Gender, Sexuality, and Intimacy in a Women’s Penal Colony in Russia

Elena Omelchenko

doi:10.17323/1728-192x-2016-4-76-95

Abstract

This article explores sexuality and intimacy in a women’s penal colony in Russia. Russian researchers rarely focus on the Russian prison system as a whole, or on women’s experiences in colonies, female identities, and punishment practices in particular. These topics therefore remain marginalized, out of the spotlight of critical public debate and sociological research. The present article contributes to the current debate on the meaning and consequences of close relations in women’s colonies, varying in context from friendship and love to exploitation under the tough control of the gender regime from both the prison administration and the informal system of power typical of a prison hierarchy. The female body becomes an additional mechanism of supporting the repressive nature of a penal colony, strengthening patriarchal traditions, and maintaining a high level of homophobia in Russian society as a whole. Based on the analysis of 33 in-depth interviews including biographical elements with women between 18 and 55 years old convicted for various crimes, I argue that the gender regime in correctional facilities for women becomes an additional mechanism aimed at strengthening discipline, control, and the patriarchy in a patriarchal society. Whilst the regime is not prescribed by law, it becomes the law because of the extreme objectification of women, the female body, and the status of the female.

Highlights

The prison experience of isolation, correction, and excessively-regulated bodily discipline adjusts and deforms the modes of intimacy, and makes their analysis complicated
This article focuses on the analysis of gender hierarchies and sexual practices that emerge in Russian penal colonies, in the context of isolation and punishment
It argues that the gender regime in correctional facilities for women becomes an additional mechanism aimed at strengthening discipline, control, and the patriarchy in a patriarchal society

Summary

Introduction

The prison experience of isolation, correction, and excessively-regulated bodily discipline adjusts and deforms the modes of intimacy (physiological, psychological, and sociocultural), and makes their analysis complicated. This article focuses on the analysis of gender hierarchies and sexual practices that emerge in Russian penal colonies, in the context of isolation and punishment It argues that the gender regime in correctional facilities for women becomes an additional mechanism aimed at strengthening discipline, control, and the patriarchy in a patriarchal society. The analysis of the current academic agenda gives us an opportunity of critical involvement in the theoretical debate on the nature of prison intimacy Most of such studies focus on finding violence and aggression, (both covert and direct), which results in the dominating opinion that close relationships between female inmates mostly take the form of sexual exploitation. There is a growing conservatism in Russian society accompanied by the increasing influence of the Orthodox Church in regard to the formation of new paradigms of bringing up children and the education of youth, silencing issues of sexuality (Omelchenko, 1999, 2000, 2015; Stella 2010)

Methodology and Empirical Data

Discussion and Conclusion