DoomsdaysCW<p>Hmmmm... Why am I having <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/DejaVu" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>DejaVu</span></a>? </p><p>From 2022: "Vladimir <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Putin" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Putin</span></a> has mentioned 'gender freedoms' more than once to justify <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Russia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Russia</span></a>’s war against <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Ukraine" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Ukraine</span></a> and simultaneously crack down on its own citizens.</p><p>"Most directly, he alleged that Russian citizens who seek '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GenderFreedoms" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GenderFreedoms</span></a>' (alongside foie gras and oysters) are part of the anti-Russian 'fifth column.'</p><p>"Gender and sexuality freedoms — or rights, as they are more typically called — are about <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/BodilyAutonomy" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>BodilyAutonomy</span></a>, <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/diversity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>diversity</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/inclusivity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>inclusivity</span></a>. <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Feminist" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Feminist</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/LGBTQ" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>LGBTQ</span></a>+ activists assert that every human being deserves respect, recognition and equal rights regardless of their gender or sexuality.</p><p>"What’s the connection between Putin’s animosity toward Ukraine and toward <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/gender" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>gender</span></a> and <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/sexuality" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>sexuality</span></a> rights in Russia and around the world?<br> <br>Gender and Putin’s regime</p><p>"Putin’s regime has increasingly relied on very conventional gender and sexual norms.</p><p>"When he first ascended to the presidency, image-makers used Putin’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/KGB" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>KGB</span></a> background and penchant for physical fitness to frame him as a <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/macho" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>macho</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/strongman" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>strongman</span></a> who could reverse Russia’s waning power and 'remasculinize' the country after a decade of supposed geopolitical flaccidity in the wake of the <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Soviet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Soviet</span></a> collapse. </p><p>"In other words, an inflexible and clearly <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/patriarchal" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>patriarchal</span></a> notion of masculinity has been central to the Putin regime’s legitimacy.</p><p>"Russia’s foreign policy has relied on rigid gender norms as well. When Ukraine underwent its first pro-democracy revolution in 2004, Russian media questioned its leaders’ masculinity.</p><p>"Putin likewise used homophobic terms to dismiss <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/Georgia" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>Georgia</span></a>’s <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/RoseRevolution" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>RoseRevolution</span></a> in 2003, responding to a reporter’s question by saying: 'A rose revolution — next they’ll come up with a light blue one.' In Russian, 'light blue' or goluboi is slang for “gay male.”<br> <br>Gender and appealing to constituencies</p><p>"Putin has often been represented as the unquestioned leader of the pack ruling Russia — a masculinity-driven image.</p><p>"However, even as the leader of a personalist <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/dictatorship" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>dictatorship</span></a> — a regime in which there are few institutional limits on the leader’s power — Putin must balance competing interests among significant elites and maintain at least the appearance of public support in order to be considered a legitimate ruler.</p><p>"Until 2020, Putin was using gendered language in his speeches to signal his alignment with a variety of elites and public constituencies that supported him. He was sending mixed signals to both relatively progressive Russians who value women’s roles in the workplace and to <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/conservatives" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>conservatives</span></a> wishing for a return to '<a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TraditionalFamilyValues" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TraditionalFamilyValues</span></a>,' in order to keep everyone in his camp.</p><p>"But after July 2021, when he published an essay contending Ukrainians and Russians are a single people, Putin no longer shied away from making sexist and LGBTQ+-phobic comments in prominent settings.</p><p>"At an October 2021 meeting of the Valdai Discussion Club — a Moscow-based think tank and discussion forum that Putin is closely associated with — he said teaching children about <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GenderFluidity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GenderFluidity</span></a> was 'truly monstrous' and 'verging on a crime against humanity.'" </p><p>Read more:<br><a href="https://theconversation.com/vladimir-putin-the-czar-of-macho-politics-is-threatened-by-gender-and-sexuality-rights-180473" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" translate="no" target="_blank"><span class="invisible">https://</span><span class="ellipsis">theconversation.com/vladimir-p</span><span class="invisible">utin-the-czar-of-macho-politics-is-threatened-by-gender-and-sexuality-rights-180473</span></a><br><a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/USPol" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>USPol</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/TrumpIsPutinsPuppet" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>TrumpIsPutinsPuppet</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GBLTQRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GBLTQRights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/HumanRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>HumanRights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/WomensRights" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>WomensRights</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/ToxicMasculinity" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>ToxicMasculinity</span></a> <a href="https://kolektiva.social/tags/GenderFascists" class="mention hashtag" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">#<span>GenderFascists</span></a></p>