Why was there no FEMEN in the Baltic States? Some preliminary observations

ENFrom 2008 to 2015, the FEMEN movement emerged from post-Soviet Ukraine to become a phenomenon recognised worldwide and inspiring local offshoots in a dozen countries, first in Eastern Europe, then Western Europe, and eventually as far afield as North Africa and the Americas. Throughout this period, however, no real attempt was ever made to establish a local FEMEN branch in any of the Baltic States of Estonia, Latvia, or Lithuania, even when many of their neighbours had them. This chapter seeks to explore why this was so when many of the preconditions that led to the foundation of FEMEN in Ukraine seemed also to exist in the post-Soviet Baltic societies as well. What made the Baltics different from both those post-socialist and those Western European societies where certain women felt the need to embrace the techniques and ideas of FEMEN? Both socio-political developments in the Baltic States, as well as the under-researched aspect of the underlying ideology of FEMEN shed light on why Baltic societies did not join the “new” feminist activism embodied by FEMEN and Pussy Riot. By presenting three cases that compare and contrast with FEMEN’s activities, some preliminary explanations are offered for why this could be. [From the publication]

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