Queer in Russia: A Story of Sex, Self and the Other by Laurie s> Essig (review)

Abstract

REVIEWS 389 the funding for building restrictiveborder regimes appearsto come from the EU or from individual EU states particularly Scandinavian countries and Germany. There are a number of factors about the book that deserve some deeper scrutiny. It is restricted to the analysis of state and intergovernmental behaviour in norm setting. There is a danger in missing out some important factors often overlooked especially within political science and legal studies. Forexample, at severalpoints in the book the authorrestrictsherselfto citing the UNHCR and NGOs (Amnesty International and the Danish Refugee Council are sometimes mentioned) as carrying a generally humanitarian refugee protection-oriented perspective. It would have been useful, and less naive, to point out the extent to which the UNHCR's policy on migrationto Western countries has shifted to a direction of containment and away from protection it is after all largely funded by Western states. Similarlymost influentialNGOs aswellastheUNHCR restrictthemselvesto legally-oriented analysesthat have alreadyinternalizeda procedurally-orientedconception of justice and effectivelyconstitute a separatelayer of government over refugee populations, together with various state apparatusesset up in recent years to administer their lives. Further, there is an insufficient effort to take into account underlying factors such as the institution of racially motivated immigrationcontrolsthat account for not only a restrictiveapproachto nonEuropean refugee migrations but, in the reviewer'sview, the very creation of asylumdeterminationsystemssince the early i 980s. A crucialquestion in this respect would be to what extent are similar motivations exportable to the CEECs? On the other hand, the book does provide a very timely, detailed, though readable, and extremely well-edited survey of developments in the internationalrefugee regime, the EU's turn to a restrictiveasylumpolicy and especiallythe impact on the CEECs. Department ofLaw PRAKASHSHAH School ofOriental andAfrican Studies University ofLondon Essig, Laurie. Queer inRussia.A Stogy ofSex,SerfandtheOther. Duke University Press,Durham, NC and London, I999. XX+ 244 pp. Notes. Illustrations. Bibliography.Index. ?34.00; ?I 1.95. GAYis emphatically notthe word in this analysisof sexual othernessin postperestroika Russia. Instead, Laurie Essig insists on the word 'queer'. This reflectsfar more than a preference for 'queer' among radical activistsin the I990s; it is used by Essig as a specificterm that encompasseswider and more fluidsectionsof Russiansociety, those to whom 'gay'failsto dojustice. Indeed, much of Essig'smain argumentis thatgay identity -with itsquest for representation and legitimacy -is a Western construct that cannot be imposed on 'a society that does not value difference'(p. x). In Russia, the love that dare not speak its name does not necessarilywant a name. The author goes on to draw parallels between worthy attempts to import gay rights to 390 SEER, 79, 2, 2001 Russia and effortsto import a marketeconomy and multi-partydemocracywell -intentionedbut misguidedexamplesof 'culturalimperialism'(p. I 26). Using field research, sociological theory and reference to numerous books and articles,Essigdissectshow the seeds of Russianqueeridentitytookroot in its very marginalization. Homosexual men were regarded as criminals andl treated as the lowest order in prison; lesbians were considered to need psychiatrictreatment.As a result,the only public manifestationof queerdom was under 'the Law' and 'the Cure' the establishmentresponsesto sexual otherness.She examines a gradualshiftfrombeing 'objects'of criminalityancl diseaseto being self-identifying'subjects'. However, insteadof queerbehaviourcrystallizinginto what Westernerssee as an accepted, fixed identity, Essig demonstrates that for queer Russians practices and desires are just that: practices and desires. At pains to avoicd labels, the term she favours is 'subjectivities' (p. 83) behavioural subculturesthathave not claimed a recognized space in society. The theoryispainstakinglyargued.The authorsupportsher argumentwith hands-on experience and a logical, point-by-pointrebuttalof contentions she wvishes to discredit.At times, however, the swings from hands-on researchto academic theory makesthe formerlook anecdotal. Conversely,the academic theory can occasionally sound baffling notably in the section on the transgression of boundaries between genders and sexualities, where Essig laboriouslychallengesthe idea of binaryopposites. An evident lack of objective Russian sourcesin partjustifiesher sometimes anecdotal approach. The author, herself an American lesbian, recounts her own conversations with Russian activists and her experiences during her years of living in MIoscow. At worst, this can appear self-indulgent; at best, the author anchors her subject firmly in the reality of people's lives. Essig's book is an informative account of the birth of Russian queer groups, newspapers and...