Pussy Riot and the Western Gaze: Punk Music, Solidarity and the Production of Similarity and Difference

Abstract

The article investigates the relationship between the Russian performance and media art group Pussy Riot and the US-based Riot Grrrl movement. It analyzes the references made between the contemporary Russian group and the US past made in newspaper as well as through solidarity activities by activists, musicians, journalists, politicians, and academic analysts. It argues that the characterization of Pussy Riot as feminist punks or Riot Grrrls within public discourses is an oversimplification of their very complex performances and references to other protest movements and forms. Moreover, it produced incomplete assumptions about the group’s politics. The text analyzes examples of US-based solidarity statements and actions in popular culture, discussing problems of cultural incorporation. It argues that through processes of incorporation and misinterpretation, public discourses produced a notion of Russia as outright “backward” and “authoritarian,” and most importantly oppositional to the western world and its values. Following scholars such as Hanna Hacker, Joanna Mizielińska, Robert Kulpa, and Agata Stasinska, the article tries to decentralize the Western perspective on Pussy Riot. It offers an alternative and nuanced reading of their references to the historic Riot Grrrl movement, including accounts by some of their members published in Russian media.

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