Womxn’s bodies reclaiming the picket line: The ‘nude’ protest during #FeesMustFall

Abstract

abstractOn 4 October 2016, during a #FeesMustFall protest at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits) in Johannesburg, three young womxn bravely took off their tops, breasts out, and stood as a buffer zone between police and protesting students. The aim of the ‘nude’ protest was to obtain a ceasefire. This moment occurred after long hours of violence with heavily armed police firing stun grenades, teargas and rubber bullets, and students who retaliated with stones and sticks. The casualties incurred on the day were predominantly among womxn given the masculine nature of protests characterised by men, with police, private security members and students at the forefront.As journalists rushed to capture the moment of the ‘nude’ protest the conversation on social media and other platforms shifted from issues of the protest to body shaming the womxn who stripped in front of the policemen. People questioned the morals and beauty standards of womxn’s bodies that were on the picket line. This article uses the Wits ‘nude’ protest as a point of departure to locate womxn’s bodies on the picket line. Using an ethnographic lens, the study draws from in-depth personal experience of the author’s participation in the ‘nude’ protest, the activism work in the movement and four WhatsApp groups used as a space for activism in 2016. It argues that the picket line is a contested space that privileges masculinity while womxn’s bodies are often objectified, denying the hard work that is undertaken every day in building the movement.