Neda Topaloski said Donald Trump has made misogynist remarks throughout the U.S. electoral campaign, so she wanted to protest against him on voting day using her body.
The 30-year-old Montrealer protested as part of the FEMEN women’s rights group at Trump’s polling station in midtown Manhattan Tuesday, minutes before the billionaire cast his ballot.
Topaloski and another FEMEN member, Seattle resident Tiffany Robson, 28, took off their shirts to reveal protest messages in black ink on their chests.
The women walked around for roughly 30 seconds before security and police grabbed them and escorted them out of the polling station, located in a gymnasium of a public high school.
Topaloski, who made the trip from Montreal to stage the protest, had the words “Trump grab your balls” written on her body, and she was chanting those words at the polling station. Robson had the words “Hate out of my polls” written on her body.
“He said he can grab women by the p***y, so we were there to speak out against him,” Topaloski told the Montreal Gazette. “We were happy to be able to say our message loudly and clearly, and to say that women are scared for their rights if Donald Trump is elected.”
Both protesters were ticketed by police for electioneering at a polling station on voting day.
Reached Tuesday, a spokesperson for the New York Police Department said there was no information available about the protest.
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Their actions were explained on the FEMEN USA website:
“Today FEMEN fights back against Donald Trump’s politics of discrimination towards women and all minorities,” the group said. “Today, on the USA Country’s Election Day, FEMEN activists take a stand for equality, against the sexism, racism and homophobia that Donald Trump has been spreading throughout the country. An authoritarian and nationalist Trump should never be in a position of political power; it is dangerous for our nation and for the world.”
Topaloski is no stranger to topless protests. She took part in a topless protest at the House of Commons in March 2015 against the anti-terrorism law Bill C-51. She protested in a similar fashion a month later at Quebec’s National Assembly against changes to health services, saying they limited access to abortions.
“We are a group of women who protest for the rights of women using our own bodies,” she said. “Our bodies are always used to be objectified as marketing tools. We are taking back our bodies to use them as tools to express our political ideas. We’re unapologetic. We want to change the world without permission.”
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