Pussy Riot

I'll admit it. The first time I saw the headlines about "Pussy Riot" - the Russian punk rock women's group that was recently sentenced to two years in prison camp for their very brief protest of Putin's government at Cathedral of Christ the Savior in Moscow - I thought, "Hmm, I wonder how 'pussy' translates in Russian and if they mean what I think it means".

So, I checked iGoogle Translate. Here's what I found:

noun
киска	pussy, puss, kitty, pussycat, moggy, mog
пизда	cunt, pussy, quim, fanny, sissy, vagina
кошечка	pussycat, pussy, catling, puss, fox
котик	pussy
девушка	girl, lady, maiden, maid, lass, pussy
сережка на вербе	pussy
манда	cunt, fanny, pussy, quim, sissy, vagina
женские половые `органы	vagina, fanny, pussy, quim

However, when I typed in the words "Pussy Riot", what I got was "Pussy Riot".

I'm thinking I'm not the only one who is curious about the name of this group. I'll bet they 'cleaned up' the translation in the past week.

Something in me giggled wickedly as I typed in, "Vagina! Vagina! Vagina!" on my laptop just to see if the Google police would censure me.

They didn't.  That only happens in the Michigan Senate.

So, other than the interesting - if not just a tad vulgar - headlines, what's the story behind the "Pussy Riot" in Russia and what ever does that have to do with the price of caviar?

Turns out, a lot.

Three members of the punk rock band, Pussy Riot - Nadezhda Tolokonnikova, Maria Alekhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich, ages 22-30 - were arrested in March for an extremely brief performance in Moscow’s main cathedral that featured an anti-Putin song. 

Pussy Riot called their “punk prayer” “Mother of the Lord, Chase Putin Out,” invoking that young Palestinian woman who desired that the mighty be brought down, the lowly lifted up and the hungry fed.

Her story, and that of her son, was also to end up in court. And the charge against him was not wholly dissimilar.

Pussy Riot emphasized that the act was a political protest against Patriarch Lukashenko (the representative of the Orthodox church's hierarchy) campaigning for Putin in the Presidential race.

However, the official charges were “hooliganism driven by religious hatred”. The judge bluntly denied that there was any political inspiration, and ruled instead that religious hatred was the motive of Pussy Riot’s performance.

Each of the three women, two of whom have children, were sentenced to two years of hard labor in prison where, Nikolai Polozov, their lawyer says, “We have a serious basis to think they can be faced with physical harm, moral pressure and even violence.”

In the closing section of the verdict, Judge Marina Syrova read “psychiatric-psychological examinations” of Nadia, Masha, and Katya, as the women are known. All three were found to suffer from a “mixed-personality disorder,” a condition that included different combinations of a “proactive approach to life,” “a drive for self-fulfillment,” “stubbornly defending their opinion,” “inflated self-esteem,” “inclination to opposition behavior,” and “propensity for protest reactions.”

Oh, no! Women with an 'inflated self-esteem', a 'drive for self-fulfillment', and a 'proactive approach to life'? That's quite a "mixed-personality disorder". We can't have that! Women are supposed to be humble and subservient. You know, they should know their "place" - and stay in it. In silence.

Gulag Archipelago, anyone? Wiki reports: "Since the dissolution of the Soviet Union and the formation of the Russian Federation, The Gulag Archipelago is included in the high school program in Russia as mandatory reading in 2009".  

Ironies abound.

What's fascinating to me is that Pussy Riot’s feminism and expressions of frustration at the political stasis in Russia (aided, in their view, by the Orthodox Church), was branded by the Church—and the supposed victims who were injured by the performance—as deviant acts that offended their feelings and violated their religious rights.

Hmmm....Christians claiming that they are "offended" and that their "rights have been violated" by women who are protesting that their rights have been compromised.  The "church" acting as an agent of the state for its own benefit and political expediency?

Where have we heard this before?  

Lemme give you a clue: It's not Russia. 

Yeppa. It's right here in the good ole US of A. 

The Republican National Committee has just approved platform language on Tuesday calling for a constitutional amendment outlawing abortion with no explicit exceptions for cases of rape or incest. 

“Faithful to the ‘self-evident’ truths enshrined in the Declaration of Independence, we assert the sanctity of human life and affirm that the unborn child has a fundamental individual right to life which cannot be infringed,” said the draft platform language approved Tuesday, which was first reported by CNN. “We support a human life amendment to the Constitution and endorse legislation to make clear that the Fourteenth Amendment’s protections apply to unborn children.”

This, of course, makes it very awkward for the Romney-Ryan ticket. They've spent most of this week trying to distance themselves from Todd Aiken, the Missouri Republican who hopes to get elected to Congress.

Aiken claims that a woman can't get pregnant if the rape is "forcible" because something happens in a woman's body that "shuts everything down".

Mitt Romney has denounced Mr. Akin’s comments about rape and abortion and has said that he supports exceptions to allow abortions in cases of rape.

His running mate, Representative Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, was already drawing scrutiny for his support for a more absolute ban on abortions, even in cases of rape or incest.

The Republican Party Platform is fueled, of course, by the socially conservative, Evangelical Right and their ideological counterparts, the Tea Party.

Need I point out that Romney is a committed Mormon and Ryan is a "devout" Roman Catholic? Well, as devout as one can be when one claims to have been influenced ideologically by atheist, Ayn Rand.

No, I need not point out the religious affiliations of either candidate because they are only too happy to tell us every chance they get. (Which gives others the chance to whisper that the President of the United States is a Muslim - when they're not tittering that he's a godless Socialist, who, of course, was born in Kenya.)

But really, folks, this campaign is about the economy and jobs. That's all. No, really. Seriously.

They'll "get back to you" on that as soon as they can get the idiots in their party to shut their mouths. Problem is, they have so many of them. Until then, "you're just going to have to trust" them on this.

Make no mistake: What happened in Russia with the women from Pussy Riot is but one verse of the same song being played in America with the planned oppression of reproductive rights for women.

It's the odd couple of politics and religion, claiming to want smaller government while they take up residence in a woman's reproductive system so they can be in control of creation.

As Mary Daly said years ago, "If God is male, then male is god".

If He - (ahem, God) - created the universe, then men should have control over creation. And, procreation. It really is as simple - and as dangerous - as that.

The women of Pussy Riot were determined to suffer from an "inflated self-esteem". Women who are raped are only saying they were because they want an abortion. See? "Everybody" knows that if it's "legitimate rape", they would never get pregnant.

Talk about your "proactive approach to life"!

The intriguing part of this Pussy Riot story for me is the shift in the role of the church in Russia. It has moved from 'ecclesia non grata' during the Soviet era to its current role, under KGB-connected Patriarch Kirill I, as Putin’s unofficial bulldog, defending the faith and the state from dangerous dissent.

Ironies abound.

Except, of course, when things are politically expedient. Then, they make perfect sense.

I think iGoogle has it right to translate English to Russian "Pussy Riot" to "Pussy Riot".  It's the same whether it's in English or Russian. Nothing is lost in translation.

Indeed, I think we need a bit of a pussy riot in this country. Time for women - and the men who love us - to speak up for democracy and speak out against theocracy.

Pussy Riot is still making music from the Gulag.  A recording of their new song, "Putin Lights Up the Fires" has just been released. They sing:  Putin is lighting the fires of revolution / He's bored and scared of sharing silence with the people / With every execution: the stench of rotten ash /
With every long sentence: a wet dream". 
 
You don't have to be a member of a punk-rock band to make your voice heard and known - in the church or the State. You, too, can be guilty of a “proactive approach to life,” an "inflated self-esteem," and “a drive for self-fulfillment."

One of the most politically radical prayers we have in the Prayer Book is "The Song of Mary".  Next time you pray or sing the "Magnificat" in church, remember the members of the Pussy Riot and say a special prayer for them. Remember also those women who are pregnant due to rape or incest - or any woman who is pregnant and doesn't want to be - and pray for them, too.

One of the sweetest songs in this country is our ability to vote.  It's the way we make our voices known and heard. Which is why women were the last to attain the right to vote in this country.

I seem to remember that, when women fought for the right to vote in this country, they, too, were determined to have psychiatric disorders and were imprisoned. When Suffragist Alice Paul went on a hunger strike in prison, she was moved to the prison’s psychiatric ward and force-fed raw eggs through a feeding tube.

November will be here before you know it.

Cause a pussy riot of your own.

Vote!