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Codes of Gender, Sexuality, and Race/Ethnicity in Putin's Russia Darja

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Codes of Gender, Sexuality, and Race/Ethnicity in Putin's Russia Darja BETWEEN HETEROPATRIARCHY AND HOMONATIONALISM: CODES OF GENDER, SEXUALITY, AND RACE/ETHNICITY IN PUTIN’S RUSSIA DARJA DAVYDOVA A DISSERTATION SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF GRADUATE STUDIES IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY GRADUATE PROGRAM IN GENDER, FEMINIST, AND WOMEN’S STUDIES YORK UNIVERSITY TORONTO, ONTARIO AUGUST 2019 © Darja Davydova, 2019 ABSTRACT This dissertation examines two simultaneous and convergent processes. One is the mechanism of heteropatriarchal nationalism in Russia, in which white ethnic Russian heteronormativity is idealized and employed for maintaining symbolic and physical boundaries of the state. Another is the process through which Russia’s heteropatriarchal nationalism interacts, diverges from, or overlaps with homonationalism and homotransnationalism on a global scale. In order to unravel these complex processes four political case studies are presented: Chapter 1 explores how Russian gender and sexuality studies were affected by the Western gaze and the Russian government’s repression on queer and feminist scholars and discusses the resistant practices in academic contexts. Building on this foundation, Chapter 2 employs visual analysis to examine the links between notions of patriotism and representations of gender and sexuality in Russian popular culture. Chapter 3 applies semiotic analysis to examine the use of sexual signs and metaphors in political cartoons in the context of Russia–Ukraine war. Finally, Chapter 4 applies critical discourse analysis to investigate the discursive and representational practices embedded in oppositional media reporting on the persecution of Chechen gay men. These political case studies demonstrate how codes of gender, sexuality, and race/ethnicity are employed to sustain the physical and symbolic national borders in the Russian centre and in two peripheral militarized zones—the Republic of Chechnya and the recently annexed Crimea. This thesis argues that both nationalist sexual politics and resistance to it are saturated by the concomitant processes of racialization/ethnic othering and the ascendancy of white Russianness. Located at the crossroads of Russian studies and transnational sexuality studies, this dissertation expands our understandings of the intersections of nationalism and sexuality, global homonationalisms, and the links between sex, gender, and race/ethnicity in the post-Soviet region. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS Working on this dissertation I understood fully that no one achieves great goals alone. I was lucky to have a powerful team of committee members, colleagues, friends, and family helping me with this project and believing in my ideas and my ability to persevere. I would like to thank my dissertation supervisor, Allyson Mitchell, whose generosity, mentorship, kind guiding, and honest critique of my work-in- progress helped me bring my initial ideas to fruition. I was very fortunate to work with you on this text and am grateful for your insight. I am also thankful to my committee members, David Murray and Jin Haritaworn. Their always fast, efficient, and generous feedback helped me sharpen my focus, crystallize my arguments, and ensure the rigour of my work. I am grateful to Anikó Imre and Daphne Winland, my external examiners, for kindly agreeing to discuss this work during my dissertation defence. My friends, colleagues, and family were fundamental to my ability to finish this project. They were fiercely loyal, loving, and incredibly generous. They helped me live through hard times and provided support, care, advice, and cat photos while I was running this bumpy long-distance race. My biggest thanks go to Naomi de Szegheo-Lang, the kindest heart of all, who read my work multiple times and helped me perfect my writing. My dear friend, I am so honoured to have you in my life. Your mentorship, labour, generosity, and care were the most precious gifts and were central to my ability to succeed. I am also indebted to the rest of my committed writing group: Nael Bhanji, Tamara de Szegheo-Lang, and Julia Sinclair-Palm. Thank you for being my triathlon buddies and sharing your wisdom, your truth, and your jokes with me. Thanks to my other dissertation writing partners, Jenna Danchuk and Weronika Rogula, for always being there when I needed a word of support. I am grateful to Desmond Cole for his loving support, wisdom, and encouragement, and my chosen family, Lina Žigelytė and Davya Brody, for their unconditional love and uncompromised belief in my power. I am endlessly grateful to Lila Knighton for her guidance and her help in achieving my goals. Finally, I would like to thank my mom, Natasha, who supported me no matter what, always patiently and from any distance. I cherish you all so dearly. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................................. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ........................................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................. iv LIST OF FIGURES ...................................................................................................................................... v INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................................ 1 Research Questions and Dissertation Structure ....................................................................................... 4 Theoretical Framework ............................................................................................................................ 7 Methodology .......................................................................................................................................... 16 Positionality ........................................................................................................................................... 18 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 18 CHAPTER 1 Scholarship as Resistance: Gender and Sexuality Studies between Russian Censorship and the Western Gaze ........................................................................................................................................ 20 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 20 From communist utopias of genderlessness to gender studies centres .................................................. 22 Framing gender and sexuality studies as non-Russian disciplines ........................................................ 33 Gender and sexuality studies as forms of resistance .............................................................................. 44 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 59 CHAPTER 2 Patriotic Sexualities: Cultural Representations of Sex and Gender in The Normalization and Contestation of Russian Nationalism .......................................................................................................... 60 Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 60 President Putin’s body: Erotic patriotism and icon of Russian popular culture .................................... 67 Prohibited representations: The limits of patriotic sexualities ............................................................... 81 Sex, body, and satire as resistance to heteropatriarchy in Russian art-activism .................................... 89 Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 99 CHAPTER 3 Othering one of us: Codes of Gender, Sexuality and Race/Ethnicity in Political Cartoons on the Russia-Ukraine conflict ....................................................................................................................... 102 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 102 The figure of khokhol and the metaphor of gender confusion ............................................................. 108 Tropes of family and race/ethnicity in the geopolitics of Ukraine ...................................................... 118 Beyond the trivial: Crude humour as a means of heterosexualization in a conflict zone .................... 123 Conclusion ........................................................................................................................................... 128 CHAPTER 4 Haunting Homonationalism: Russian Oppositional Media Discourses on the Persecution of Chechen Gay Men ..................................................................................................................................... 130 Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 130 Cultural difference as origin of violence: Reporting on lawlessness and
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