(AFP/Getty Images)
Maybe the world really is hanging on by a bra strap.
The same day that women showed off their cleavage to disprove an Islamic cleric’s claim that such displays cause seismic activity, there was, in fact, a 6.5-magnitude earthquake in Taiwan.
“Maybe I shouldn’t wear a low-cut shirt ever again,” said Annie Marter, 33, in Manhattan. “I feel really bad.”
Though the Taiwan quake resulted in no injuries and minimal damage, Iranian cleric Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi may feel vindicated by the result.
“Many women who do not dress modestly . . . lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” he said last week.
Jennifer McCreight, a graduate student in Indiana, then came up with the idea of a national day, dubbed Boobquake, to protest the remark.
She said yesterday she’s not convinced that all of the extra partially exposed breasts were to blame for the shakeup on the other side of the globe.
Still, “if we get many of a similar magnitude in the next 24 hours, then we might start worshipping the power of immodesty,” she quipped. “But I have a feeling that we’re not going to support the cleric’s hypothesis.”
Geophysicist Don Blakeman of the National Earthquake Information Center said the results of the Boobquake experiment are inconclusive at best.
“I can’t say for certain that women showing cleavage doesn’t cause earthquakes, but the activity we’ve seen [in Taiwan] is nothing out of the ordinary,” he said. “The cleric could look at the 6.5 and say, ‘Look, it did happen’ — but it’s nothing conclusive.”
In fact, there were more quakes worldwide with greater than a 5.0 magnitude Saturday and Sunday than yesterday.
Earthquakes have always caused superstitions, Blakeman said.
“There’s always something you can imagine a correlation [with],” he said. “Some people in Southern California believe there is earthquake weather — they think when it gets hot, there are more earthquakes — but that is not the case.”
Though there were no organized Boobquake events in the city yesterday, New York women said they supported the protest against the cleric’s statements.
“It’s a way of oppressing women and blaming them for the world’s problems, when really it’s just plate tectonics,” said Lisa Goins, 24, an NYU graduate student.
Others said they didn’t need an official holiday to try to shake things up.
“I guess pretty much every day you can catch me wearing something pretty revealing,” said Daniele Ciandella, 20, another NYU student.
Additional reporting by Lachlan Cartwright