Medea Benjamin is the leader of the women's peace and justice group Code Pink. This week, the group dressed up as a female sex organs and paraded themselves down the street. Why would they do this? Because Code Pink believes this is a way to gain respect for women. During a screening of Occupy Unmasked at the 2012 Republican National Convention in Tampa Thursday afternoon, Benjamin is seen organizing Occupy Protestors in the film, Code Pink members showed up in "I Love the 99%" t-shirts.
Many may think Code Pink doesn’t matter, but this is why they do. Code Pink claims to be an organization for women, but really, that’s a front to distract away from the group’s main goal which is to take down the capitalistic system in the United States. Code Pink is a socialist movement and an organization that often promotes anarchy.
I caught up with Benjamin’s assistant Alli McCrack at the screening and asked her whether dressing up as a female sex organ is really a good way to gain respect for women. She said yes.
“We’re not trying to take ourselves too seriously, we’re trying to have fun and be creative,” she said.
I also asked her whether dressing up like a female body part helps to erase the 40 year feminist fight to get men to see women not for their body parts, but as equals.
“I think that the GOP’s view of women is bringing us back 40 years,” she said.
McCrack said Code Pink doesn’t believe women should be censored by men, so I also asked her why Code Pink found it appropriate to interrupt Vice Presidential Candidate Paul Ryan during his speech last night. She said they weren’t censoring him and that they were exercising their First Amendment Rights, to which I replied, “By trampling on someone else’s free speech rights.”
Editors note: Benjamin's assistant was previously identified as Ellie. Her name has been corrected and is Alli McCrack.