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Boobquake was a rally which took place on April 26, 2010, which served to protest news reports of controversial beliefs blaming women who dress immodestly for causing earthquakes. It was inspired by blogger Jey McCreight.


Inception

The Boobquake rally served to protest news reports of controversial beliefs espoused by
Hojatoleslam Hujjat al-Islam (from ''ḥujjat-u l-Islām'') (also Hojatoleslam) is an honorific title meaning "authority on Islam" or "proof of Islam". Sunni Islam Its first recorded use was in a Sunni Islam, Sunni context, as a title for the 11th-century t ...
Kazem Seddiqi Kazem Seddiqi ( fa, کاظم صدیقی, born 4 March 1951, sometimes with the honorific Ayatollah, and surname anglicised as Sedighi) is an Iranian Shia scholar and Mujtahid currently serving as Tehran's Friday Prayer Temporary Imam. A ri ...
, an Islamic religious authority in Iran. Seddiqi blamed women who dress immodestly for causing earthquakes. On April 19, 2010, it was reported that Seddiqi advised his listeners that "Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes" and Iranians should "adapt their lives to Islam's moral codes" to avoid being "buried under the rubble". In response to Seddiqi's comments, a blogger named Jey McCreight invited people to dress "in your immodest clothing to represent Boobquake." They described Boobquake as a scientific experiment: "With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble." McCreight's idea was popularized by prominent blogs and soon caught the attention of the international media. The event also drew criticism from people seeing it as objectifying women. Following repeated inquiries from the
BBC #REDIRECT BBC #REDIRECT BBC Here i going to introduce about the best teacher of my life b BALAJI sir. He is the precious gift that I got befor 2yrs . How has helped and thought all the concept and made my success in the 10th board exam. ...
...
and other news agencies, McCreight planned two meetings for participants: one in
West Lafayette, Indiana West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister cit ...
, and one in
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
Soon, what originated as "a humorous exercise in scientific and skeptical thinking" had begun to ignite serious debate regarding the organization of the feminist community.


Inspiration

The inspiration for this event was Jey McCreight, who attributes their activism to reading Richard Dawkins' book '' The God Delusion'' and attending a relatively religious college. While working on their undergraduate degree they had co-founded the Society of Non-Theists at Purdue. One year prior to Boobquake, McCreight had begun keeping a blog in which they described themself as an atheist and a feminist. On April 19, McCreight announced a protest against Seddiqi's comments on their blog, asking for participants to avoid "hateful or anti-Muslim or anti-Iranian messages". In the week leading up to Boobquake, McCreight received several emails from "thankful skeptics, feminists, and
Iran Iran, officially the Islamic Republic of Iran, and also called Persia, is a country located in Western Asia. It is bordered by Iraq and Turkey to the west, by Azerbaijan and Armenia to the northwest, by the Caspian Sea and Turkmeni ...
ians".


Event

An estimated total of 200,000 people participated in Boobquake on April 26, 2010. The so-called "
epicenter The epicenter, epicentre () or epicentrum in seismology is the point on the Earth's surface directly above a hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or an underground explosion originates. Surface damage Before the instrumental pe ...
" of Boobquake was a light-hearted two-hour gathering at 1:00 pm at the
Purdue Bell Tower The Purdue Bell Tower is a 160-foot tall bell tower in the center of Purdue University's campus. It was constructed in 1995 through a gift from the class of 1948. Heavilon Hall Tower The current Bell Tower's inspiration comes from the bell tow ...
in
West Lafayette West Lafayette () is a city in Wabash Township, Tippecanoe County, Indiana, United States, about northwest of the state capital of Indianapolis and southeast of Chicago. West Lafayette is directly across the Wabash River from its sister c ...
,
Indiana Indiana () is a U.S. state in the Midwestern United States. It is the 38th-largest by area and the 17th-most populous of the 50 States. Its capital and largest city is Indianapolis. Indiana was admitted to the United States as the 19th s ...
. Participants' attire included
push-up bra There are a great many brassiere designs that are suitable for a wide variety of business and social settings and suitable to wear with a variety of outer clothing. The bra's shape, coverage, functionality, fit, fashion, fabric, and colour can ...
s, unbuttoned shirts, short dresses, as well as other "racy costumes" and "risqué clothing". They also held signs with slogans such as "Cleavage for Science", "Amnesty", and "God hates Boobs". Purdue's student newspaper reported that the female participants were outnumbered by male spectators.
Washington, D.C. ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
's
Dupont Circle Dupont Circle (or DuPont Circle) is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The Dupont Circle neighborhood is bounded approximately by 16th Street NW to the east, 22nd Street NW t ...
was the site of another gathering at noon. The Washington gathering was attended by a dozen women and drew the attention of BBC Persia. Other notable gatherings were reported in
New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
and
Vancouver Vancouver ( ) is a major city in western Canada, located in the Lower Mainland region of British Columbia. As the List of cities in British Columbia, most populous city in the province, the 2021 Canadian census recorded 662,248 people in the ...
. In Vancouver, it was reported that most attendees at the event were hundreds of men using camera phones to take pictures, especially of a small number of women who were
topless Toplessness refers to the state in which a woman's breasts, including her areolas and nipples, are exposed, especially in a public place or in a visual medium. The male equivalent is barechestedness, also commonly called shirtlessness. Expose ...
. Some people also supported the event by purchasing official "Boobquake 2010" T-shirts through
Zazzle Zazzle is an American online marketplace that allows designers and customers to create their own products with independent manufacturers (clothing, posters, etc.), as well as use images from participating companies. Zazzle has partnered with ma ...
.com. The proceeds from the shirts went to the
Red Cross The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Movement is a humanitarian movement with approximately 97 million volunteers, members and staff worldwide. It was founded to protect human life and health, to ensure respect for all human beings, and ...
, to benefit earthquake recovery, and to the
James Randi Educational Foundation James Randi Educational Foundation (JREF) is an American grant-making institution founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. As a nonprofit organization, the mission of JREF includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of ...
, to support critical thinking.


Evaluation

That morning, at 02:59 UTC (April 25, 10:59 pm EDT – 14 hours before Boobquake Indiana; 13 hours before the Washington, DC event), a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck 195 miles off the coast of Taitung,
Taiwan Taiwan, officially the Republic of China (ROC), is a country in East Asia, at the junction of the East and South China Seas in the northwestern Pacific Ocean, with the People's Republic of China (PRC) to the northwest, Japan to the nort ...
, at a depth of . Upon hearing of this, McCreight said that it alone was not statistically significant, but that they would continue to monitor seismic activity for the next 24 hours. Other participants mentioned that the earthquake in Taiwan occurred prior to the official start of the experiment. After April 26 had ended in all time zones, McCreight began to conduct rigorous statistical analysis. McCreight pointed out that dozens of earthquakes occur daily, and that the goal of their analysis was not to see if all seismic activity would cease, but to determine whether the number or severity of earthquakes increased during the experiment. By compiling data from the
USGS The United States Geological Survey (USGS), formerly simply known as the Geological Survey, is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, a ...
website, McCreight determined a 95% confidence interval of zero to 148 daily earthquakes. During the course of the Boobquake event, only 47 earthquakes were reported. They also calculated that an earthquake of the magnitude of that in Taiwan had a 37% chance of occurring on that day. McCreight also said that the mean magnitude of seismic activity during the "Boobquake" event was actually slightly below average. As a result of this analysis, McCreight concluded that the immodest clothing worn during Boobquake had no significant effect on earthquake frequency or magnitude. Although McCreight admitted that there were some flaws with the experimental procedure, and that they doubted it would have any impact on Seddiqi's opinions, they believed that the event fulfilled its original intentions of being "a humorous exercise in scientific and skeptical thinking".


Responses


Support among expatriate Iranians

The event drew a favorable response from several expatriate Iranian political activists, including Mina Ahadi of the International Committee Against Executions and Stoning and
Maryam Namazie Maryam Namazie ( fa, مریم نمازی; born 1966) is a British-Iranian secularist, communist and human rights activist, commentator, and broadcaster. Early life Most of her early work focused on refugee rights, especially in Sudan, Turkey, ...
of Iran Solidarity both of whom are members of the Council of Ex-Muslims of Britain. These activists felt that Boobquake was a significant act in the defense of women's rights and human dignity. They said that many Iranian citizens supported Boobquake in its opposition to Sedighi's views, which they believe to be representative of the Iranian government of the past three decades. Kazem Sedighi defended his statements in a new sermon on May 14, 2010. When asked why there are not more natural disasters in western nations that do not follow his moral codes, Sedighi answered that God occasionally allows people to continue sinning "so that they (eventually) go to the bottom of Hell." It was not reported whether or not Sedighi specifically mentioned Boobquake during this sermon.


Brainquake and objectification of women

A feminist critique and response to Boobquake was the brainchild of Golbarg Bashi, who created a counter-movement known as "Brainquake" in April 2010. Bashi, a feminist professor of Iranian Studies at
Rutgers Rutgers University (; RU), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of four campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College, and w ...
and some other feminists were critical of Boobquake's method of drawing attention to questions about gender in Iran which they believed further victimized and objectified women and girls. Bashi, who conceived of the idea, stated that Boobquake was essentially another white liberal "post-feminist" spectacle at the expense of women's struggles in Iran.
Negar Mottahedeh Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and film theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern Studies and Film Studies. Early life She is known for her work on Iranian Cinema, but has als ...
, a Duke University professor, managed Brainquake's social media activities in 2010. Bashi explained the disproportionate interest in Boobquake as opposed to major feminist campaigns in Iran as such: "Our usual boob-crazed, I mean civilized male-dominated mass media went potty over this 'eye-ran' (read as Iran) related campaign, turned it into a major international story and thousands of (mostly) men joined McCreight's 'Boobquake' Facebook event. It was in this context that Brainquake began as an Iranian counter feminist initiative to save the discourse on women's rights from being used as another spectacle and provide visual reference to Iranian women's own century long feminist struggles against sexism." Planned for the same day as Boobquake, Brainquake was initially a Facebook event registered, composed and managed by Bashi. Brainquake's Facebook event encouraged women to demonstrate their "abilities to push for change" by showing off their résumés, CVs, honors, prizes, and accomplishments. In this way, Bashi and her fellow feminist activists hoped to provide a visual reference to Iranian women's own century long feminist struggles against sexism. Later in Spring 2010, Brainquake's event page was turned into a fan page and has since become a portal on news and commentary on global women's issues with a particular emphasis on leftist causes. Brainquake has retained its initial goal of providing a comprehensive visual reference to Iranian women's movements and also a pictorial dictionary to many issues and campaigns that identify and fight against all kinds of violence and discrimination against women and girls and other minorities in the
United States of America The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 states, a federal district, five major unincorporated territo ...
,
Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...
, and elsewhere. These photo albums and the reliable links and information that accompany them are part of Brainquake's feminist
consciousness raising Consciousness raising (also called awareness raising) is a form of activism popularized by United States feminists in the late 1960s. It often takes the form of a group of people attempting to focus the attention of a wider group on some cause or ...
effort for a mass public.


Other notable responses

Russell Blackford Russell Blackford (born 1954) is an Australian writer, philosopher, and literary critic. Early life and education Blackford was born in Sydney, and grew up in the city of Lake Macquarie, near Newcastle, New South Wales. After graduating with ...
, of the
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies (IEET) is a technoprogressive think tank that seeks to "promote ideas about how technological progress can increase freedom, happiness, and human flourishing in democratic societies."Joseph R. ...
, fully supported the idea of Boobquake, saying, "There is nothing wrong with the beauty of the human body, male or female, nothing wrong with enjoying it, and nothing wrong with displaying it to the world." Blackford encouraged participants to "Strut your stuff, and don't let anyone make you feel ashamed about so-called 'immodesty'. Feel free to scorn the moralism of Islamic clerics and anyone else who tries to put you down." In response to feminists' disagreements over Boobquake and Brainquake, some asked, "Why not both?". Melody Moezzi, for example, writing for the blog of ''
Ms. Ms. (American English) or Ms (British English; normally , but also , or when unstressed)''Oxford English Dictionary'' online, Ms, ''n.2''. Etymology: "An orthographic and phonetic blend of Mrs ''n.1'' and miss ''n.2'' Compare mizz ''n.'' The pr ...
'', saw no reason for there to be any conflict between the two events. Moezzi believed that there should be no problem with having multiple means of discrediting "the leaders of the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran", and suggested that women participate in both events. McCreight themself subsequently observed that some atheists acted misogynistically towards them and other women, partly in reaction to the joke in Boobquake's name, and they have called for a greater respect for feminism and a more welcoming culture in the atheism movement.


See also

*
Women in Islam The experiences of Muslim women ( ''Muslimāt'', singular مسلمة ''Muslimah'') vary widely between and within different societies. At the same time, their adherence to Islam is a shared factor that affects their lives to a varying degree ...


References

{{Reflist, 30em


External links


Jey McCreight: What I learned from Boobquake, ''The Guardian''
2010 controversies 2010 protests Islam and women Internet-based activism Feminist protests Islam and science 2010 in Indiana Breast Purdue University Sex-positive feminism 2010 in Iran Islam-related controversies