Boobquake
Encyclopedia
Boobquake, which took place on April 26, 2010, was devised by Jennifer McCreight
, then a senior in the Purdue University
College of Science
, in response to news reports that Hojatoleslam
Kazem Seddiqi
had blamed women who dress immodestly for causing earthquakes. On April 19, it was reported that Seddiqi advised his listeners that "Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes" and Iranians should "adapt their lives to Islam's moral codes" to avoid being "buried under the rubble".
One year prior to this, McCreight had begun keeping a blog
in which she describes herself as an atheist
and a feminist
. On April 19, McCreight encouraged her blog's readers to help her poke fun at Seddiqi by dressing "in your immodest clothing to represent Boobquake", an invitation then extended to the world via Facebook
. She asked for participants to avoid "hateful or anti-Muslim or anti-Iranian messages" and described Boobquake as a scientific experiment: "With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble."
McCreight's idea was popularized by prominent blogs and soon caught the attention of the international media. Following repeated inquiries from the BBC
and other news agencies, McCreight planned two meetings for participants: one in West Lafayette, Indiana
, and one in Washington, D.C.
In the week leading up to Boobquake, McCreight received several emails from "thankful skeptics
, feminists
, and Iran
ians". The event also drew criticism from people seeing it as objectifying women
. Soon, what originated as "a humorous exercise in scientific and skeptical thinking" had begun to ignite serious debate regarding the organization of the feminist community.
" of Boobquake was a light-hearted two-hour gathering at 1:00 pm at the Purdue Bell Tower
in West Lafayette
, Indiana
. Participants' attire included push-up bras, unbuttoned shirts, short dresses, as well as other "racy costumes" and "risqué clothing". They also held signs with slogans such as "Cleavage for Science", "Amnesty", and "God hates Boobs". Purdue's student newspaper
reported that the female participants were outnumbered by male spectators.
Washington, D.C.
's Dupont Circle
was the site of another gathering at noon. The Washington gathering was attended by a dozen women and drew the attention of BBC Persia.
Other notable gatherings were reported in New York City
and Vancouver
. In Vancouver, it was reported that most attendees at the event were hundreds of men using camera phones to take pictures, especially of a small number of women who were topless.
Some people also supported the event by purchasing official "Boobquake 2010" t-shirts through Zazzle.com
. The proceeds from the shirts went to the Red Cross, to benefit earthquake recovery, and to the James Randi Educational Foundation
, to support critical thinking.
, Taiwan
, at a depth of 6.2 miles. Upon hearing of this, McCreight said that it alone was not statistically significant, but that she would continue to monitor seismic activity for the next 24 hours. Other participants mentioned that the earthquake in Taiwan occurred early in the morning, prior to the official start of the experiment.
After April 26 had ended in all time zones, McCreight began to conduct rigorous statistical analysis. McCreight pointed out that dozens of earthquakes occur daily, and that the goal of her analysis was not to see if all seismic activity would cease, but to determine whether the number or severity of earthquakes increased during the experiment. By compiling data from the USGS
website, McCreight determined a 95% confidence interval
of zero to 148 daily earthquakes. During the course of the Boobquake event, only 47 earthquakes were reported. She also calculated that an earthquake of the magnitude of that in Taiwan had a 37% chance of occurring on that day. McCreight also said that the mean magnitude of seismic activity during the "Boobquake" event was actually slightly below average. As a result of this analysis, McCreight concluded that the immodest clothing worn during Boobquake had no significant effect on earthquake frequency or magnitude. Although McCreight admitted that there were some flaws with the experimental procedure, and that she doubted it would have any impact on Seddiqi's opinions, she believed that the event fulfilled its original intentions of being "a humorous exercise in scientific and skeptical thinking".
of the International Committee Against Executions and Stoning
, Maryam Namazie
of Iran Solidarity, and Samira Mohyeddin of Iranian.com
. These activists felt that Boobquake was a significant act in the defense of women's rights and human dignity. They said that many Iranian citizens supported Boobquake in its opposition to Sedighi's views, which they believe to be representative of the Iranian government of the past three decades.
Kazem Sedighi defended his statements in a new sermon on May 14, 2010. When asked why there are not more natural disasters in western nations that do not follow his moral codes, Sedighi answered that God occasionally allows people to continue sinning "so that they (eventually) go to the bottom of Hell." It was not reported whether or not Sedighi specifically mentioned Boobquake during this sermon.
and Golbarg Bashi
, who created a counter-movement known as "Brainquake". Mottahedeh, an Associate Professor of critical theory, cinema and women's studies at Duke University
, and Bashi, an Iranian studies professor at Rutgers
, supported Boobquake's goals of drawing attention to questions about gender and rights, but were skeptical of its methods.
Mottahedeh worried that some participants may not "understand that this is about Iran", a nation in which "women and men are dying for the right to be free, dying for the right to have civil liberties." Mottahedeh also believed that Boobquake was "playing right into the hands of venues such as Playboy
, which I don’t think was at all Jen’s intention." Planned for the same day as Boobquake, Brainquake encouraged women to demonstrate their "abilities to push for change" by showing off their résumé
s, CVs, honors, prizes, and accomplishments. In this way, they hoped to "honor the accomplishments of Iranian women by showing off our abilities, our creativity, our ingenuity, and our smarts on our blog
s, on Wikipedia
, on Twitter
, on YouTube
, on Flickr
and all over Facebook."
, of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
, fully supported the idea of Boobquake, saying, "there is nothing wrong with the beauty of the human body, male or female, nothing wrong with enjoying it, and nothing wrong with displaying it to the world." Blackford encouraged participants to "Strut your stuff, and don’t let anyone make you feel ashamed about so-called 'immodesty'. Feel free to scorn the moralism of Islamic clerics and anyone else who tries to put you down."
In response to feminists' disagreements over Boobquake and Brainquake, some asked, "Why not both?". Melody Moezzi
, for example, writing for the blog of Ms., saw no reason for there to be any conflict between the two events. Moezzi believed that there should be no problem with having multiple means of discrediting "the leaders of the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran", and suggested that women participate in both events.
Jennifer McCreight
Jennifer McCreight , an American skeptic and atheist blogger, is a graduate student at the University of Washington. She is the architect of Boobquake, an experiment designed to test a claim made by Kazem Seddiqi, an Islamic cleric....
, then a senior in the Purdue University
Purdue University
Purdue University, located in West Lafayette, Indiana, U.S., is the flagship university of the six-campus Purdue University system. Purdue was founded on May 6, 1869, as a land-grant university when the Indiana General Assembly, taking advantage of the Morrill Act, accepted a donation of land and...
College of Science
Purdue University College of Science
The Purdue University College of Science is one of eight major academic divisions, or Colleges, of Purdue University. The science courses offered by the College of Science account for about one-fourth of Purdue's one million student credit hours....
, in response to news reports that Hojatoleslam
Hojatoleslam
Hujjat al-Islam is an honorific title meaning "authority on Islam" or "proof of Islam", given to Twelver Shī‘ah clerics...
Kazem Seddiqi
Kazem Seddiqi
Hojjatoleslam Kazem Seddiqi is an interim Friday Prayer Leader for Tehran, Iran. The Friday prayer leader gives the khutbah or sermon shortly after noon on Friday, the traditional time of gathering for the Muslim community...
had blamed women who dress immodestly for causing earthquakes. On April 19, it was reported that Seddiqi advised his listeners that "Many women who do not dress modestly lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes" and Iranians should "adapt their lives to Islam's moral codes" to avoid being "buried under the rubble".
One year prior to this, McCreight had begun keeping a blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
in which she describes herself as an atheist
Atheism
Atheism is, in a broad sense, the rejection of belief in the existence of deities. In a narrower sense, atheism is specifically the position that there are no deities...
and a feminist
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
. On April 19, McCreight encouraged her blog's readers to help her poke fun at Seddiqi by dressing "in your immodest clothing to represent Boobquake", an invitation then extended to the world via Facebook
Facebook
Facebook is a social networking service and website launched in February 2004, operated and privately owned by Facebook, Inc. , Facebook has more than 800 million active users. Users must register before using the site, after which they may create a personal profile, add other users as...
. She asked for participants to avoid "hateful or anti-Muslim or anti-Iranian messages" and described Boobquake as a scientific experiment: "With the power of our scandalous bodies combined, we should surely produce an earthquake. If not, I'm sure Sedighi can come up with a rational explanation for why the ground didn't rumble."
McCreight's idea was popularized by prominent blogs and soon caught the attention of the international media. Following repeated inquiries from the BBC
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation is a British public service broadcaster. Its headquarters is at Broadcasting House in the City of Westminster, London. It is the largest broadcaster in the world, with about 23,000 staff...
and other news agencies, McCreight planned two meetings for participants: one in West Lafayette, Indiana
West Lafayette, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 29,596 people, 12,591 households, and 3,588 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,381.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 74.3% White, 17.3% Asian, 2.7% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.03% Pacific...
, and one in Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
In the week leading up to Boobquake, McCreight received several emails from "thankful skeptics
Skepticism
Skepticism has many definitions, but generally refers to any questioning attitude towards knowledge, facts, or opinions/beliefs stated as facts, or doubt regarding claims that are taken for granted elsewhere...
, feminists
Feminism
Feminism is a collection of movements aimed at defining, establishing, and defending equal political, economic, and social rights and equal opportunities for women. Its concepts overlap with those of women's rights...
, and Iran
Iran
Iran , officially the Islamic Republic of Iran , is a country in Southern and Western Asia. The name "Iran" has been in use natively since the Sassanian era and came into use internationally in 1935, before which the country was known to the Western world as Persia...
ians". The event also drew criticism from people seeing it as objectifying women
Sexual objectification
Sexual objectification refers to the practice of regarding or treating another person merely as an instrument towards one's sexual pleasure, and a sex object is a person who is regarded simply as an object of sexual gratification or who is sexually attractive...
. Soon, what originated as "a humorous exercise in scientific and skeptical thinking" had begun to ignite serious debate regarding the organization of the feminist community.
Event
An estimated total of 200,000 people participated in Boobquake on April 26, 2010. The so-called "epicenterEpicenter
The epicenter or epicentre is the point on the Earth's surface that is directly above the hypocenter or focus, the point where an earthquake or underground explosion originates...
" of Boobquake was a light-hearted two-hour gathering at 1:00 pm at the Purdue Bell Tower
Purdue Bell Tower
The Purdue Bell Tower was constructed in 1995, at Purdue University, through a gift from the class of 1948.- Heavilon Hall Tower :The current Bell Tower's inspiration comes from the bell tower that was part of the old Heavilon Hall, demolished in 1956. Heavilon Hall was dedicated on January 19,...
in West Lafayette
West Lafayette, Indiana
As of the census of 2010, there were 29,596 people, 12,591 households, and 3,588 families residing in the city. The population density was 5,381.1 people per square mile . The racial makeup of the city was 74.3% White, 17.3% Asian, 2.7% African American, 0.16% Native American, 0.03% Pacific...
, Indiana
Indiana
Indiana is a US state, admitted to the United States as the 19th on December 11, 1816. It is located in the Midwestern United States and Great Lakes Region. With 6,483,802 residents, the state is ranked 15th in population and 16th in population density. Indiana is ranked 38th in land area and is...
. Participants' attire included push-up bras, unbuttoned shirts, short dresses, as well as other "racy costumes" and "risqué clothing". They also held signs with slogans such as "Cleavage for Science", "Amnesty", and "God hates Boobs". Purdue's student newspaper
Purdue Exponent
The Purdue Exponent is one of a handful of daily independent student newspapers, with most other college newspapers being owned by the university or operated by the journalism school. The college newspaper serves Purdue University in West Lafayette, Indiana...
reported that the female participants were outnumbered by male spectators.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C.
Washington, D.C., formally the District of Columbia and commonly referred to as Washington, "the District", or simply D.C., is the capital of the United States. On July 16, 1790, the United States Congress approved the creation of a permanent national capital as permitted by the U.S. Constitution....
's Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle
Dupont Circle is a traffic circle, park, neighborhood, and historic district in Northwest Washington, D.C. The traffic circle is located at the intersection of Massachusetts Avenue NW, Connecticut Avenue NW, New Hampshire Avenue NW, P Street NW, and 19th Street NW...
was the site of another gathering at noon. The Washington gathering was attended by a dozen women and drew the attention of BBC Persia.
Other notable gatherings were reported in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
and Vancouver
Vancouver
Vancouver is a coastal seaport city on the mainland of British Columbia, Canada. It is the hub of Greater Vancouver, which, with over 2.3 million residents, is the third most populous metropolitan area in the country,...
. In Vancouver, it was reported that most attendees at the event were hundreds of men using camera phones to take pictures, especially of a small number of women who were topless.
Some people also supported the event by purchasing official "Boobquake 2010" t-shirts through Zazzle.com
Zazzle
Zazzle is an online retailer that allows users to upload images and create their own merchandise , or buy merchandise created by other users, as well as use images from participating companies...
. The proceeds from the shirts went to the Red Cross, to benefit earthquake recovery, and to the James Randi Educational Foundation
James Randi Educational Foundation
The James Randi Educational Foundation is a non-profit organization founded in 1996 by magician and skeptic James Randi. The JREF's mission includes educating the public and the media on the dangers of accepting unproven claims, and to support research into paranormal claims in controlled...
, to support critical thinking.
Evaluation
That morning, at 10:59 am (2:59 am GMT or 10:59 pm on April 25, Indiana time), a 6.5-magnitude earthquake struck 195 miles off the coast of TaitungTaitung City
Taitung City is the county seat of Taitung County, Taiwan. It lies on the southeast coast of Taiwan facing the Pacific Ocean.The city is served by Taitung Airport. Taitung is a gateway to Green Island and Orchid Island, both of which are very popular among Taiwanese tourists.-History:Taitung...
, Taiwan
Taiwan
Taiwan , also known, especially in the past, as Formosa , is the largest island of the same-named island group of East Asia in the western Pacific Ocean and located off the southeastern coast of mainland China. The island forms over 99% of the current territory of the Republic of China following...
, at a depth of 6.2 miles. Upon hearing of this, McCreight said that it alone was not statistically significant, but that she would continue to monitor seismic activity for the next 24 hours. Other participants mentioned that the earthquake in Taiwan occurred early in the morning, prior to the official start of the experiment.
After April 26 had ended in all time zones, McCreight began to conduct rigorous statistical analysis. McCreight pointed out that dozens of earthquakes occur daily, and that the goal of her analysis was not to see if all seismic activity would cease, but to determine whether the number or severity of earthquakes increased during the experiment. By compiling data from the USGS
United States Geological Survey
The United States Geological Survey is a scientific agency of the United States government. The scientists of the USGS study the landscape of the United States, its natural resources, and the natural hazards that threaten it. The organization has four major science disciplines, concerning biology,...
website, McCreight determined a 95% confidence interval
Confidence interval
In statistics, a confidence interval is a particular kind of interval estimate of a population parameter and is used to indicate the reliability of an estimate. It is an observed interval , in principle different from sample to sample, that frequently includes the parameter of interest, if the...
of zero to 148 daily earthquakes. During the course of the Boobquake event, only 47 earthquakes were reported. She also calculated that an earthquake of the magnitude of that in Taiwan had a 37% chance of occurring on that day. McCreight also said that the mean magnitude of seismic activity during the "Boobquake" event was actually slightly below average. As a result of this analysis, McCreight concluded that the immodest clothing worn during Boobquake had no significant effect on earthquake frequency or magnitude. Although McCreight admitted that there were some flaws with the experimental procedure, and that she doubted it would have any impact on Seddiqi's opinions, she believed that the event fulfilled its original intentions of being "a humorous exercise in scientific and skeptical thinking".
Civil rights in Iran
The event drew a favorable response from several notable Iranian political activists, including Mina AhadiMina Ahadi
Mina Ahadi is an Austrian human rights activist. As an Iranian born Communist political activist she is a current member of the Central Committee and Politburo of the Worker-Communist Party of Iran....
of the International Committee Against Executions and Stoning
International Committee against executions
International Committee Against Executions is an organisation that is fighting against Capital Punishment.The current spokesperson and secretary of this Committee is Mina Ahadi, Iranian Communist activist....
, Maryam Namazie
Maryam Namazie
Maryam Namazie is a human rights activist, commentator and broadcaster. Namazie has served as the executive director of the International Federation of Iranian Refugees. She is spokesperson for the One Law for All Campaign against Sharia Law in Britain. The campaign is opposed to faith based laws...
of Iran Solidarity, and Samira Mohyeddin of Iranian.com
Iranian.com
Iranian.com, also known as The Iranian and The Iranian Times, is an online English language magazine.Founded in July 1995 by entrepreneur/journalist Jahanshah Javid, Iranian.com has the largest online following among Iranians residing in North America, with about 68,000 visitors per month-Awards...
. These activists felt that Boobquake was a significant act in the defense of women's rights and human dignity. They said that many Iranian citizens supported Boobquake in its opposition to Sedighi's views, which they believe to be representative of the Iranian government of the past three decades.
Kazem Sedighi defended his statements in a new sermon on May 14, 2010. When asked why there are not more natural disasters in western nations that do not follow his moral codes, Sedighi answered that God occasionally allows people to continue sinning "so that they (eventually) go to the bottom of Hell." It was not reported whether or not Sedighi specifically mentioned Boobquake during this sermon.
Brainquake
A response to Boobquake was launched by Negar MottahedehNegar Mottahedeh
Negar Mottahedeh is a cultural critic and film theorist specializing in interdisciplinary and feminist contributions to the fields of Middle Eastern Studies and Film Studies...
and Golbarg Bashi
Golbarg Bashi
Golbarg Bashi , born in Ahvaz, Iran, is an Iranian-Swedish feminist professor of Iranian Studies at Rutgers University in the US. Among other topics, Bashi has published works and given talks about human rights in the Middle East and the situation of women in Iran.-Biography:Golbarg Bashi was born...
, who created a counter-movement known as "Brainquake". Mottahedeh, an Associate Professor of critical theory, cinema and women's studies at Duke University
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university located in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present day town of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco industrialist James B...
, and Bashi, an Iranian studies professor at Rutgers
Rutgers University
Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey , is the largest institution for higher education in New Jersey, United States. It was originally chartered as Queen's College in 1766. It is the eighth-oldest college in the United States and one of the nine Colonial colleges founded before the American...
, supported Boobquake's goals of drawing attention to questions about gender and rights, but were skeptical of its methods.
Mottahedeh worried that some participants may not "understand that this is about Iran", a nation in which "women and men are dying for the right to be free, dying for the right to have civil liberties." Mottahedeh also believed that Boobquake was "playing right into the hands of venues such as Playboy
Playboy
Playboy is an American men's magazine that features photographs of nude women as well as journalism and fiction. It was founded in Chicago in 1953 by Hugh Hefner and his associates, and funded in part by a $1,000 loan from Hefner's mother. The magazine has grown into Playboy Enterprises, Inc., with...
, which I don’t think was at all Jen’s intention." Planned for the same day as Boobquake, Brainquake encouraged women to demonstrate their "abilities to push for change" by showing off their résumé
Résumé
A résumé is a document used by individuals to present their background and skillsets. Résumés can be used for a variety of reasons but most often to secure new employment. A typical résumé contains a summary of relevant job experience and education...
s, CVs, honors, prizes, and accomplishments. In this way, they hoped to "honor the accomplishments of Iranian women by showing off our abilities, our creativity, our ingenuity, and our smarts on our blog
Blog
A blog is a type of website or part of a website supposed to be updated with new content from time to time. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video. Entries are commonly displayed in...
s, on Wikipedia
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project supported by the non-profit Wikimedia Foundation. Its 20 million articles have been written collaboratively by volunteers around the world. Almost all of its articles can be edited by anyone with access to the site,...
, on Twitter
Twitter
Twitter is an online social networking and microblogging service that enables its users to send and read text-based posts of up to 140 characters, informally known as "tweets".Twitter was created in March 2006 by Jack Dorsey and launched that July...
, on YouTube
YouTube
YouTube is a video-sharing website, created by three former PayPal employees in February 2005, on which users can upload, view and share videos....
, on Flickr
Flickr
Flickr is an image hosting and video hosting website, web services suite, and online community that was created by Ludicorp in 2004 and acquired by Yahoo! in 2005. In addition to being a popular website for users to share and embed personal photographs, the service is widely used by bloggers to...
and all over Facebook."
Other notable responses
Russell BlackfordRussell Blackford
Russell Blackford is an Australian writer, philosopher, and critic, based for many years in Melbourne, Victoria. He was born in Sydney, and grew up in Lake Macquarie district, near Newcastle, NSW. He moved to Melbourne in 1979, but returned to Newcastle to live and work in 2009.-Writing career:As a...
, of the Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies
The Institute for Ethics and Emerging Technologies was founded in 2004 by philosopher Nick Bostrom and bioethicist James Hughes. Incorporated in the United States as a non-profit 501 organization, the IEET is a self-described "technoprogressive think tank" that seeks to contribute to understanding...
, fully supported the idea of Boobquake, saying, "there is nothing wrong with the beauty of the human body, male or female, nothing wrong with enjoying it, and nothing wrong with displaying it to the world." Blackford encouraged participants to "Strut your stuff, and don’t let anyone make you feel ashamed about so-called 'immodesty'. Feel free to scorn the moralism of Islamic clerics and anyone else who tries to put you down."
In response to feminists' disagreements over Boobquake and Brainquake, some asked, "Why not both?". Melody Moezzi
Melody Moezzi
Melody Moezzi is an Iranian-American Muslim writer and attorney. She writes and speaks about religion, public health, politics and culture in Iran. She is the author of War on Error: Real Stories of American Muslims and is the Executive Director of the Atlanta-based interfaith nonprofit 100 People...
, for example, writing for the blog of Ms., saw no reason for there to be any conflict between the two events. Moezzi believed that there should be no problem with having multiple means of discrediting "the leaders of the so-called Islamic Republic of Iran", and suggested that women participate in both events.