Topless activists block bridge in London for International Women's Day protest

- November 06, 2020

This group of protesters from extinction rebellion made a powerful statement with the writing on their chests in a bid to fight for climate action and bring attention to global warming in the media. Their united stance brings a power and strength to their message in order to capture the attention of the passer by. Unfortunately, the female nipple still falls under many censorship laws, and I was saddened to see how this protest was portrayed by the daily Star. Due to these laws, this article chose to represent this protest with pictures of the women’s backs which erases the message that they were trying to communicate. Rather than represent the strength of these women and focus on the message they were delivering, the focus it put onto the fact that they are topless. This article also chose to represent these women in a moment where they were not fighting and exuding strength but rather having their hands relaxed by their sides as if they were just standing in the streets topless.

Comparing the images in the article to the stock images found easily on the Internet was astonishing to me as it was such a shame that the censorship almost negates the very real issue of climate change in this article. If anything, it has made me want to fight more and create a message that is not ignorable or capable of being censored.

If I put it on my tits you want to look at it, but I cannot put it on the Internet. Climate change is still a big deal, it is still a problem. If I put it on my tits you will not see it. This relates back to my initial thought that started this project: “If I put tits on it will you care about the state of the climate crisis?”. The answer is yes, but the message will not be as widespread because tits with visible nipples are not allowed on most social media platforms. I either need to embrace the current censorship rules and make an image that meets the criteria, or make the censoring part of the work.

I have compiled my highlights of the article below.

A group of topless women formed a chain across the Waterloo Bridge in London to highlight the disproportionate impact of the climate emergency on women

Waterloo Bridge in London was blocked as topless protesters form a human chain (Image: PA)

A group of 31 women created a chain across the bridge as a way to highlight the impact of the climate and ecological emergency on women.

This morning, Transport for London issued a statement that said the bridge "is being blocked in both directions by protesters".

An Extinction Rebellion spokeswoman said: "A January 2020 report by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature found that climate breakdown and environmental degradation are driving an increase in violence against women."

She added: "The report found that deforestation and the degradation of land mean women have to travel further to collect the things they need, like firewood, and are exposed to violence, rape and abduction when they make these journeys.

31 women joined the protest today on Waterloo Bridge (Image: PA)

"UN figures indicate that 80% of people displaced by climate change are women."

An activist and former teacher who is part of the protest, who is not named, said: "It’s mainly women in poorer countries in the global south that are experiencing the increase in violence but this will be the reality for all women if the climate and ecological crisis continues to go unaddressed."

“We are here to raise the alarm about what is happening to our sisters around the world and to tell women in the UK the climate and ecological emergency is your issue – it will affect you as a woman if we do not persuade our government to take urgent action starting now.”

Women from all walks of life are attending protests all over the world.