Subcultures, Bodies and Spaces by Samantha Holland Karl Spracklen

Author:Samantha Holland,Karl Spracklen
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9781787565135
Publisher: Emerald Publishing
Published: 2018-09-09T16:00:00+00:00

The Day the West found out about Russian Feminism

Feminism in 2017 is no longer a minority phenomenon. ‘Hundreds of thousands [took] part in the Women’s March in Washington DC’ on 21 January 2017 to protest president-elect Donald Trump and his misogyny and sexism, on the day of his inauguration under a feminist banner. Mainstream media, such as USA Today started educating people on feminist concepts, such as intersectionality at this occasion (Dastagir, 2017). The occasions, when feminism becomes visible within the media landscape is predominantly as spectacle: in the form of Lady Gaga’s spectacular drag appearance as Jo Calderone at the MTV Awards 2011 (Rathe, 2011), or Beyoncé’s bombastic visual album Lemonade in 2016. The fact that we encounter mediatised feminism as spectacle is not specific to feminism, it rather speaks to contemporary US-American culture. ‘During the past decades’, media scholar Douglas Kellner (2003) argues,

the culture industries have multiplied media spectacles in novel spaces and sites, and spectacle itself is becoming one of the organising principles of the economy, polity, society, and everyday life. The Internet-based economy deploys spectacle as a means of promotion, reproduction, and the circulation and selling of ­commodities. (p. 1)

Interestingly, one of the most spectacular media events that brought feminism into the homes of contemporary US-Americans was the Russian group Pussy Riot. In spring 2012, reports on the incarceration and persecution of three Pussy Riot members for their attempt to perform their ‘Punk Prayer’ at the famous Christ the Savior Cathedral in Moscow hit US newspapers (Friedman, 2012, A35; Mackey & Kates, 2012; Michaels, 2012) and news channels (Langston, 2012), and popular culture magazines (Tayler, 2012) started featuring every detail about their trial. Soon after, celebrities such as Madonna, Carrie Brownstein, Bryan Adams, Bjork, Moby, the Beastie Boys, Peter Gabriel, Sting, The Red Hot Chili Peppers (Petersen, 2012), Paul McCartney, Mischa Barton, Elijah Wood (Toronto Star Red, 2012) and many others publicly came out in solidarity with the Russian feminists.

The reason ‘why the affair was “picked up” with such vigour by Western media was its perfect fit with the global media market and its use of recognisable “global” feminist imagery’ (Gapova, 2015, 22). Their campaigns and actions made clear that feminism has gained a visible place within American mainstream media. Yet, Pussy Riot’s appeal to the US-American artistic elite and their audience was not sufficiently explained through their particular version of feminist action, and their conformity to the needs of Western markets. Importantly, Pussy Riot’s spectacular media presence within the US coincided with a new political and cultural tide that viewed Russia increasingly as the New Cold War enemy (Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe, 2011; Sakwa, 2008), while simultaneously incorporating tolerance towards homosexuality, and gender equality into the reigns of national values (Puar, 2007, 2013). A significant sign for the inclusion of equality into the concept of national values was not only that President Obama was for pro-gender equality or the inclusion of homosexuals, but that he called for example ‘the Supreme Court decision

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