Boobquake: bad science and bad feminism

I'm straying away from my usual topic of bad science in advertising because I'm so intensely irritated by the event that is "Boobquake" taking place today.

Quick background. Boobquake is a reponse to comments made by an Iranian cleric (see here) who said:

"Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray and spread adultery in society which increases earthquakes"

This inspired student Jen McCreight to suggest an event similar to the excellent 10:23 homeopathy overdose, whereby getting a big enough group of women to dress immodestly and show boobs/cleavage at the same time could disprove this statement (because obviously it wouldn't cause earthquakes). She created a Facebook page and Twitter hashtag (#boobquake) and following an acceleration of the idea into a social media phenomenon now claims it was a silly joke.

For the record, I have some sympathy for her although I totally disagree that there is any science or feminism behind Boobquake. Both science and feminism are dear to my heart and that's why I'm a bit miffed.

The homeopathy overdose, in my view, was intended as a public message, demonstrating via a mass coordinated "overdose" that homeopathic pills contain no medicine and are just sugar pills. This is important because so many people DO believe that homeopathy is real medicine. It's available on the NHS and in pharmacies. Boobquake on the other hand is not about educating the public. Call me optimistic but I don't believe that many people in Western countries believe that women dressing immodestly causes earthquakes. It seems that people just want to prove this Iranian cleric wrong, but do they really believe someone like that will be convinced? Being a pedant, the original statement doesn't even claim immodest dressing causes earthquakes, but adultery, so the "experiment" isn't even testing the right variable. And if an earthquake does occur today it will be at best correlation not causation. So er, what are you trying to prove exactly?

I have problems with the feminism angle too. I personally don't believe that liberation is about getting your boobs out, apart from where it's making a point about the right to breast-feed in public. Is it better to objectify yourself than have someone else do it? (Further reading: Feminist Chauvinist Pigs by Ariel Levy)  I know some feminists do not agree with me on this but vive la difference. Interestingly in this case, it is science, not liberation, is being used as the justification for getting women to show cleavage, these comments from Twitter demonstrate:

"Help fight supernatural thinking and the oppression of women just by showing your cleavage!"
"C'mon ladies, do your bit for science and reason!"
"Boobquake is a serious scientific experiment to prove that an Iranian cleric is NUTS. Boobs for SCIENCE!"

Utterly ridiculous.* Since when did objectification fight misogyny and bad science? What happened to good old fashioned scientific reasoning? Or should we girls leave the reasoning to the boys and just get topless?

There's also an interesting cultural dynamic to the whole thing, as illustrated by these comments for example:

"Boobquake won't cause an earthquake but it will reinforce the belief that Western Society is immodest and obsessed with sex"
"I'm not wearing a hat and my arms are out. I am positively pornographic by muslim standards"

The first comment I agree with, which is why Boobquake won't change the mind of anyone who actually blames women or adultery for natual disasters. It is pointless. The second comment is of course annoying because it lumps the extreme views of one man with all "muslim standards". FYI, there is not such thing as "muslim standards", muslim beliefs are very diverse, and many muslims do not believe that arms are pornographic.

To sum up, comparing Boobquake to the homeopathy overdose is insulting to proper skeptics and those who try to bust bad science myths. Boobquake is the most stupid intersection of bad science and bad feminism I've seen for a while, encouraging women to show some skin rather than actually engage with science in a meaningful way and provide wank fodder for people (men) who frankly don't give a s*** about science or the oppression of women.

*I know that some people are engaging with this in a tongue-in-cheek kind of way, but equally many are not.