A psychosocial analysis of reactions to Pussy Riot: Velvet Revolution or Frenzied Uteri

Abstract

Russian reactions to Pussy Riot’s performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour in 2012 indicated that a collective nerve had been hit. This article seeks to explain the surge of public outrage following Pussy Riot’s ‘punk prayer’ through a psychosocial analysis of Russian media debates surrounding the case. By focusing on the negative responses, the following discussion investigates what such a ‘resistance to resistance’ might signify, and how it can point to latent forms of identification. It examines the public’s fixation with the group’s name, as well as the prevalence of fantasmatic enactments of violence in media discussions. Results suggest that in their rejection of the group’s performance, participants in the debate found ways of both shifting the threat Pussy Riot represents, and of once again ‘enjoying the nation’.