Today women around the world are baring their cleavage for Boobquake, a Facebook movement which is teating or rather testing the theory of that wacky Iranian cleric that exposure of breasts and cleavage causes earthquakes. I guess it will be good to test this hypothesis once and for all, though remember — the scientific method requires repeated demonstration that something is true. Boobquake was created by American scientist Jen McCreight as a way of exposing the evidence either way. We are approaching a Full Moon with two planets in Taurus; I would give that a 3 on a scale of 10 for earthquake potential (Full Moon gets one point, Sun in an Earth sign gets another point, Mercury retrograde conjunct the Sun gets the third point. But I am not usually that organized.)
However, if we’re looking for theme: there is an outer planet aspect I haven’t mentioned (Tracy wrote in reminding me of this), between two of the most stand-out discoveries beyond Pluto: Varuna (discovered in 2000) and Eris (discovered 2003-2005), which are in a square aspect. Eris addresses core feminine themes, and Varuna is the equalizer. This is a long square, going on from late 2009 through 2012. This one is worth at least three good conversations on Planet Waves, a couple of Len Wallick blogs and a Friday edition.
As for the effects of breasts: remember that there is a grain of truth behind most lies, and this one certainly qualifies. The earthquake caused by breasts is in the emotions of many men (and women). Most men cannot handle the sexual power of women; most don’t feel equal to it; most don’t feel worthy of it. For many, the only responses many see are blame, rage and repression; taking charge; taking possession. So if you’re wondering why so many men seem to have a need to hold down the sexual strength of women, here is a theory.
Yet why many women would play the same game is an interesting question, and one possibility is that they, too, feel a boobquake, but a different kind: witnessing the erotic potential of their sisters, they notice something move inside them that they’re not quite ready or willing to admit; something that stirs up guilt; and the sense of loss of their own power, confronted by one who is willing to be open. The opposite of this is some shade of absolute tolerance, welcoming, embrace or surrender to the hot current of energy that runs through themselves and the core of all humanity.
Anyway — the photo above is my contribution to Boobquake, with gratitude to my model, Marie, photographed in Brussels in 2007. Here is my favorite of the day — click, but if you’re at work, this is a nudity warning.
This whole thing with Tavi is ridiculous, well in a way not as much ridiculous as it is preposterous. The thing about Tavi is that she truly gets it (I’ve been reading her since she’s 11 when stylerookie began, she just turned 14).
She’s a pint sized curious creative genius, a true artist. As a photographer, her art has inspired me (that should tell you something right there, because I photograph A LOT of nudes, this includes nipples). She’s an ancient soul reincarnated into a middle schooler living in the burbs surrounding Chicago.
Tavi Gevinson self describes herself as:
“A tiny 13 year old dork that sits inside all day wearing awkward jackets and pretty hats”
But, there’s a lot more to her than that and she knows it. She has captured massive amounts of attention from designers, publishers, and business people. Not to mention her fan base, I’m not quite sure the amount of hits her blog receives daily but I will bet its up there. She has inspired fashion collections, and overall she’s a smart cookie.
I have to admit that when I first heard of this story here on Planet Waves (thanks Kyla), at first glance I thought that I was reading that Tavi exposed her own nipple on Stylerookie. I chuckled pretty hard for a couple of seconds because I thought that if it was true, that was really awesome on Tavi’s part.
When I found out what the real story here was, there was a mix of feelings. Disappointment, sadness, and anger. I felt bored too, and I can only imagine how Tavi felt. This is as ridiculous as the Australian Film Board banning publications of small breasted woman, because they somehow feel that this represents exploitation of children.
You shutdown a 14 year olds community oriented creative outlet because she posted an artsy picture of a fucking nipple. Yeah, thats what happened. This is disrespect at its finest. As simply stated as that is — here’s where the real questions arrive.
You shutdown a 14 year old girl.
Agreeing with Jin here: Have these people not heard of Art, Health, Anthropology, and umm Nature? We should just take the crayons away from toddlers all together while were at it…. I can only imagine what Karl L. is thinking about all of this.
In truth, as 30 is creeping its tongue up my ass. I am finding that I am both learning and becoming inspired by some truly gifted young people. Recently, I find that many of them happen to be in the 14 year old female form. Putting “limits” on there human potential is nothing that I want to be a part of. And I am here to tell them that “The Northern Lights are not drowning, there waving.”
And Tavi, today in your honor, I shall wear my Rodarte tutu, rainbow Doc Martens, and heart shaped sunglasses; deciding which Jesus button to rock. Either the orange one which is a parody on slice orange soda, but instead of Slice it says Christ — or the pink one that simply states JC is my BFF. I might even flash a nipple or two and take some self portraits. Keep rocking girl.
–Beth
yes it has the areola early warning system
Turns out it was gawker (the blog) who made the no-naked-women-on-the-internet comment, not the WSJ. Easy to confuse, the way gawker’s post is written.
Meanwhile, the comment WSJ got from Google is truly hilarious. They said the blog was “mistakenly taken down by our automated system.” Yeah, right.
Turns out the offensive photo came from an 1998 fashion ad.
Here’s the WSJ article: http://blogs.wsj.com/digits/2010/04/26/teen-fashion-bloggers-site-blocked/
Amanda – ‘i wonder what the next breast event will be?’
Me too – wonder if it will be ‘Tit for Tat’ day, when someone does a good turn for the community if you flash a bit of nipple…men and women all included here – it’s for ‘all of us here’. The postive power of nakedness…
Or what about ‘Make a Clean Breast of it Day’, when everyone has a chance to admit to some of the stuff they;ve been lyin’ to themselves about – sort of like confession, only naked at the top-half and just the one person involved – yourself. …the real meaning of one-to-one.
Right, I’m back to work. xxx
Fact checking at WSJ is one shade away from abominable, but I would love to see that quote from their website or print edition. It’s as funny as the Iranian imam’s original statement about earthquakes.
“But Blogger shut it down because Tavi posted a naked photo of a young model. And pictures of naked women aren’t allowed on the internet. [WSJ]”
Whaaaaat? Is the Journal not aware of the bazillion-dollar online porno industry? Perhaps more to the point they meant that pictures of naked women aren’t allowed to be posted on the internet by 14-year-olds. But a nipple in and of itself hardly constitutes the image of a naked woman – unless you define women as mere nipples. Last time I checked, there was a whole lot more to my body than a couple of nipples. And, lest we forget, men have them, too.
As to the potential pornography argument, the mere image of a naked body – or a part thereof – is not pornographic. Have these geniuses not heard of art, anthropology, science, health, medicine? Oh, and, uh, nature?
Context is everything. Boobquake was hardly a pornographic event. It was pretty genteel, actually – did anyone check in with strippers or showgirls on this one? So, as to Blogger’s censorship of an image of a detatched body part (one that exists to nourish, no less)…
“Lord, what fools these mortals be!”
Ok found the picture in question from Tavi’s blog, it was posted yesterday and shows a single nipple on an admittedly nude body……. (someone on Gawker had the jpeg and shared.) So it is even more on topic. Caused an earthquake too, didn’t it.
I imagine she will go through some song and dance and get her blog back….. even so but still……. jeeze. there goes my evening entertainment. 😉
Hi dear friends, not sure this has to do with earthquakes but it is certainly on topic.
Style Rookie, the 14 year old fashion blogger with tons of attitude (I have zero interest in fashion but follow Style Rookie cause i love that ‘tude!) just got shut down because she posted a nekkid pitcher, says here:
http://gawker.com/5524990/fashions-tiniest-celebrity-blogger-shut-down-by-the-man
Gawker
New York, 11:41 PM
Mon Apr 26
Fashion’s Tiniest Celebrity Blogger Shut Down By The Man
Fashion’s Tiniest Celebrity Blogger Shut Down By The ManTavi Gevinson is the polarizing 14 year-old behind the fashion blog The Style Rookie. But Blogger shut it down because Tavi posted a naked photo of a young model. And pictures of naked women aren’t allowed on the internet. [WSJ]
hmmmmmm well, this will make some interesting waves somewhere I trust…..
Here is a video link from The washington post- pretty sweet
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/video/2010/04/26/VI2010042603023.html?hpid=artslot
There were approx. 205,700 “attendees” at Boobquake and only the one earthquake, in Taiwan, which happened well before Boobquake really got underway. Not that I was expecting anything different (although it would have been pretty amazing!).
Now I’m wondering what the official reaction will be from the Iranian clerics… Okay, I’m not really wondering. They’ll probably say that enough women dressed modestly today (and enough people prayed really, really hard) to counter the attempted terrorist act of potentially ‘earthshattering’ proportions!
Excerpt from Small World Stories — Planet Waves 2008 annual edition
The essence of life is to need and be needed.
That is a primal instinct for humanity, and you embody it: it is the spirit of
the relationship between a mother and a
child. Cancer is the sign of mothering; the sign of breasts, security and
feelings. Breasts feed humanity when it is
young, and they try to as it gets older. We may be a society that has lost the
comfort of breasts, having sexualized
them to the point where that has become nearly their only identity.
Breasts offer fulfillment. Yet there is, in every one of us, an empty space
that cannot be fulfilled: that is, going back to
our actual mother’s warm breasts, if we were lucky enough to have met them.
This is the need within the need, an
existential emptiness we all share. This emptiness is a space, and depending
on one’s personal story, this space is
either small or vast. In order to be as independent (or fullfilled) as we can,
the idea of growth is to bring this space at
its minimum size. At the very least, we need to be aware of that space and not
make it the job of someone else to fill
it up.
Ahhh 🙂
well, jen has gotten a mention on CBS News’s “strnage news” website:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/04/26/ap/strange/main6433641.shtml
in the fine print at the bottom, they note the date & magnitude of the last earthquake in the indiana area.
apparently, there’s been a decent one in taiwan, but our intrepid scienist jen will wait till the end of the day to compare data and determine whether it was any larger than usual (along with any other seismic activity today).
alas, the facebook page where people were posting all manner of photos yesterday (including that one i found of the islamic woman eric has posted here) no longer has photos. i figured the FB police would be marching in before long.
i have to say, between the topless march in portland a few weeks ago and now boobquake, we seem to be seeing a bit of a groundswell (ahem) when it comes to liberating women’s breasts. i wonder what the next breast event will be?
— amanda
efc whispers: == Mary, In honor of Boobquake Day
http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/in-honor-of-boobquake/
~~inhale~~
thanks
(M exits right, sighing. . .)
Hey Jere, nice to see ya. No harm no foul on the post disapearance. It was kind of a “trip” to watch it go up and watch it go down. LOL! I figure Word Press is up for quakin’ as much as any/one.
Thanks, Eric, for the insight, well taken.
Jere
Um no new policy. Trust me when I make a policy I make an announcement, send out a memo, sound the clarions. What good is being CEO otherwise? Now let’s test another theory. What exactly happened? And Mercury is retrograde and Word Press does have the occasional bug. There are hiccups. This is a complex program on a quirky Internet.
Word, that was strange.. it’ll be back up I imagine, unless there’s new policy..
Eric, Anatoly,?!
..is there anybody in there?
Hm…my ” quakin’ in their boobs’ remark was posted for two seconds then deleted.
Well, I thought it was an amusing play on expressions.
I find it one more fascinating component that in our culture bare breasts are considered ‘nudity’. Even Eve seems to have had only one fig leaf lol.
ahem, dudes! bring on the naked dudes, please. dudes have breasts, eh?
== Mary, In honor of Boobquake Day
http://planetwaves.net/pagetwo/in-honor-of-boobquake/
–efc
Tracy writes —
This seems to me again related to boobquake and Eris square Varuna.
They say it was a joke, but seriously, that is what a Pope would do, if he was any kind of leader and had any moral authority.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/8642404.stm
Our government apologised and said it does not represent their view. Fucking hell. Why not exactly?
from the BBC —
The paper was attached as one of three “background documents” to a memo dated 5 March 2010 inviting officials in Whitehall and Downing Street to attend a meeting to discuss themes for the papal visit.
It suggested Benedict XVI could show his hard line on the sensitive issue of child abuse allegations against Roman Catholic priests by “sacking dodgy bishops” and launching a helpline for abused children.
The document went on to propose the Pope could apologise for the Spanish Armada or sing a song with the Queen for charity.