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Pussy Riot as a feminist project: Russia's gendered informal politics

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 November 2018

Janet Elise Johnson
Janet Elise Johnson*
Affiliation:
Department of Political Science, Brooklyn College, City University of New York, Brooklyn, NY, USA
*
∗Email: Johnson@brooklyn.cuny.edu
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Abstract

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.

Keywords

Russiafeminismprotestcivil societyNGOs
Type
Special Section: Pussy Riot
Information
Nationalities Papers , Volume 42 , Issue 4 , July 2014 , pp. 583 - 590
Copyright
Copyright © 2014 Association for the Study of Nationalities 

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