Becoming Visible in The Digital Age

Abstract

The Pussy Riot affair has been represented in Western media as a feminist plight for rights. This study demonstrates that this interpretation disregards the social context of the case and the negative reactions of the Russian public. I argue that the rejection of Pussy Riot by a large segment of post-Soviet society is related to two factors. First, the group's members practice media activism and belong with new social movements of the post-industrial era. They challenge cultural codes and messages, and rely on the language and concepts that target Western, rather than post-Soviet, audiences. Second, the group exemplifies the new social divisions and boundaries that arise in post-socialist society during the information age. They are perceived by many Russians as cosmopolitan elites produced by global capitalism, and thus we need to seriously factor in issues of class along with gender in order to explain the negative reactions towards them.