On Tuesday, a woman in London stopped traffic in front of the House of Parliament for five minutes after taking off her clothes and sitting on top of a black taxi cab to protest the war in Afghanistan.
While getting naked in public is definitely a way to draw attention, I question whether it is really a method that should be used to promote any cause, unless exposing your body has some very direct connection to the issue at hand.
In general, I tend to agree with those (here, here, here and here) who critique PETA, for example, for using nudity and sex to promote animal rights. What are your thoughts?
Eric Stoner is a co-founding editor at Waging Nonviolence and an adjunct professor at New York University. His articles have appeared in The Guardian, Mother Jones, Salon, The Nation, Sojourners and In These Times.
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