As a Government/IR major, I have been thinking about how our discussions on Russia can be situated within conversations of nation-building and policymaking as it pertains to the collapse of the Soviet Union and the creation of the Russian Federation. In a lecture by Professor Hilary Appel, I also remember her discussing how Russia utilizes the media to portray Putin as hypermasculine and (thus) extremely successful. Super interesting to think about how authoritarian regimes use notions of masculinity to reinforce power and oppression!
Here's another video on the rise of Putin.
Some questions to consider:
Are lesbian women similarly persecuted? If not, it is because they do not threaten the masculine image of Russia that is so quintessential to maintaining its authoritarianism? Furthermore, Chechnya has been in opposition with Moscow because of its desire to declare independence. Does its current persecution of gay men actually align itself with Russia more than it should if it wants to declare independence? What are the political implications of that?
This is such a difficult situation, and I'm surprised that this isn't getting more attention. This reminds me of our conversation on imperialism and American foreign policy that uses LGBT+ rights as a pretext to go into foreign countries. But do we not have a moral obligation to stop this? It's a very helpless feeling to not know what to do about this.
ReplyDelete