Women's Right and the Olympics

As I was looking for an article to post, I came across this one and thought it was very pertinent to this day in time, because the Olympics are going on as we speak, and because it coincides a lot with what we have been discussing in class.

A few days ago, a semi-naked picture of Jackie Chamoun, a 22 year old girl who is currently skiing for Lebanon in the Sochi Olympics, was blasted all over the internet. Chamoun was featured in a ski calendar wearing pink underwear and only skis covering her chest. Many people are embarrassed and outraged by her pictures, stating that she is embarrassing their country, but a group of feminists are taking a completely different approach.

In a time of war and other hectic things, many people believe that it is absolutely ridiculous to state that she is a disgrace for taking these pictures when there are many different things that these people should be worrying about. People have started posting topless or naked pictures on social media with the hashtag “#stripforjackie” while holding signs that say, “I am not naked.”

This act reminds me of the concept of CAKE parties. Just like CAKE parties, these women and men that are trying to stand along side Chamoun are trying to “redefine the current boundaries of female sexuality,” (Levy 198).  Although they are not directly related and these pictures are on a much lesser scale, these women and men are taking hold of their bodies and trying to prove that what they are doing is not wrong and that we are allowed to make our own decisions of what kind of pictures we want to take or parties we want to attend and that we should be able to do whatever we want with our bodies because they are ours.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/13/olympics-lebanon-nudity-idUSL5N0LI2CM20140213