Paradoxical Sexual and Gender Politics: Projects and Narratives of Russia’s Far Right

Abstract

While neoliberalism in Russia has, over the last two decades, appeared to de-centre the state as the sole source of social, political and economic norms, the state has managed to not only maintain but also strengthen its control. Nowhere is this paradoxical dynamic more easily examined than through treatments of gender and sexuality by the state and its far-right collaborators. This chapter will examine those treatments via their own internal paradoxes, thereby exposing diverse tactics of control. In particular, this analysis will engage with the far right’s rhetoric of crisis and its uses in the establishment of nationalism, neotraditionalism, and neoliberalism, as well as with paradoxical projects and narratives advanced by the state, the church and private partners that encourage insular traditional family units, establish neotraditionalist social and sexual norms, and advance heteronormative policies and practices. Ultimately, the aim of this chapter is to develop a theoretical framework through which it is clear that these efforts are meant to strengthen the political power of the far right and their interests by disciplining, dividing and therefore weakening multiple populations, both literally and figuratively.KeywordsAbortion“Anti-genderism”“Gay propaganda” banNeotraditionalismRussia