{"id":12314,"date":"2012-09-19T10:01:32","date_gmt":"2012-09-19T09:01:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/?p=12314"},"modified":"2012-09-19T10:01:32","modified_gmt":"2012-09-19T09:01:32","slug":"pussy-riot-revisited","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/badreputation.org.uk\/2012\/09\/19\/pussy-riot-revisited\/","title":{"rendered":"Pussy
Riot revisited"},"content":{"rendered":"
<p>
  Since we first wrote on Pussy Riot <a
  href=\"http:\/\/www.badreputation.org.uk\/2012\/02\/06\/revolting-women-slight-return-russias-pussy-riot\/\">back
  in February<\/a>, widespread attention has been given to the subsequent
  arrest, trial and imprisonment of three members of the group, while <a
  href=\"http:\/\/www.reuters.com\/article\/2012\/09\/15\/us-russia-protest-idUSBRE88E06R20120915\">mass
  anti-government protest continues in Russia<\/a>. From the past few months of
  coverage and debate, here are just a few things which have interested me on
  the complexities of Pussy Riot\u2019s background and media
  presentation.<\/p>\n
</p>
<p>
  This (mildly NSFW) video is \u043a\u0438\u0441\u044c\u044f
  \u0435\u0440\u0435\u0441\u044c (Heresy of Little Cats), by the Russian
  electro-punk band Barto:<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><iframe
  src=\"http:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/oyMMqUzRa1A?rel=0\" frameborder=\"0\"
  width=\"420\" height=\"315\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n
</p>
<p>
  As a non-speaker of Russian who hasn\u2019t found the lyrics anywhere,
  I&#8217;m sure there&#8217;s a lot I\u2019m not getting, but I like the song,
  the band are <a
  href=\"http:\/\/www.themoscowtimes.com\/arts_n_ideas\/article\/electro-punk-barto-is-a-band-with-an-ideology\/425794.html\">pretty
  admirable<\/a>, and I like the video\u2019s satirical emphasis on the
  patriarchal intertwining of political and religious authorities \u2013 the
  formal alliance of Putin\u2019s government and the Russian Orthodox Church,
  making it possible for civil disobedience to be framed as blasphemy, was a
  point of contention highlighted by the Pussy Riot trial.<\/p>\n
</p>
<p>
  I found the song via <a
  href=\"http:\/\/myplacefp7.wordpress.com\/2012\/08\/17\/get-on-the-way-pussy-riot\/\">this
  post<\/a>, which discusses the relatively muted response by the Russian
  underground music scene to the group\u2019s trial and imprisonment. It also
  corrects the impression of Pussy Riot as (merely?) a feminist punk band, when
  they are more a product of the intersection between political activism and
  performance art:<\/p>\n
</p>
<blockquote>
  <p>
    As a matter of fact Pussy Riot, although calling themselves a punk-band and
    using the sign of punk in their performances, never belonged to the Russian
    punk scene. They consider themselves as art-actionists, clearly place
    themselves in the context of contemporary Russian actionism, quoting the
    names of Prigov, Brener, Kulik and other art-provocateurs of the
    1990s.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
  </p>
  <p>
    So Pussy Riot\u2019s frequently mentioned connection with riot grrrl has
    more to do with the latter\u2019s existence as a DIY subculture involving
    zines, art, d\u00e9tournement and activism, than with music alone. Which is
    fair enough; back in the 90s, one of the odder of Courtney Love\u2019s
    swipes at Kathleen Hanna, in fact, was that \u201cShe&#8217;s not really in
    a band&#8230; She&#8217;s a political activist who took a bunch of
    women&#8217;s studies classes.&#8221; On the subject of Pussy Riot, Hanna
    herself had <a title=\"Kathleen Hanna\"
    href=\"http:\/\/www.kathleenhanna.com\/seriously-they-are-in-a-fucking-cage\/\"
    target=\"_blank\">this<\/a> to say:<\/p>\n
  </p>
  <blockquote>
    <p>
      What if people all over the world started their own performance groups,
      bands, art collectives, etc\u2026 and called them things like Pussy Riot
      Olympia. Pussy Riot, Athens Greece, Pussy Riot Paris, etc\u2026.And maybe
      if this trial turns out as the prosecutors want it to, with the women
      getting at least 3 years, we all play benefits and go to Russia en masse
      under the banner that we are all Pussy Riot, Yoko Ono could be in Pussy
      Riot, Patti Smith could be wearing a mask next to a troupe of girls from
      Tennesee storming the Cathedral of Christ the Savior screaming \u201cWe
      are all Pussy Riot!!!\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
    </p>
    <p>
      As I wrote in February, it makes sense to consider Pussy Riot in the
      context of the former Soviet Union\u2019s <a
      href=\"http:\/\/www.bbc.co.uk\/blogs\/adamcurtis\/2012\/01\/the_years_of_stagnation_and_th.html\">long
      and fascinating history<\/a> of political protest coalescing around<em>
        avant garde<\/em> art and music, especially punk. The Western media,
        perhaps understandably, tended instead to present the band in more
        straightforward and simplistic terms \u2013 rendering them more
        comprehensible to a Western audience, sure, but often in a less than
        helpful manner. I\u2019d been hoping someone would pick up on the
        patronising and infantilising aspects of much of the media presentation
        of Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alyokhina and Yekaterina Samutsevich,
        and, in <a
        href=\"http:\/\/www.theatlantic.com\/international\/archive\/2012\/08\/manic-pixie-dream-dissidents-how-the-world-misunderstands-pussy-riot\/261309\/\">this
        article<\/a>, Sarah Kendzior nails it:<\/p>\n
        <blockquote>
          <p>
            Imagine this: The three men sit in court, awaiting their verdict.
            The youngest, a experienced dissident described by the media as a
            \u201csultry sex symbol\u201d with \u201cAngelina Jolie lips\u201d,
            glances at his colleague, an activist praised by the Associated
            Press for his \u201cpre-Raphaelite looks\u201d. Between them sits a
            third man, whose lack of glamour has led the New Republic to label
            him \u201cthe brain\u201d and deem his hair a \u201cpoof of dirty
            blonde frizz\u201d. The dissidents \u2013 or \u201cboys\u201d as
            they are called in headlines around the world \u2013 have been the
            subject of numerous fashion and style profiles ever since they first
            spoke out against the Russian government. \u201cHe\u2019s a flash of
            moving color,\u201d the New York Times writes approvingly about
            their protests, \u201cnever an individual boy.\u201d If this sounds
            ridiculous, it should \u2013 and not only because I changed the
            gender\u2026 Pussy Riot identifies as feminist, but you would never
            know it from the Western media, who celebrate the group with the
            same language that the Russian regime uses to marginalize them. The
            three members of Pussy Riot are \u201cgirls\u201d, despite the fact
            that all of them are in their twenties and two of them are mothers.
            They are \u201cpunkettes\u201d, diminutive variations on a 1990s
            indie-rock prototype that has little resemblance to Pussy
            Riot\u2019s own trajectory as independent artists and
            activists.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
          </p>
          <p>
            Of course, as Kendzior also points out, Pussy Riot have far more
            pressing concerns than being mischaracterized in the press.
            But:<\/p>\n
          </p>
          <blockquote>
            <p>
              Pussy Riot also tells us a lot about how we see non-Western
              political dissent in the new media age, and could suggest a habit
              of mischaracterizing their grave mission in terms that feel more
              familiar but ultimately sell the dissidents short: youthful
              rebellion, rock and roll, damsels in
              distress.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
            </p>
            <p>
              A lot of this sentiment is familiar: an impulse to treat protest
              in which women, particularly young women, are prominent, as fun,
              flippant, and fundamentally unserious. It\u2019s the reverse of
              the censorious and sensationalist \u2018Rage of the Girl
              Rioters\u2019 response to the 2010 UK student protests. In the
              case of Pussy Riot, arguments for their sympathetic treatment are
              often explicitly predicated on the power imbalance involved \u2013
              they are \u2018just\u2019 ordinary women (or indeed
              \u2018girls\u2019), what threat to the state can they possibly
              pose? \u2013 which surely entrenches the idea of women as both
              relatively powerless and harmless, rather than enabling any sort
              of feminist empowerment. Away from such frustrating portayals,
              however, there\u2019s something to be said for the earlier stages
              of Pussy Riot\u2019s trajectory, which offer examples both of how
              music can form part of a wider oppositional movement and for how
              women\u2019s protest can be collective and anonymous, with no need
              of iconic or martyred figureheads.<\/p>\n
            </p>
            <p>
              And yes, I do realise this post can be summarised as: &#8220;Pussy
              Riot? Preferred their earlier work, before they got so
              commercial&#8221;. So it goes.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy
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                                  <p>
                                    From the past few months of coverage and
                                    debate, here are just a few things which
                                    have interested me on the complexities of
                                    Pussy Riot\u2019s background and media
                                    presentation.<\/p>\n<div class=\"sharedaddy
                                    sd-sharing-enabled\"><div
                                    class=\"robots-nocontent sd-block sd-social
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