Bare breasts defy patriarchy

Anndís G. Rúdólfsdóttir, associate professor and Ásta Jóhannsdóttir, PhD from the Faculty of Social and Human Sciences

"Our article bears the beautiful title "Fuck Patriarchy!" as we felt it summed up the young women's mood," says Annadís G. Rúdólfsdóttir, associate professor in research methodology at the School of Education, on the article on the Icelandic breast revolution she and Ásta Jóhannsdóttir's, PhD in sociology, wrote and was published in February 2018 in the Sage Journal Feminism & Psychology. The article is the result of their analysis of the discussion and debates in Icelandic on-line media about #freethenipple in Iceland that began in March 2015. 

Annadís said it had been interesting to observe young women entering the public sphere and becoming political, thus creating a new kind of feminism. "These women are brought up in a neo-liberal society where one is led to believe that one has the freedom to choose and can become who-ever you choose to be.  This a discourse they draw from, but also the ideas of radical feminists about the patriarchy. They criticise female body shaming and point out how that critique makes it impossible for them to enjoy their bodies."  

The media followed this issue thoroughly and Annadís said they had been surprisingly positive in their coverage. “Many of the journalists were young women who served as gatekeepers into the media as they were sympathetic to the cause themselves. It was also interesting to witness the vast support from older generations of feminists.  The older feminists said they didn't feel they had the right to criticise the discussion without putting themselves in the young women's shoes, seeing how they had grown up in different circumstances." 

Annadís' background is in social psychology, and she says the aim of the study was not only to analyse which discourse influenced the young women in their revolution, but also the feelings that came with it. "Feminist movements are usually discussed from a certain self-image politics, whereas we examine the connection between emotions, discourse and ideology. One of the things we noticed when watching the girls walking bare breasted down the main street Laugavegur was this tremendous joy. This is exactly what several academics have pointed out; i.e.that a body in shame feels different than the body in pleasure."