Nudity is a powerful tool of protest, and Cambridge professor Dr. Victoria Bateman is using it to raise awareness of women’s rights and challenge the idea that a woman’s body should only be used for sex and babies.
According to Bateman, her actions are meant to make “the female presence felt in a clear and powerful way.” Her recent video has sparked a barrage of criticism from both men and women, but she remains undeterred.
Bateman is an economic fellow at the University of Cambridge and an outspoken feminist who has been challenging gender-based discrimination through provocative means since 2014.
That year, she posed nude for a portrait shown at the Royal Society of Portrait Painters exhibition at the Mall Galleries in London – making headlines across the world as one of very few women featuring on display alongside male models wearing suits or traditional clothing.
Since then, she’s used nudity to draw attention to inequality issues like pay gaps between genders or restrictions on women’s freedom by appearing in various events wearing nothing but transparent leotards or evening shoes – not forgetting her most recent naked protest with “My Body My Choice” written across her body in bold letters.
The professor uses her body as well as her voice to speak out against what she calls “objectification” of women’s bodies by some sections of society – including pornography — which often portrays females as objects without any agency over their own lives.
Bateman says that she receives a lot of verbal abuse on Twitter from both men and women about her naked protests, with people calling them “inappropriate” or telling her to “cover up”. But according to Professor Bateman, this isn’t really surprising given that many people seem threatened when they lose control over another person’s body – especially if it belongs to a woman who feels comfortable being unclothed in public.
She believes that comments such as “put it away love” are aimed at silencing her message rather than addressing the issue itself, saying that all they do is prove why feminism still matters today.
Bateman argues that there is still much progress needed when it comes to equality for all genders: from equal pay between sexes, access to education, fair representation in politics, better access healthcare services, protection against violence…and so much more.
By posing naked, Dr. Victoria Bateman hopes not only highlight these issues but also bring about meaningful change within our society by empowering other women around the world who might feel oppressed due oppression based on their gender identity.
