Brainquake or Boobquake – Can we rid the ridiculous?
Posted April 25th, 2010 by Homa TavangarWomen’s power has hit a new high – or a new low, depending on your view of global politics. Recently, a conservative Iranian cleric pronounced that women’s immodest clothing choices spur adultery and therefore increase the risk of devastating earthquakes. I didn’t pay much attention to this ridiculous, fear-based statement, but I am fascinated by the action it’s sparked, by women from the east and the west. Here’s a great summary of one prominent response. Go #brainquake!
Iranian women want equality - who's quaking over this?
From Persian Letters-Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:
<<A new campaign, titled “Brainquake,” has been launched on Facebook, calling on women to show off their résumés, CVs, honors, prizes, and accomplishments. The goal is to get conservative Iranian leaders quaking with fear at “women’s abilities to push for change and to thrive despite gender apartheid.”
The campaign is a reaction to “Boobquake,” an initiative by a U.S. student, Jen McCreight, calling on women to test the claim by Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi that women who dress immodestly promote adultery and thus increase the risk of earthquakes.
The creators of “Brainquake” say on their Facebook page that they’re saddened that the creator of “Boobquake” and thousands of other women have responded to Sedighi’s claim by resolving to show some cleavage on April 26.
“Brainquake’s” creators say Sedighi’s comment was no news to Iranian women, nor was it funny. They note that for the past 30 years, the Islamic Republic has violated women’s rights with what they describe as repressive policies.
Iranian women make up more than 60 percent of university entrants. Women were at the forefront of the protests against the disputed reelection of Iran’s President Mahmud Ahmadinejad. And a number of women’s rights activists were detained and sentenced to prison in the postelection crackdown, including Shiva Nazar Ahari and student leader Bahareh Hedayat, who both remain in jail.
Both “Boobquake” and “Brainquake” are taking place on Monday, April 26.
article by Golnaz Esfandiari>>
3 Comments
These are great, thoughtful points. Heather, it’s so true that the mockery is lost in a fanatic view – from whatever perspective. The key on this issue was the ridiculousness of the original assertion. Sadly, when boobs, sex, other provocateurs are brought on to the debate, they do a better job attracting the attention that’s really needed at the core of the narrow-minded statements. I’m thinking to start each blog post with “SEX!!!” Then i can say whatever i want.
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April 27, 2010 at 7:39 am by Merrie HamadaniWhile I think it is important as women to celebrate our femininity we should not have our femininity exploited by society. We should not be made to feel weak or inferior. We as women should be fully recognized for our intellect, accomplishments and contributions to our global community. As mothers we are teachers to our children who later become adults. That impact is not only felt by those children throughout their lives, but it is those adult children who impact our world. We as women should be celebrated not demoralized…
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April 26, 2010 at 4:30 pm by HeatherI think both Brainquake and Boobquake are great ideas, and I’m sorry to see feminists criticizing Boobquake for supposedly trivializing a serious issue. That’s like criticizing Jonathan Swift’s “Modest Proposal” that the Irish solve their famine problems by eating their children. He wasn’t trivializing the issue, he was motivated by anger at the cruelty of the British administration, and his chosen response was extreme satire.
What do these fanatics hate more than anything? Mockery. We can see that from the uproar over the Danish Mohammed cartoons or the recent controversy over South Park’s skewering of extremist Islam.
Moreover, women asserting their right to dress as they please isn’t pandering to the male gaze. The fanatics want women to cover up, and they threaten divine retribution to make it happen; the Boobquake women are calling them out on the stupidity of their ideas and asserting the right of women to dress however they please. I see no difference between an event like this, and the mass breastfeeding events that feminists have staged in businesses that have been hostile to breastfeeding women.
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