UkrEngRus

Whose Feminism? Feminist Movements in Russia and “Western” Cultural Hegemony

Issue Article
Vanya Solovey
December 2018

It is common knowledge that feminism is a “Western” invention and if Russia has any feminism to speak of, then it is nothing but a copy of the “Western” one. Those ideas appear at every turn in dominant discourses and sometimes even within Russian feminist communities. Are Russian feminisms really forever doomed to try “catching up” with “Western” ones? This essay discusses “Western” cultural hegemony with regards to feminism and the various ways to critically interact with it. It deals with the question why the feminist “manual” relies so much on “Western” theories and what alternative foundations it can have. (The full text is available in Russian).

UkrEngRus

Masculinity Without Men (Introduction to "Female Masculinity")

Translation
Judith Halberstam
December 2018
Translated by: 
geo sharovara
Maria Mayerchyk

When we think about gender variations such as male femininity and female masculinity, it is essential not to create a new dichotomy where masculinity always signifies power. In alternative models of gender variation, female masculinity is not simply the opposite of female femininity, nor is it a female version of male masculinity. Instead, as we can see in some artworks and gender performances, the unholy union of femaleness and masculinity can produce wildly unpredictable results. (Translation into Ukrainian).

UkrEngRus

Co-Optation of Feminism: Gender, Militarism and the UNSC Resolution 1325

Translation
Anna Nikoghosyan
November 2018
Translated by: 
Natalka Chekh

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 is often referred to as a landmark resolution. Despite its revolutionary potential, I argue that the Resolution was developed through gendered discourses that allowed its use for militarist purposes. Informed by poststructuralist international relations feminist theory, I refer to the Resolution as a discursive practice and claim that the ways in which the UN conceptual apparatus understands and interprets gender and security open up possibilities for states to co-opt the very radical meaning of the Resolution by legitimising and normalising militarist practicing and silencing anti-militarist critique. In order to show this, I examine the gendered discourses behind the creation of the Resolution and address two major ways (including the ongoing militarisation processes in the Republic of Armenia) by which the Resolution is being militarised. (The full text is available in Ukrainian translation and in English).

Listen to the audio paper in Ukrainian

UkrEngRus

What Is New in My Backpack

Feminist Collective
Mariam Agamian
November 2018
In Ukraine, racism is usually discussed in comparison to other countries, primarily as a contrast. And it is mainly white experts who do all the talking. It appears that denying racism today is a sign of one's good manners. There is even a golden collection of arguments. Presumably, “we don't have racism, because everyone is white here,” “racism does not exist here because we did not have slavery, Ukraine did not colonize anyone but was colonized itself,” “technically, it's not even racism, because this is a matter of class, not race,” “if whiteness is about access to privilege and wealth, then everyone is racialized in Ukraine” and so on. (The full text is available in Ukrainian).
UkrEngRus

“I would never say: this poem is about lesbians, that one is about price increase for public transportation, and those poems are about the horrors of capitalism”

Feminist Collective
Mariam Agamian
October 2018

"Regarding queer-poetry, it is everywhere in Ukraine. No matter how the ultra-right dudes want to make their dreams about purity and holiness true, this country has never been homogeneous. It’s difficult not to drown in the variety of stories that in one way or another push to think beyond simple oppositions. Contradictions that surround authors in the Ukrainian context are inexhaustible material." (The full text is available in Ukrainian.)

UkrEngRus

A Ballad of Pride

Feminist Collective
Lesia Pagulich
July 2018
What does it mean to be proud and free and to keep fighting against dehumanization and attacks on racialized and poor populations, to keep resisting the groups that want to decide whom and where to live, denying the presence of the marginalized groups in public space? What does it mean to talk not only about sexuality, when people’s lives depend on many resources (such as health care, housing, education, transportation, etc.), while access to these resources is being increasingly limited? Is it enough to “include” a certain group in the demonstration without addressing the issue of redistribution of the resources in the society? How will we think of pride if the Pride’s agenda takes a strong stance against the anti-Roma pogroms in Ukraine and against pathologization of trans and intersex people? How then will we imagine solidarity and coalitions that are based on mutual support? After all, this is a "tradition" of Prides. (The full text is available in Ukrainian.)

Listen to the audio paper in Ukrainian

UkrEngRus

Women's or Feminist Event: What Happened to the March on 8 March 2018

Feminist Collective
Daria Popova
March 2018

Feminist marches on 8th of March have been held at least since 2010 in Ukraine. This year, however, the organization of the event has gained massive criticism from inside feminist communities. Daria Popova rethinks the current situation and raises difficult questions. How did it happen that the march was captured by several resourceful NGOs and foundations? Why were the grassroots feminist activist initiatives excluded? How does the focus on the massive participation in the march depoliticize it and leads to silencing of urgent problems? What is the connection between neoliberalism, NGO-ization of resistance and depoliticization of feminist movement? How is feminist resistance against nationalism and neoliberalism possible here and now? (The full text is available in Ukrainian).

UkrEngRus

“European Others”: Сonstruction of Europeanness and Logics of Racialization

Review
Lesia Pagulich
https://doi.org/10.52323/299882
January 2018
The book European Others, by pointing out race as inherent to current European thought, disrupts the dominant narrative of Europe as a raceless continent and reminds that the concept of race and race-based policies inherent to colonial empires originated in Europe and were exported all over the world, while Europe remains marginal in discussions of race and racism, especially in relation to the U.S., which is regarded as a center of racism. The book contributes to scholarly and activist discussions of European forms of racialization that obtain little attention because of their deviation from the dominant discourse around race, whereas racelessness maintains racial thinking and its effects invisible. In its discussion of race, the book situates Europe within the wider context of colorblind ideologies and characterizes it by the combination of race and religion, and the externalization of racialized populations, while producing a homogeneous European entity, however, portrayed as an “inclusive” and “postnational” community.
UkrEngRus

Co-Optation of Feminism: Gender, Militarism and the UNSC Resolution 1325

Issue Article
Anna Nikoghosyan
https://doi.org/10.52323/fc1-1
December 2017

Abstract

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1325 is often referred to as a landmark resolution. Despite its revolutionary potential, I argue that the Resolution was developed through gendered discourses that allowed its use for militarist purposes. Informed by poststructuralist international relations feminist theory, I refer to the Resolution as a discursive practice and claim that the ways in which the UN conceptual apparatus understands and interprets gender and security open up possibilities for states to co-opt the very radical meaning of the Resolution by legitimising and normalising militarist practicing and silencing anti-militarist critique. In order to show this, I examine the gendered discourses behind the creation of the Resolution and address two major ways (including the ongoing militarisation processes in the Republic of Armenia) by which the Resolution is being militarised. (The full text is available in English and in translation into Ukrainian).
UkrEngRus

Justice Comes After the War? War Related Sexual Violence and Legal Nationalism in Four Countries of Former Yugoslavia

Public Talk
Adriana Zaharijević and Gordana Subotić
September 2017
In our paper we showed in detail that the proclaimed goals promoted by women’s groups – the reconstruction of society in general, with a special emphasis on eradicating sexual and gender based violence, disarmament, and furthering peace and anti-militarist values – remained in the shadow of the gender-mainstreaming aspect of Resolution 1325, limited to inclusion of women in the military and police (Subotić and Zaharijević, 2017). The way Resolution 1325 was implemented decades after the wars were over, testifies to a failure of women’s groups hopes and expectations. The successor states of Yugoslavia have not only failed to implement consistent and collaborative measures in order to provide justice and prevent impunity according to UNSCR 1325 point 11, but they have used those very mechanisms to promote a certain form of legal nationalism.

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