Identifying herself only as Jen, a sex worker in her 30s, the bare protester said she “felt provoked” in a “very deep feminine place in myself” by the city and federal riot police earlier this month, when she decided to strip off and confront them in naught but her skin.

“I looked at them and they stand there with this stance: Feet planted, shoulder width apart, arms at their side, chest up, head high, and it’s a warrior stance... and it’s not earned,” Jen confided to the ‘Unrefined Sophisticates’ podcast over the weekend.

“There wasn't planning and a lot of thought going into it,” Jen said. She just handed her clothes to her partner, leaving just a beanie and a face mask on, and struck a pose on the street. 

It was day 50 of the ongoing siege by demonstrators outside the federal courthouse in Portland, Oregon. One journalist sympathetic to the demonstrators dubbed her “Naked Athena” and a legend was born.