So, I Was Naked in Public Again

All in the name of activism.

It was a sunny morning in Paris. A Monday, to be exact. I had gone out for a walk, about a quarter to eight, to get a takeaway coffee. The city was quietly waking up, readying itself for the day. As I was making my way back to my Airbnb, clutching an oat cappuccino, my heart was racing with excitement.

Thirty minutes later, I stepped in front of a makeup artist, wearing only underwear and nipple covers. While she painted my entire body in the colours of the Swedish flag, I looked around me: other activists, nearly nude just like me, were being transformed into the flags of their countries. Within a few short hours, we made quite a colourful parade as we walked, fuelled by vegan croissants, towards Place de la République.

The sign says “United Against Cruelty to Animals” in Swedish

Ahead of the start of the Olympic Games, there were sixteen of us, all PETA activists, standing in Place de la République that day. Each body-painted a different country's flag, we brought the message "United Against Cruelty to Animals." Together we held our signs in the air (the arm pain! Among other things, activism sure can be a workout), proclaiming, "No Leather, Feathers or Fur!" while international photographers snapped shots of us. People stopped and stared. Children pointed. One woman walked past and applauded us.

You might ask what leather, feathers or fur have to do with the Olympics? Well, the Olympics are about unity and countries coming together, so what better time to stand united against large-scale suffering and cruelty? But there was also a fashion-related angle to our action: as you may know, sporting events would be nothing without sponsors. And it just so happens that one of the major sponsors of this year's Olympic Games is LVMH - parent company to Louis Vuitton, who, in this day and age, still profits from selling the skins of wild animals. As well as fur. Yes, you read that right: in the year 2024, this company actually still puts animal fur on the catwalks. So, in a protest against their archaic and abusive policies, we stripped off. No clothes are worth suffering and death.

Your friendly neighbourhood activist smurf

And in case you had any doubts, animals suffer greatly to end up on catwalks and store shelves. Around 100 million animals die for fur each year, most of them being killed with poison, gas, or electrocution, with some still conscious as they are skinned. Leather takes around one billion lives every year. Most of these animals live their entire lives in the factory-farming system, where they are deprived of everything that makes their lives worth living. They commonly go through painful mutilations such as castration, tail docking and branding, all without any pain relief. Geese and ducks are often plucked alive for their feathers. The wild-animal skins industry is home to some of the worst horrors I've ever seen: lizards decapitated, crocodiles slowly dying after being skinned, and snakes inflated with air to stretch the skin. The glamorous fashion industry hides many gruesome, dirty backstories.

This isn't the first time I've gone naked in public to protest against the use of animals. Coincidentally, I travelled internationally last year to strip down for animal rights. My job sometimes takes me to faraway places to do things that are a bit…out there, to say the least.

That Time I Stood Naked in a Spanish Square to Protest Bullfighting

Through the years, PETA activists have been questioned for our nudity. Why go naked, our detractors ask, when you can just quietly and calmly state your message. Wouldn’t you be taken more seriously then?

I’ll start off by revealing that my views on nakedness are very relaxed. I believe that our society unnecessarily makes a big deal out of nudity. We’re all naked underneath our clothes, and we all know what a naked person looks like. There is no big mystery. It’s just human bodies. “But your body is private!” someone might counter. Well, you don’t get to decide what’s private for other people. Someone who sees me naked in a square has no idea about the things I really want to keep private. I am capable of protecting my privacy - even with my boobs on show.

Other signs say “No leather, feathers or fur”

Plus, something I know now is that when you’ve spent nearly two hours being body-painted, you don’t really feel naked. Rather, I had the sensation of being dressed up as something, akin to being at a costume party. And when everyone else around you is in the buff as well, any awkwardness tends to dissipate.

Women’s bodies are so frequently objectified and weaponised in various ways in our society, be it for subjugation or for financial gain, and to me personally, it’s empowering to use nudity for political protest rather than to please the patriarchal gaze. An action like this takes back control. It says, “I’ll be naked on my terms, to say the things I want to say.” In a world where female bodies are endlessly sexualised, it also feels powerful to be naked in a way that’s not meant to be sexy at all.

One of the Substackers I subscribe to,

Katie Jgln

, put this very succinctly in a recent post: “A human body existing on its own is just that — a body. It’s not inherently sexual, provocative, indecent or sinful.”

Trying to record a meaningful speech in Swedish to camera, but a siren kept interrupting

I also loved how this protest - like many PETA actions - brought together men and women, people of varying ages, shapes and sizes, and from different parts of the world, united by the message of rejecting cruelty to animals. Standing in that square, we were using our bodily autonomy, our right to do what we want with our bodies, to remind that animals should have bodily autonomy too - the right not to have their bodies violated, tortured, and ultimately taken from them.

Slipping back into my robe after the action, walking back towards the Airbnb in the early afternoon sun and then finally seeing the blue and yellow paint washed off my skin and down the shower drain, I felt the full weight of how tired I was - but also the appreciation of how much the day had meant to me. Being able to speak out against injustice is a privilege, in whichever way we choose to do it.

Back on the streets of Paris, this time fully clothed, I was grateful for the animal rights community and my place in it. Thanks to our colourful action, more people might have learned about the suffering of the millions of sentient individuals whose bodies we treat as objects. And if I can change the mind of one single person and convince them to have compassion for animals, then I’ll strip off as often as it takes.

Photos by Clothilde Thierce, Gaëlle Naga and Samira Makhlouf