Powerful Women Around the World are Going Shirtless Under Blazers in Solidarity with Finland's PM Facing Backlash for Doing It
I have to confess that I was not aware that the Prime Minister of Finland was facing criticism for the alleged sin of posing for pictures in a low cut blazer with nothing on underneath. In fact, if you'd asked me yesterday to name the Prime Minister of Finland, I could not have told you it's Sanna Marin. And if I'm being perfectly honest, I have a tendency to forget Finland altogether until the Winter Olympics or when I'm watching "Die Hard."
Which is entirely on me. I need to be better than stupid Harvey.
I learned about the issue this morning from another powerful world leader I follow.
Here are the details:
Daily Mail - Finland's prime minister Sanna Marin has sparked controversy after wearing a stylish black blazer with a plunging neckline and no top underneath for a recent magazine photoshoot.
The 34-year-old, who leads the country's centre-left government, appeared in the nation's leading fashion publication Trendi over the weekend as their October cover star.
However, the politician's outfit choice was branded 'inappropriate' by some social media users after a snap of her wearing the jacket with a deep neckline, and without a blouse underneath, was shared on the magazine's Instagram account.
One suggested the outfit 'eroded' her credibility, while another commented: 'Yeah a real role model. It would have been better in the darkest of clouds. Ridiculous that the breasts of a woman appear in two without a blouse. Someone with taste and sense of style.'
Ms Marin's outraged fans were quick to show their support and rally behind her, launching the hashtag #imwithsanna and sharing photographs of themselves posed in similar ensembles to the prime minister's.
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Speaking for myself but I think also for a lot of men who don't call ourselves feminists but who are drawn to strong, confident women who do what they want and have no fucks to give how others judge them, the blowback toward Sanna Marin going Shirtless O'Clock under a jacket for a photoshoot is one of those things that baffles me. Maybe some of it's coming from people to don't support her anyway. But it sounds to me more like another case of feminist-on-feminist crime. That weird internal struggle among the ones who turn on their own once they like to look good. Like somehow that means they're betraying the cause. Where guys like me just find ourselves on the sidelines with our palms up going "I dunno" because it makes no sense.
This is not the first time I've addressed this very issue.
March, 2017 - Emma perfectly encapsulates my utter bewilderment with contemporary feminism better than I ever could. Why is it when women march down the street at the Pride Parade naked to the waist going full Suns Out/Guns Out they’re striking a blow against the Patriarchy, but when a dime like Karen Gillan wears a belly shirt in the Jumanji reboot or Emma shows cleavage in a fashion magazine, they’re betraying the sisterhood? This is coming from a true believer in the cause, and if she’s confused, how can any of us figure out where the goalposts are?
And needless to say, two and a half years later I'm no closer to finding the uprights. You'd think that by now the world would hold up a leader like Sanna Marin as an icon. The template for the next generation of feminists who can run a country exceptionally well through difficult times, have a family, dress in a way that makes her happy, and look great in a magazine doing it. People in Finland are tearing into her over there. And over here, I want her running my country. This era is retiring the trophy as the weirdest time in human history.
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