{"id":22590,"date":"2021-03-25T13:14:22","date_gmt":"2021-03-25T10:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/?p=22590"},"modified":"2021-06-03T13:03:28","modified_gmt":"2021-06-03T10:03:28","slug":"russian-harassment-of-a-russian-woman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/articles\/columns\/russian-harassment-of-a-russian-woman\/","title":{"rendered":"Russian harassment of a \u201cRussian woman\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><span lang=\"en-US\">The song <\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/youtu.be\/l01wa2ChX64\"><em><span lang=\"en-GB\">Russian<\/span> <span lang=\"en-GB\">Woman<\/span><\/em><\/a><span lang=\"en-US\">, which initially appeared to be a simple manifesto for moderate feminism and fashionable body positivity that was entirely appropriate for the Eurovision contest, where \u201cpolitically correct\u201d messages have triumphed for many years, provoked an outpouring of phobias in Russia that exceeded all expectations. There\u2019s no doubt that this song was allowed to win during \u201cviewer voting\u201d on Channel One; Russia made the calculated decision to submit such a clear, straightforward, understandable, and politically-correct song with the refrain: <em>Hey, Rashin Woman, Don\u2019t be afraid, girl, You strong enough, You strong enough, Don&#8217;t be afraid<\/em>. And the singer\u2019s biography matches the words: Manizha is not afraid to speak out domestic violence or support women\u2019s rights. She also supports the rights of migrants, refugees, and even LGBT+ people, but you have to be \u201cpretty strong\u201d for this. The nomination of this song, by this performer, could not pass without a scandal from opponents of the \u201cnew morality,\u201d but the wish to win the competition, to show Europeans that we weren\u2019t born yesterday, turned out to be more important. This courageous step in the direction of European values has worked for now \u2013 the song has garnered millions of views on Eurovision\u2019s website and is one of the most popular.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Manizha - Russian Woman - Russia \ud83c\uddf7\ud83c\uddfa - Official Video - Eurovision 2021\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/l01wa2ChX64?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">But we also didn\u2019t have to wait too long for the scandal. Manizha checked off all the boxes \u2013 born in Dushanbe, ethnic Tajik, singing in several languages. Nationalists from every party and every age group were terribly offended that a young Tajik woman \u2013 Okay, she grew up in Moscow, but that doesn\u2019t matter to them \u2013 would be singing \u201cfor Russia.\u201d As if that weren\u2019t enough, she was not singing a song about \u201cPersia, Persia, fruit heaven\u201d or something about \u201cDark Eyes\u201d; she actually composed and sang a song about a Russian women, and the words \u201cRashin <\/span><span lang=\"en-GB\">Woman<\/span><span lang=\"en-US\">\u201c were written in capital letters on the back of her outfit. She could have somehow or other gotten away with words about the right of women to dress how they want, to have children or to not have children, and to not be perfectly slim, if not for this provocation about the non-Russianness of this \u201cRussian woman,\u201d who doesn\u2019t try to hide this at all. After all, patriots love some performers, even though they can guess that they are also \u201cnational minorities,\u201d but those performers try not to emphasize this. But Manizha does not just emphasize this, she builds her identity on the image of a \u201cnon-Slavic, non-Tajik woman.\u201d We can say that she is declaring her cultural and national fluidity, and this can\u2019t be any better than gender! And it is this apparition of the non-binary world that makes traditionalists recoil. They cannot be convinced by some people\u2019s attempts to deride her \u2013 hey, singing and dancing is exactly what migrants from the far reaches of the empire are supposed to do: &#8220;<\/span><em><span lang=\"en-US\">There were even special singing and dancing peoples, like the Georgians. Or the Jews playing on the violin or fortepiano. Like folklore. This is obviously objectification, but it\u2019s not discrimination&#8221;.<\/span><\/em> <span lang=\"en-US\">Apparently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.svoboda.org\/a\/31143259.html\">the author<\/a> of these words understands objectification as assigning the violin and fortepiano to the Jews and, let\u2019s say, the guitar and tap-dancing to the Roma or polyphonic singing to the Georgians. That\u2019s objectification, \u201cbut not discrimination.\u201d<\/span> <span lang=\"en-US\">I have already had the opportunity to write specifically about <a href=\"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/statyi\/kolonki\/diskriminatsiya-i-tantsyi\/\">discrimination and dances<\/a><\/span><span lang=\"en-US\">, the stigmatization of people, genders, and social role that are intended to please the eyes of the powerful in the world.<\/span> <span lang=\"en-US\">A stereotype (what does objectification have to do with it anyway?) is obviously always discrimination, and the imposition of a role, generally degrading, even if it is \u201cfestive.\u201d<\/span> <span lang=\"en-US\">Georgians, Tajiks, Jews, Roma, Africans, Russians \u2013 they can sing or invent machines, they can play the violin or plow the earth, they can enter contests or drive trains. No one tells them \u2013 older women, younger women, or girls \u2013 what to do \u2013 and none of them have to move beautifully, look beautiful, or dress beautifully.<\/span> <span lang=\"en-US\">Cultures and languages can be mixed on the stage, as they have long been in modern life.<\/span> <span lang=\"en-US\">It is of these simple things that Manizha sings, challenging the mad flame of racism, sexism, and discrimination in all its forms and manifestations.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">Protectors of the purity of Russian culture have conducted an entire expert evaluation of Manizha\u2019s song, embellishing their text with such a large number of words unknown to simple Russian speakers that they have no business accusing the singer of using Surzhyk (which is understood to mean \u201cRashin\u201d).<\/span> <span lang=\"en-US\">What is the worth of the following expressions Dr. Ponkin and Dr. Slobodchikov used: <em>\u201cpejoratively offensive, dysphorically derisive (through the achievement of introjection)&#8230;also creating allusions to images&#8230;mixed with botanical exemplifications\u201d<\/em> and so forth.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span lang=\"en-US\">How can we not make fun of you!<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"entry-content\">\n<p style=\"text-align: right;\"><em><span lang=\"en-US\"><strong>Stefania Kulaeva<\/strong><br \/>\nFirst published on the blog of <a href=\"https:\/\/www.svoboda.org\/a\/31166852.html\">Radio Svoboda<\/a><\/span><\/em><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The song Russian Woman, which initially appeared to be a simple manifesto for moderate feminism and fashionable body positivity that was entirely appropriate for the Eurovision contest, where \u201cpolitically correct\u201d messages have triumphed for many years, provoked an outpouring of&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":22554,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[362],"tags":[213],"strategy_cases":[],"campaign":[],"archive":[],"filter-content":[],"regions":[515],"class_list":["post-22590","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-columns","tag-discrimination-en","regions-russia"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"featured_image_urls_v2":{"full":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman.png",825,476,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-125x125.png",125,125,true],"medium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-300x173.png",300,173,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-768x443.png",640,369,true],"large":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-650x375.png",640,369,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman.png",825,476,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman.png",825,476,false],"pub-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-220x127.png",220,127,true],"post-thumb":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-170x170.png",170,170,true],"wcicon":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-48x48.png",48,48,true],"wcsquare":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-300x300.png",300,300,true],"wcsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-250x144.png",250,144,true],"wcstandard":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-550x317.png",550,317,true],"wcbig":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-800x462.png",800,462,true],"wcfixedheightsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-312x180.png",312,180,true],"wcfixedheightmedium":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-520x300.png",520,300,true],"wcfixedheight":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman.png",825,476,false],"wccarouselsmall":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-210x150.png",210,150,true],"wccarousel":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman-400x285.png",400,285,true],"wcslider":["https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/manizha-russian-woman.png",825,476,false]},"post_excerpt_stackable_v2":"<p>The song Russian Woman, which initially appeared to be a simple manifesto for moderate feminism and fashionable body positivity that was entirely appropriate for the Eurovision contest, where \u201cpolitically correct\u201d messages have triumphed for many years, provoked an outpouring of phobias in Russia that exceeded all expectations. There\u2019s no doubt that this song was allowed to win during \u201cviewer voting\u201d on Channel One; Russia made the calculated decision to submit such a clear, straightforward, understandable, and politically-correct song with the refrain: Hey, Rashin Woman, Don\u2019t be afraid, girl, You strong enough, You strong enough, Don&#8217;t be afraid. And the singer\u2019s&hellip;<\/p>\n","category_list_v2":"<a href=\"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/category\/articles\/columns\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Columns<\/a>","author_info_v2":{"name":"admin3","url":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/author\/admin3\/"},"comments_num_v2":"0 comments","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22590","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22590"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22590\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23074,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22590\/revisions\/23074"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22554"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22590"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22590"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22590"},{"taxonomy":"strategy_cases","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/strategy_cases?post=22590"},{"taxonomy":"campaign","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/campaign?post=22590"},{"taxonomy":"archive","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/archive?post=22590"},{"taxonomy":"filter-content","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/filter-content?post=22590"},{"taxonomy":"regions","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/adcmemorial.org\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/regions?post=22590"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}