„You own your body – let other animals own theirs“ was one of the slogans of our comprehensive animal rights project which culminated in a lingerie action this past Saturday on the main street of Lyon.
Why lingerie? Well, we use our bodies simply as a free tool at our disposal to attract attention to the plight of animals and the necessity of their liberation. And what better way to attract attention that the sight of hot bodies in the middle of winter? Along with my beloved friends and fellow activists, it was a challenge, but also a privilege to be able to do activism in this unique way for the innocent, sentient beings that humanity is putting through hell every day.
We designed this action to be very open and inviting, enticing the public with smiles, good music and a positive atmosphere. The main message was: „Exploiting animals is not only horrible, but it‘s also unnecessary,“ and we framed our whole way of activism towards those millenials and Gen Z-ers who are very open to the idea of going vegan, but who might lack certain information and thus feel they must continue the old ways, either because of protein/nutrition or some other reason. We showed that it‘s easy to switch to a suffering-free lifestyle – and that it‘s even desireable! You can be and you will be strong, sexy and compassionate when you become vegan! And even the older folks were receptive of the message.
An ocean of gratitude to Marie and Natasha, who were queen bees with the organization, providing the necessary pillars of ideas and realization with such motivation and strength that organizing this project was truly a breeze! This action would not have been possible without them.
Another ocean of gratitude to Theo and Jeff, who joined us in underwear to show that men can equally be strong and sexy without munching on corpses! Fun fact: Jeff was one of the first people I approached when I had this idea past June during Vegan Place, and he is always so chill and up for great action that it is a pleasure to have such support. And Theo not only did an amazing shoot but also made sure his presentation at the lingerie action was very festive! This was truly a fantastic group of people who decided to use their voice and their bodies in an unexpected yet very attention-grabbing way for the animals. Amazing work and also – this way we managed to silence those speciesist complaints that the action was „objectifying women“. True feminism is advocating for all females of all species!
Our outreachers were Olympe and Sophia who also braved the cold to talk to people and raise their awareness on what happens behind the closed doors of slaughterhouses, and they distributed plenty of brochures and knowledge. Sophia was also part of the calendar and Olympe is an activist from Montpellier who came especially to support this action. Thank you both!
Speaking of a calendar: You know those sexy calendars that American firefighters do to collect money for good causes? Well, we did the same! Our sexy calendar showcases us, vegan animal rights activists from Lyon, all to collect money for „Le Cercle de P.A.N“ association for the protection of animals and nature. The association does incredible work in saving abandoned animals, their medical treatment and adoption, and raises awareness on animal exploitation and how to achieve an environmentally-friendly way of living. At the action, our lovely activist Valerie really rescued us by taking care of the calendar sale. A big thank you!
Fantastic photos and videos (to come) are all taken by Nathalie, who always supports whatever far-out idea we might have. So great to do activism with you. Merci, Nath! =)
Last but not least, Rose-Marie was also there to support us, just like she does on many other actions. Thank you very much!
Our lingerie action was very successful: we collected about 400 EUR for the animals! You can see the amount of 370 EUR at the big cheque in one of the photos, but actually, we had people approach us even after the action ended, so the final amount was bigger. Awesome!
Oftentimes, when we advocate for the animals on the street, we can only hope that we have awakened a sense of moral obligation and urgency in stopping one‘s support for the animal torture industries (meat, dairy and eggs, but also circuses, laboratories that experiment on animals, seaquariums, etc) in those we talk to. This time, we also did something that resulted in a concrete help for animals, and that is something that is incredible. Therefore, a big gratitude to all the activists who participated in this project. I‘m happy and proud to be an activist alongside you all.
Cherry on top of a vegan cake: we got some great media coverage! Check it out here (in French):
I cannot wait to see what positive things we do next. Let‘s veganize the planet!
