Journal
NATIONALITIES PAPERS-THE JOURNAL OF NATIONALISM AND ETHNICITY
Volume 42, Issue 4, Pages 583-590Publisher
ROUTLEDGE JOURNALS, TAYLOR & FRANCIS LTD
DOI: 10.1080/00905992.2014.916667
Keywords
Russia; feminism; protest; civil society; NGOs
Categories
Funding
- Professional Staff Congress [65055-00 43]
- City University of New York [65055-00 43]
- Academy of Finlandfunded Finnish Centre of Excellence in Russian Studies-Choices of Russian Modernisation
Ask authors/readers for more resources
This article considers Pussy Riot as a feminist project, placing their actions and the regime's reactions in the context of three post-9/11 developments in gender and sexuality politics in Russia. First, I assert that Pussy Riot's stunts are a logical reaction to the Kremlin's masculinity-based nation-rebuilding scheme, which was a cover for crude homophobic misogyny. Second, Pussy Riot is part of the informal feminism emerging in Russia, a response to nongovernmental organization (NGO) feminism and the regime's repression of NGO feminism, albeit likely to be outflanked by regime-supported thuggery. Third, the members of Pussy Riot were so harshly prosecuted because they - swearing, covered up and disloyal - violated the political cleaner role that the Kremlin has given women in the last few years. Feminist social scientists have long looked for politics outside of formal institutions and processes. The Pussy Riot affair makes clear how much gender is central to the informal politics that gender-blind observers of Russia have come to see as crucial to understanding Russia's regime.
Authors
I am an author on this paper
Click your name to claim this paper and add it to your profile.
Reviews
Recommended
No Data Available