playboy photographer around at the exact moment the naked protest took place.

I am struggling to grasp your point. So he writes for Playboy, but doesn't do photography for them - is that it? Then I am happy to amend my post to 'someone who writes for a men's lifestyle magazine'.

I'm comfortable with everything else I have said.

I'm not sure why you're raising that other post with me as I didn't write it.

I'm sure the naked protestor was ok with a local journalist reporting on her actions.

I'm not sure why you're raising that other post with me as I didn't write it.

I did. I stand by the point that this ‘iconic’ image is set up to be something that it clearly isn’t.

This is not a woman protecting innocent and peaceful protestors from the advancement of a violent militarised police force armed with machine guns. Neither is she providing a human shield to enable safe passage for refugees or students excluded from school on the basis of their skin colour.

This is an act of ‘performance art’ and nothing else. The police had set up their lines in order to push back and violent mob who were, yet again, attempting to gain access to and vandalise the federal courthouse. This has been repeated night after night in Portland. The Antifa ‘protestors’ carry shields and throw fireworks and other objects. The police retaliate with rubber bullets and tear gas.

I don’t think there is anything particularly empowering about the idea of a woman ‘stopping police in their tracks’ by stripping off and spreading her legs in front of them. If anyone wants to think the opposite, fine, it’s their choice. If it makes me ‘anti-feminist’ then so be it.

@DioneTheDiabolist

If she has turned into nothing more than tits and vag that is of her making I disagree. Those who reduce women to Tits and Vag do so for their own reasons.

Oh bore off with the claims that anyone criticising this silly woman is right wing etc etc.
I don't think that all the criticism has come from the right wing. She has also been criticised by left wingers, those who abhor nudity and misogynists who will put down any woman who stands up and call her names.

Again bore off with the ridiculous assumption that anyone who thinks this is a silly, at best misguided , at best and at worst a supporter of the undoubtedly misogynistic and violent Antifa movement must "abhor nudity" and be motivated by misogyny.

@Lamahaha

If I forget about the context and put aside speculations about what this women's motive might have been, I'm still not seeing what's particularly remarkable about the image. Women getting naked for cool girl points is everywhere. What important message is this woman sending us? What does a naked white woman doing yoga say about Black Lives Matter?

And whatever she was doing, it wasn't Yoga. I'm really sick of white women using Yoga for their own narcissistic ends.
As for the comparisons with the Chinese demonstrator and the napalm girl -- I have no words. (Or I do, but they don't really express what I feel.)

Yeah, I agree that she only made some yogaish moves. Probably took a class or two. And yeah I've got some words about that comparison too.

The guy who tweeted about this likes to point out that he also takes photographs and makes videos. As a playboy writer he's clearly okay with exploiting women even if playboy has not actually paid him for naked photos. Still seems suspiciously coincidental.

@DioneTheDiabolist

I'm sure the naked protestor was ok with a local journalist reporting on her actions.

I'm sure she was. I'm gonna make you famous baby.

The Playboy connection seems relevant to me.

Consider that she has not been identified despite this being international news.

Nor has she been arrested.

There are lots of people who would name her.

But she remains anonymous.

The best conclusion is that this was orchestrated and she is a friend of the Playboy man who conveniently took the Playboy photo of her spreading her legs.

Just like they do it in Playboy.

The best conclusion is that this was orchestrated and she is a friend of the Playboy man who conveniently took the Playboy photo of her spreading her legs.

Just like they do it in Playboy.

Amen to that. I know I've often declared myself as prudish on MN but I can't imagine a single one of my less prudish more open-minded female friends even coming near to doing something like that. It probably isn't in the least brave. Could be a soft-porn actress, for all we know. Definitely performance, done expressly to get attention.

If you check Farley's Instagram:

www.instagram.com/donovanjf/

the third image is the front cover of Playboy magazine. Which is nine photographs of fairly identikit anonymous faceless nude women.

He's featured in the magazine documenting '8chan', which is basically 4chan, afaict.

This is a picture of him.

www.instagram.com/p/BXelFlKlu2k/

He looks EXACTLY like you'd expect.

He wrote about antifa for a previous issue of Playboy magazine.

www.farrightwatch.net/2020/03/antifa-in-focus-playboy-article.html

As a freelance journo, I guess he knows what sells....