Lemondrop

Do women cause earthquakes? Do our scantily clad bodies short-circuit not just men, but nature itself?

That was the mind-blowing hypothesis of one Iranian religious cleric last week, who said the immoral women of Iran were responsible for nothing short of Earth's natural disasters.

"When promiscuity spreads, earthquakes increase," said Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi at a Friday night prayer a week ago. "There is no way other than taking refuge in religion and adapting ourselves to Islamic behavior."

Halfway around the world, Purdue student Jen McCreight, a self-described "liberal, geeky, nerdy, scientific, perverted atheist feminist trapped in Indiana" wasn't taking that declaration lying down -- or buttoned up.

She jumped on Facebook, made a joke about wearing your lowest-cut shirt to fight anti-women fundamentalists, and, at last count, she had a thunderous 107,448 Facebook fans ready to bare their cleavage today -- now dubbed the newly minted holiday of Boobquake.

So far Jen's been interviewed by CNN, filmed by the Persian BBC, and the Twitter hashtag #boobquake has been rippling out like an aftershock. But then there was a backlash, and suddenly she herself was coming under fire for being anti-female.

Wrote Beth Mann, one less-than-thrilled feminist in a post that first appeared on her blog, then was quickly picked up by Salon, McCreight's Internet meme was nothing short of the "cuteification" of feminism -- a protest gone the way of "Girls Gone Wild."

"Women on parade again ... sigh," she writes. "Since when did we 'stick it to the man' by wearing low-cut shirts or short shorts? When women burned bras back in the day, there was a statement there, full of boldness and righteous anger. This type of happening feels like feminism lite, 'cute' feminism or 'male friendly' feminism."

Then, between interviews, McCreight -- baffled by the backlash -- took to her blog to respond:

"I don't think the event is completely contrary to feminist ideals. I'm asking women to wear their most 'immodest' outfit that they already would wear, but to coordinate it all on the same day for the sake of the experiment. Heck, just showing an ankle would be considered immodest by some people. I don't want to force people out of their comfort zones, because I believe women have the right to choose how they want to dress. Please don't pressure women to participate if they don't want to. If men ogle, that's the fault of the men, not me for dressing how I like. If I want to a show a little cleavage or joke about my boobs, that's my prerogative."

Seriously, people: How is standing up for women's rights undermined by purposely showing a little skin? Isn't doing it -- en masse, just because we can -- kind of the point?

This protest isn't about titillating men, any more than it is about causing tsunamis. There is genuine fury behind it: We're mobilizing in response to a ridiculous assertion by a man who believes females can't flash an elbow without deserving to be imprisoned.

Here, we're free to wear a burqa over our bikinis, should we so please, and prying eyes will never convince us to do otherwise. So why are so-called feminists suddenly getting squeamish about cleavage?

Besides, Boobquake is hardly a mandatory event. If you want to flash the girls, fine. If you want to show your support wearing a turtleneck, do so. If you want to let this day go by like any other, you're also free to do that. But don't attack a creative show of outrage in the name of feminism. Or the mullahs do win.

What do you think: Is Boobquake a progressive form of protest -- or an insult to feminism?