Two women, one from Mercer County and one from Ocean County, showed up at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution this morning to protest hunger striking Phoenix Feeley’s incarceration and anti-toplessness laws. They kept their tops on.
Sue Vliet, of Toms River, identified herself as an admin of One Million Vaginas, a feminist organization dedicated to empowering women to take their vagina’s back from invasive conservative politicians, was one of the two protestors. Her sign said, “STOP THE DOUBLE STANDARD. FREE OUR BREASTS.” Vliet said she was protesting the “double standard and draconian laws” that allow men that to bare their chests in public, but not women.
Judith Sherwood of Mercer County read a letter from GoTopless.org in support of Feeley. You can hear that letter by viewing the video below.
Sherwood said she wasn’t raising money to pay Feeley’s $816 fine, which would end the incarceration, as a matter of principle. Sherwood and Vliet both said they were not protesting topless and risking arrest themselves, because their protest was not about going topless.
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Posted: August 10th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Monmouth County, Monmouth County Correctional Institution, U.S. Constitution | Tags: Cynthia Scott, GoTopless.org, Judge George Pappas, Judith Sherwood, One Million Vaginas, Phoenix Feeley, Spring Lake, Susan Vliet | 7 Comments »
Tells Judge He’s Sentencing Her To Death, Says She’s Been Naked For Four Days
photo via PhoenixFeeley.com
Fire breathing topless activist Phoenix Feeley told Spring Lake Municipal Court Judge George Pappas that he was sentencing her to death by giving her the option of serving 16 days in the Monmouth County Correctional Institution or paying a $816.oo fine for going topless in Spring Lake in 2008, according to a report on NJ.com. Pappas gave Feeley credit for the four days she’s been incarcerated since she surrendered in Spring Lake on Monday.
“I refuse to pay a fine for an act that is legal for a man but is illegal for a woman,” 33-year-old artist Phoenix Feeley told Spring Lake Municipal Court Judge George Pappas via teleconference from the Monmouth County Correctional Institution in Freehold Township on Thursday morning.
Feeley was arrested twice in the same day in 2008 while sunbathing in Spring Lake.
Authorities charged her with violating an ordinance banning public nudity. Feeley argued that going topless was not the same as going nude, and that women, like men, should be able to bare their chests in public.
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Posted: August 8th, 2013 | Author: Art Gallagher | Filed under: Crime, Crime and Punishment, Monmouth County Sheriff's Office | Tags: Jill Coccaro, Judge George Pappas, Monmouth County Correctional Institution, Phoenix Feeley, Spring Lake, Topless, topless bathing, Toplessness | 2 Comments »
Two women, one from Mercer County and one from Ocean County, showed up at the Monmouth County Correctional Institution this morning to protest hunger striking Phoenix Feeley’s incarceration and anti-toplessness laws. They kept their tops on.
Judith Sherwood of Mercer County read a letter from GoTopless.org in support of Feeley. You can hear that letter by viewing the video below.