Topless FEMEN protesters storm German football TV show

Submitted by Mastodon on Sat, 2013-12-14 15:21

Story here.* Excerpt:

'Two topless women stormed the stage of a German talk show on Wednesday in protest against the conditions of workers in Qatar who are building facilities for the 2022 World Cup.

The FEMEN activists ran onto the stage of a live football debate during a show hosted by Markus Lanz .

Footballs dripping with blood were painted around the edges of the protesters’ breasts. One of the women had also painted “Blut und Spiele” (Blood and games) on her body, while the other had “don’t play with human rights” written in English across her stomach.
...
Bodyguards tried to remove the women but talkshow host Markus Lanz intervened, telling the security staff to leave them.

Lanz interviewed one of the male demonstrators who said they were protesting against the “slavery” of workers in Qatar. Following the discussion the presenter urged FIFA to put pressue on Qatar to improve working conditions.'

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*"Sort-of NSFW": Err on the side of caution re watching the embedded video excerpt from the show while at work. The protesters, while their breasts were painted, were clearly naked from the waist up. Anyone with a chip on his/her shoulder who may happen to see you watch this video and see the video itself could get you into trouble with HR if they so desire.

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Comments

The security guys acted way too nonchalant about the whole thing, as did the hosts and guests. Not one stood up in reaction to this "unexpected" event, and note they all wore curious smiles on their faces right before the "sudden" protest. In addition, there was no tension of fear or concern in the bodies of either the male or female FEMEN'ers as they did their thing.

It looked a lot like a Jerry Springer staged hooplah designed to get the audience going and spike the ratings.

I can't comment on the righteousness of their particular gripe this time (i.e., working conditions for builders of the FIFA stadium in Qatar - though it's nice to see someone, FEMEN or not, stand up in some way for men busting tail to make something nice for other people!). But as for how the whole thing went down, well, I just think it looked all too well-planned out. And they actually stopped to let one of the protesters talk on camera? That's not how real hosts deal with real "infiltrating" protesters when they surprise the staff of a live TV show. They're kicked out of the place-- all of them.

Sorry, not buying it.

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Submitted by Matt on Sun, 2013-12-15 00:43