Pussy Riot and Rosi Braidotti

“We realized that this country needs a militant, punk-feminist, street band that will rip through Moscow’s streets and squares, mobilize public energy against the evil crooks of the Putinist junta and enrich the Russian cultural and political opposition.”—Serafima, Pussy Riot

Pussy Riot can now be counted among the many who have been influenced by Rosi Braidotti’s work Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in Contemporary Feminist Theory. In a recent interview in Vice shortly before their arrest, the punk rock collective were asked who were their feminist influences and Serafima, one of the members answered:

In feminist theory that would be De Beauvoir with the Second Sex, Dvorkin, Pankhurst with her brave suffragist actions, Firestone and her crazy reproduction theories, Millett, Braidotti’s nomadic thought, Judith Butler’s Artful Parody.

(For more on Rosi Braidotti, there is also Nomadic Theory: The Portable Rosi Braidotti and a video about her work.)

Pussy Riot also cited their musical influences, including classic oi!-punk bands of the early 1980s; The Angelic Upstarts, Cockney Rejects, Sham 69 as well as Riot Grrl groups such as Bikini Kill and Le Tigre. In the interview members of Pussy Riot also discussed a range of other subjects including the decision to start the band after Putin returned to power in Russia:

Serafima: Right, and at that point we realized that this country needs a militant, punk-feminist, street band that will rip through Moscow’s streets and squares, mobilize public energy against the evil crooks of the Putinist junta and enrich the Russian cultural and political opposition with themes that are important to us: gender and LGBT rights, problems of masculine conformity, absence of a daring political message on the musical and art scenes, and the domination of males in all areas of public discourse.

Toward the end of the interview Pussy Riot is asked their views of Russia under the new Putin-led government:

Serafima: How did you see Libya under Gaddafi? How do you see North Korea under Kim Jong-un, the 28-year-old “Brilliant comrade”? To us, Russia under Putin, aka “the National Leader,” is no different.

Tyurya: As a third-world dictatorship with all its nice and classy features: Horrible economy based on natural resources, unbelievable levels of corruption, absence of independent courts, and a dysfunctional political system. And under Putin we are up for another decade of brutal sexism and conformism as official government policies.