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- Convenors:
-
Cory Thorne Gutiérrez
(Memorial University of Newfoundland)
Mariya Lesiv (Memorial University)
- Stream:
- Gender and sexuality, media and the visual arts
- Location:
- A203
- Sessions:
- Monday 22 June, -, -
Time zone: Europe/Zagreb
Short Abstract:
Starting with the premise that the state can never control the body, we ask how gender functions in terms of control and/or resistance in communist/post-communist places. How does gender influence imagined utopias in relation and/or resistance to nation-building under Marxist philosophy?
Long Abstract:
Starting with the premise that the state can never control the body, presenters will be asked to address the role of gender (and related concepts such as masculinity and power) in communist and post-communist places in the realization of imagined utopias. This will include not only the question of how have communist revolutions influenced the performance of gender in everyday life, but likewise how has gender been used to imagine and/or produce utopia while living within restrictive Marxist and/or post-Marxist systems (can gender promote revolution?). Recognizing the diversity of masculinities and femininities as represented in folklore and popular culture, as well as the role of folklorismus and/or invented heritage within many communist and socialist systems, we will ask: Might the oppression of certain forms of gender encourage imagination and movement toward new, counter-revolutionary utopias? How have subversive forms of gender influenced heritage and popular culture within these systems? Might gender act as a hidden transcript, an anti-hegemonic tool that forever resists Marxist politics? Can the body truly resist control by the state? We will seek a variety of approaches to gender, including material on masculinities, femininities, and trans identities, using studies from a diverse set of places across the communist/post-communist world.
Accepted papers:
Session 1 Monday 22 June, 2015, -Paper short abstract:
Through ethnographic research with male sex workers and transgendered performers in Havana's gay bars, I examine cross-cultural translations of sex tourism, religion, machismoism, and sexuality. Using this emic perspective, I will show how queer Cubans attempt to create and define their own utopia.
Paper long abstract:
Spirituality and gay popular culture are not mutually exclusive. Popular discourse on Santería and Cuban machismoism often assume otherwise, but as my godfather (padrino) reminds me: "Man created homophobia - God created transformistas." This is his lesson when, a few days after attending a drag show in Havana, I ask him if any santeros might be offended by what we saw. We attended one of the newly opened gay bars in Havana's Vedado neighbourhood, where it is now common to see gays, transformistas, and pingueros (male sex workers) interacting on the street. As with many drag shows, it opened with a recording of bâtá drums, and a man dressed in red and black (the colors of Elleguá/St. Anthony), reverently dancing across the stage, seeking permission for the show to begin. Turning to the audience, one cannot help but be struck by the seemingly conflicting images of spirituality and hedonism. The transformistas dance to an audience of young Cubans and older European and Canadian tourists, many involved in sex trade. This is a study in cultural translation and ethnography in a musical setting where spirituality, gender, sexuality, and ethics will be broken down and reconfigured through a queer Cuban lens. I will take on the vernacular argument - that which is argued by my friends at this event - that life in communist Cuba is easier if you are queer, that unlike for women or heterosexual men, queer Cubans are free to dream and create utopias.
Paper short abstract:
For St. Petersburg spiritual seekers, femininity and masculinity are essential in bringing about Russia's spiritual resurrection. While investigating the role of gender as a utopian practice, defined against the Soviet past and the Western other, we gesture to a radically different future.
Paper long abstract:
For many spiritual seekers in St. Petersburg's new age circles, the folklore-inspired images of Russia's ancient past (such as the paintings of Konstantin Vasiliev) evoke more than nostalgia for the Golden Age. They also point to a future resurrection of Russia in its ancient spiritual glory, as a beautiful ecological utopia populated by noble warriors and maidens with flowing locks. This imagery reflects a highly gendered imagination; femininity and masculinity are seen as essential in bringing about the return of Russia's Golden Age. The practice of shaping yourself into a better, more spiritual and more authentically Russian woman or man therefore provides a sort of utopian directionality to daily life. This embodied utopia defines itself both against the failed Socialist project (with its dogma of gender equality) and the threatening technocratic dystopia of the West (with its gender confusion). At the same time, these spiritualized gender practices conform with the conservative gender ideologies and policies of both the Soviet Union and contemporary Russia. Moreover, they often draw on Western new age literature, self-help psychology and even popular culture, and are promoted through online channels, such as lifestyle websites and style blogs. In this paper, I will investigate the role of spiritualized gender as a utopian practice, posed in ambiguous relationships to the Soviet past and the Western other, yet gesturing necessarily to a radically different world yet to come.
Paper short abstract:
This paper will focus on the role of pre-existing beliefs, based on traumatic personal experiences in their home countries, in some Russian immigrants' utopian vision of the president of Russia as a "real man" driven by the mission of "protecting the Russian people" in Ukraine.
Paper long abstract:
This paper will address the personal narratives of Canadian Russian immigrants who hold strong pro-Putin views regarding Russia's annexation of Crimea. The focus will be on those Russians who formerly resided in the Soviet Union, but outside of Russia (predominantly in the Baltic and Caucasus republics) and experienced major social trauma after the collapse of the Communist regime. They were transformed from representatives of the dominant nation into diaspora communities that were often discriminated against (Kolstø 2001) and, thus, needed protection. With the exception of some views that connect the roots of pro-Putin sentiments to Russian history and imperialist mentality, Putin supporters are widely perceived as the victims of informational propaganda. However, the situation is more complex. Most of the Russians included in this study are educated professionals who are fluent in English and have access to multiple sources of information. Although there is no record of discrimination against Russians in Ukraine, some respond to propaganda through the prism of pre-existing beliefs based on traumatic personal experiences in their home countries. These beliefs create the need for a utopian vision of the president of Russia as a "real man" driven by the mission of "protecting the Russian people" in Ukraine. Media narratives bring these immigrants the comfort of belonging to a powerful nation, ruled by a strong, masculine leader, and the sense of protection that they once lost. In order to be protected, there is a need for "inventing the enemy" (Eco 2013).
Paper short abstract:
Using three female protagonists in Chinese fiction, I analyze how writers use folklore to reveal the miserable lives of women. While folklore was deemed as dynamic (negative/opponent or positive/allied) during two of China’s revolutions, these novelists turn it into a source of power for liberty.
Paper long abstract:
Folklore is often used in literature as a tool to express nostalgia and to depict the everyday lives of a nation's people. There are few studies, however, on the role of folklore within communist revolutions. Through interpreting Chinese women's fates, as depicted in fictional characters, I will expose the function that exists beneath the literal words. Using three writers and their works, I will ask: How do authors use folklore as weapons? How are women portrayed in relation to China's revolutions? How might women be reimagined as protagonists in the struggle for freedom? I will analyze female characters in three stories: Sister Xianglin in Lu Hsun's The New Year's Sacrifice (1924), the Little Child-bride in Hsiao Hung's Tales of Hulan River (1941), and the Little Seamstress in Dai Sijie's Balzac and the Little Chinese Seamstress (2000). The three stories took place in two crucial revolutions in contemporary China, the Revolution of 1911 and The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution held between 1968 to 1978. Folklore, in the context of these novels, is manifest primarily through references to folk sorcery cures, shamanic beliefs, and folk songs. During wartime in China, intellectuals fiercely criticized all the elements of folklore which they deemed as negative, including superstitions, conservative natures and fraudulences, striving to construct a new China without old-fashioned ethic codes and Chinese negative characteristics. On the contrast, during cultural oppression, they respect, praise and guard folklore, and they ally themselves with folklore to fight against despotism in communist China.
Paper short abstract:
This paper deals with gender and work, based on research in Western Ukraine. It shows the gap between post-Marxist traditional gender imaginaries in connection to work and actual economic strategies of both men and women.
Paper long abstract:
During communism in Ukraine, men and women were expected to work equally in order to bring development to the country. After the fall of communism, new popular imaginaries emerged, connecting women more to the household and beauty and men to their breadwinner role. These may have been perceived as a reaction to the restrictive politics of the communist party trying to shape gender, family and work. However, ethnographic research of work and gender in western Ukraine shows that there is a strong discrepancy between proclaimed return of traditional gender model - male workers/female caretakers - and local realities. Even if a more traditional conception of gender re-emerged after the retreat of Marxist politics, gender is defined not only by the state, but also through economic realities. While there is a popular image of a wife supported by her husband, taking care of a household, extremely low wages often force both partners to work. Additionally, the mismatch between gender imaginaries and reality may also be connected with phenomena such as alcoholism or domestic violence. Therefore, it is often women who support their families with help of other relatives, often working abroad. Within families, women are responsible for bringing a wage, house chores, childrearing and improving their appearance. The disproportion between proclaimed traditional gendering and reality is often articulated by Ukrainian women, who see themselves as "really maintaining Ukraine", while characterizing men as "mothers' little sons", something that is seldom reflected by the state and its work or family policies.