Sad to see this end for pussy riot, I appreciated the shock at the time of their performance. Tasteless or not, it was refreshing Id thought. Great to see Pavlensky is sticking to his moral viewpoints. Thanks Evgenia!
Thank you for this critique of Pussy Riot Evegenia! I was so sick of their performative bullshit even back in the 2010s and I'm not surprised in the least about her recent gimmicks. American liberals are so clueless about Russia they go for any petty rubbish as long as its "anti-Putin". This is the first time I'm hearing about Pavlensky, I'm ashamed to say. He sounds like a true dissenter. Thank you for mentioning him.
Not to be that guy but about thirteen years ago I predicted the following on a defunct blog that was half-assed even at the time:
"...Or maybe it's not important who or what the members of Pussy Riot are, and maybe this post is ultimately worthless in the grand scheme of things. But it should be important, because unless Tolokonnikova & friends had suddenly changed their ways in the short time since the split from the original Voina, then they didn't jump around in front a church altar for the good of society - they did it for themselves."
...I assumed "the ugly ones" (Alyokhina and Samutsevich, the latter iirc struck a deal with the authorities and got away from these other dorks) would've eventually faded into obscurity but I couldn't have predicted the onlyfans pivot. I do wonder whatever became of the other losers of Voyna that there were in an apparent polycule with (e.g. Vorotnikov and Sokol).
Anyway Verzilov is a creep. I feel bad for their kid.
They say that comparisons are the thief of joy but you you have given away your joy and based on this article, your humanity. The bitterness, the jealousy, and the naked contempt for Nadya Tolokonnikova’s choices don’t reveal anything meaningful about her — they reveal everything about the author.
The fixation on her looks, her sexuality, and the fact that she has aged — as we all do — is textbook misogyny. There is no genuine critique here, only personal resentment masked as commentary. From mocking her art to calling her a “trophy wife” to speculating about her daughter’s future, the piece is laced with petty cruelty.
But nothing is more revealing than the final line: “until she is too old to wear a thong.” That line doesn’t just cross a line. It demolishes it. It’s not clever. It’s not ironic. It’s hateful. It’s the kind of misogyny that tells women their worth has an expiration date, that autonomy and sexuality are shameful past a certain age. It’s an attack, plain and simple.
You sound like her OF loser subscriber or a lib boomer. Either way you are the one who only focuses on the sex part, too dimwitted or horny to see anything else.
Liberal, please: your critique is nothing more than "How dare you tell ugly truths! How dare you not load on sweet, bullshit platitudes with a trowel like we liberals do!"
Hold a mirror up to the sexist double-standards that make up American sexual mores, to state what your average American man has been raised to see as beauty, and get accused of "misogyny"; real misogyny can't be eradicated so long as you and yours have your collective head up your ass!
It's not paranoia - they were *heavily* pushed by a Moscow gallery owner and friends. At the time the actual story of their arrest and case took a few weeks if not months to actually get international attention. Literally they were driving a bus around the ring road of Moscow that said something along the lines of "free pussy riot" at one point. Eventually they caused enough of a fuss to get the attention of amnesty international, and that's when the western media floodgates opened.
"Her trajectory captures something bigger about our age."
This is what "...commodification of dissent looks like in our modern world."
"We are too merged with the system."
" ...a genuine desire to resist the system brings you attention and fame.."
"Being successful with a radical podcast, You Tube or Substack...write your radical message and go off and live the good life..."
The ugly question then becomes, is everyone in the U.S. willing or even eagerly participating in commodification because of a long socialization under capitalism resulting in all of us becoming individual capitalist calculating machines?
If it is commodification all the way down, then it seems to be something we all freely participate in. Such a situation does not presage a crisis of capitalism but rather its complete victory.
See the writings of Branco Milanovic, particularly "Capitalism Alone."
tangential the 15 million merits episode is arguably the only good episode of black mirror and better yet was mostly written by Charlie Brooker's wife, the ex-Blue Peter (a sort of light children's infotainment show in the UK) presenter Konnie Huq.
Sad to see this end for pussy riot, I appreciated the shock at the time of their performance. Tasteless or not, it was refreshing Id thought. Great to see Pavlensky is sticking to his moral viewpoints. Thanks Evgenia!
Thank you for this critique of Pussy Riot Evegenia! I was so sick of their performative bullshit even back in the 2010s and I'm not surprised in the least about her recent gimmicks. American liberals are so clueless about Russia they go for any petty rubbish as long as its "anti-Putin". This is the first time I'm hearing about Pavlensky, I'm ashamed to say. He sounds like a true dissenter. Thank you for mentioning him.
Not to be that guy but about thirteen years ago I predicted the following on a defunct blog that was half-assed even at the time:
"...Or maybe it's not important who or what the members of Pussy Riot are, and maybe this post is ultimately worthless in the grand scheme of things. But it should be important, because unless Tolokonnikova & friends had suddenly changed their ways in the short time since the split from the original Voina, then they didn't jump around in front a church altar for the good of society - they did it for themselves."
...I assumed "the ugly ones" (Alyokhina and Samutsevich, the latter iirc struck a deal with the authorities and got away from these other dorks) would've eventually faded into obscurity but I couldn't have predicted the onlyfans pivot. I do wonder whatever became of the other losers of Voyna that there were in an apparent polycule with (e.g. Vorotnikov and Sokol).
Anyway Verzilov is a creep. I feel bad for their kid.
They say that comparisons are the thief of joy but you you have given away your joy and based on this article, your humanity. The bitterness, the jealousy, and the naked contempt for Nadya Tolokonnikova’s choices don’t reveal anything meaningful about her — they reveal everything about the author.
The fixation on her looks, her sexuality, and the fact that she has aged — as we all do — is textbook misogyny. There is no genuine critique here, only personal resentment masked as commentary. From mocking her art to calling her a “trophy wife” to speculating about her daughter’s future, the piece is laced with petty cruelty.
But nothing is more revealing than the final line: “until she is too old to wear a thong.” That line doesn’t just cross a line. It demolishes it. It’s not clever. It’s not ironic. It’s hateful. It’s the kind of misogyny that tells women their worth has an expiration date, that autonomy and sexuality are shameful past a certain age. It’s an attack, plain and simple.
Evegenia's critique is pointed and deep. Nadya is a mirror to our society as a whole. If anything, Evgenia was too gentle on Nadya's transformation.
You sound like her OF loser subscriber or a lib boomer. Either way you are the one who only focuses on the sex part, too dimwitted or horny to see anything else.
Liberal, please: your critique is nothing more than "How dare you tell ugly truths! How dare you not load on sweet, bullshit platitudes with a trowel like we liberals do!"
Hold a mirror up to the sexist double-standards that make up American sexual mores, to state what your average American man has been raised to see as beauty, and get accused of "misogyny"; real misogyny can't be eradicated so long as you and yours have your collective head up your ass!
Your bullshit might pass with MAGA, not here.
Grab your pearls, and fuck off!
you absolutely missed the point completely
At the risk of sounding paranoid, I always thought Pussy Riot was an operation.
It's not paranoia - they were *heavily* pushed by a Moscow gallery owner and friends. At the time the actual story of their arrest and case took a few weeks if not months to actually get international attention. Literally they were driving a bus around the ring road of Moscow that said something along the lines of "free pussy riot" at one point. Eventually they caused enough of a fuss to get the attention of amnesty international, and that's when the western media floodgates opened.
(Correction, it was a gallerist from Perm, but the bus was being driven around Moscow)
The fact that hilary clinton endorsed them was enough really.
Wonderful essay--great critique.
"Her trajectory captures something bigger about our age."
This is what "...commodification of dissent looks like in our modern world."
"We are too merged with the system."
" ...a genuine desire to resist the system brings you attention and fame.."
"Being successful with a radical podcast, You Tube or Substack...write your radical message and go off and live the good life..."
The ugly question then becomes, is everyone in the U.S. willing or even eagerly participating in commodification because of a long socialization under capitalism resulting in all of us becoming individual capitalist calculating machines?
If it is commodification all the way down, then it seems to be something we all freely participate in. Such a situation does not presage a crisis of capitalism but rather its complete victory.
See the writings of Branco Milanovic, particularly "Capitalism Alone."
No way out???
tangential the 15 million merits episode is arguably the only good episode of black mirror and better yet was mostly written by Charlie Brooker's wife, the ex-Blue Peter (a sort of light children's infotainment show in the UK) presenter Konnie Huq.
Точно, Евгения
desecrating a mosque might fly for some, but yeah, church or synagogue would be fail outside of fringe circles