Keep Me Abreast

It's thrilling to see the amount of enthusiasm and same mindedness when it comes to baring one's flesh in order to bring attention to life threatening issues. Daily Accounts flesh baring demonstrations are popping up on the internet and National newspapers. There's the story of PETA (People For Ethical Treatment of Animals) baring it all to protest the abuse of sheep in Austrailia and I just read today about another sister in Bozeman, Montana baring are skin and soul to accentuate cruelty to elephants in the circus. More power to the Peaceful.
Reactions to these kinds of demonstrations seem to hover in the incredulity department. Critics wonder why, but don't ask us directly. Their summation is "whatever".
Fortunately there are critics. People pay attention when a woman bares her breasts. And they even dare to ask the question "what do naked people have to do with sheep or with stopping the war in Iraq?". I find that inspiring. People asking questions is a healthy exercise for the mind. The mind that is filled with constant propaganda about consumption and power. The mind that accepts concepts and definitions that make no sense, like bombing Iraq to make peace in the Middle East!! So these brave activist are willing to take off their clothes to get you to think and talk about what is unjust and dangerous in the world, we do so especially in the name of those who have no voice at all.

Here is the essay that I first wrote when Janet Jackson inspired me to consider using the sacred feminine in public demonstrations.

Keep me Abreast

At the outset of Superbowl, 38,Patriots, not the football team, but the American Fans who love their country, were filled with a sense of pride and glory to see the astronauts of the future and relish in the memory of the one’s lost last year when the space craft Columbia disintegrated in space. That was a stellar moment. But when these same viewers witnessed the shocking wardrobe malfunction of Janet Jackson’s costume at halftime they recoiled in shame and turned off the television to seek some kind of comfort.

The surprising appearance of Janet Jackson’s Breast has caused a mighty furor on and about the airwaves. The “Crass and deplorable stunt” that occurred during the half-time show of the Superbowl over took National Headlines. The fact that George Bush Lied to the World and the American People about Saddam Hussein having weapons of mass destruction didn’t even make the paper that day. I guess Janet’s Breasts bounced it right off the front page. Am I also to believe that her breast exposure is more horrifying than the death of another six US soldiers and who knows how many Iraqi children and women. Or more indecent than the fact that people are being detained and tortured without any constitutional rights in Guantanamo Bay.

I understand that The FCC is going to order a probe into the Breast situation. They are going to probe the breast exposure. Is that correct? Is that the plan? Probably spend over a million, no probably 5 million dollars to find out how and why Ms. Jackson’s breast got loose. Isn’t it more in the best interest of American’s for there to be an investigation into Dick Cheney’s ties to Halliburton and his secret meetings with the energy taskforce.? Are you telling me that Janet Jackson’s nipple is somehow more dangerous than Blackwater Security and Bechtel profiting off the death of thousands?

What I have to surmise from this obsession with Janet Jackson’s breast is that the Breast is mightier than the sword. It seems as though we women have a secret weapon we knew nothing about. The power of the breast. Like any super hero underneath our everyday clothing lay our true identities . With the slip of some leather and the revelation of a little bit of flesh we command the front page. What shall we do with this power that lies beneath?

What would they do if women started exposing their breasts everywhere? What if we truly exposed our most vulnerable selves in the face of their unabashed destruction and war and oppression? What if we could highlight the fact that we as a nation are decimating the soft tissue of human beings of breasts and babies and children? That fact must find a way to rise from the ashes of the Corporate Media‘s complicity with the rise of what looks a lot like Global fascism. If we started taking off our shirts honey, those cameras would follow us everywhere. And our cause would be so obvious ; The issue is soft tissue.

They were terrified at Janet Jackson’s a½ cup, Just imagine us Double D girls on the move, backed up by wild and passionate drummers….Photo op anyone? I suggest we boldly go forth and take our power be the super sheros that we are underneath all these clothes.

The media blithely exploits our bodies to sell everything from car wax to cigarettes but if one breast is shown accidentally in it’s innocence or while nursing a baby or making love we are appalled. We are appalled. What madness leads us to this bizarre reaction to our very own bodies. The mammary is the place of our first nourishment, or sacred nutrition. There is no greater nurturing or beauty than that of the mother, but WE outlaw it.. We are told it is indecent and dirty and shameful. I say it is our power. I say it is our salvation . It’s front Page News.