Women use their bodies in get-out-the-vote campaign

In Vermont, as elsewhere, women have had a difficult time getting their voices heard. So now they’re using their bodies.

Last weekend, 10 women gathered at the Railyard Apothecary in Burlington, each representing various backgrounds and views.

They stripped, held ballots in strategic positions, and let a photographer snap their images in an attempt to convince people to vote on Tuesday.

“I don’t often have a voice lately and to use my body as my voice, I think, is a very powerful thing,” Gina Carrera tells Vermont’s Seven Days. She’s a disability advocate. “If we don’t vote and use our votes to make changes, then I don’t think anything is going to change in the near future.”

“We’re all just humans — a pregnant woman, a black woman, older women, thirty-somethings, chubby women, skinny women, a transgender woman,” said Susan Lipkin, 65. She was abducted by a stranger and raped at knifepoint years ago. Sunday’s photo shoot was the first time she described her trauma to a group of strangers. “Why should we humans, because we’re women, be treated any differently than a man?”

“Being around women who were also making themselves vulnerable by being naked was some degree of comfort,” said Lipkin.

Not surprisingly, the campaign’s Facebook page was inundated with hate messages.