Hypermasculinity as a Scenario of Power

Abstract

The image of Russian President Vladimir Putin riding bare-chested in Siberia has attained mythic status among journalists and the public, both Russian and non-Russian. The current article analyzes the Russian leader's instrumental deployment of hypermasculinity as a strategy for creating not just legitimacy, but also power. Putin's public scripts and behaviors have, in different ways at different times, been overwhelmingly derived and embellished from a masculine menu that would be impermissible for Russian women. They also frequently demonstrate, in words and gestures, his active and absolute dominance over his interlocutors in ways that would be unacceptable for other, subordinated men. The creation of Putin's image, his scenario of power, thus becomes a “hegemonic project,” in the sense developed by Meghana Nayak and Jennifer Suchland, one that is deeply imbued with implied gender dominance and at times even gender violence. Ultimately, this work shows that studies of hypermasculinity and militarized masculinity cannot be limited to war settings, but rather must be extended to questions of political leadership and especially to ways that politics itself is undermined by leaders’ and their handlers’ excessive reliance on masculinity as a substitute for genuine political dialogue.