by Romola Garai
For me, the case of Pussy Riot has been a great political awakening for two important reasons. First, they are young idealists. They identify themselves as being part of a younger generation who are not represented by Russia’s new autocracy. They speak in a language of political protest that my generation has all but abandoned. The language of freedom-fighting was so co-opted by the baby boomers in order to express their now hopelessly compromised ideologies that no other generation could emulate it without a smirk. This has created an apathetic generation in the west, with young people no longer distinguishing between the old order and the new. To see a protest movement with its young members employing this language suggests a hopefulness and rage that I feel is intensely important for others of their generation to see, and that I personally have found deeply inspiring.
Second, they embody a real feminist anger and uncompromisingly scornful attitude to the patriarchal values that women have been taught to accept as the status quo. They reject the pantomime of equality in which we are expected to perform. Women in the public eye who can genuinely be called nonconformist are vital for expanding the horizons of other women. It was figures such as the musicians Kim Gordon and PJ Harvey who taught me, when I was 14, what a truly independent spirit looked like. When I see what my daughter will be told a “strong woman” looks like, I see women in their underwear sucking in their tummies with a look of terror on their faces. This isn’t what I want for her and I celebrate the obvious, unadulterated “fuck you” that lies behind Pussy Riot’s eyes.
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