Yelena Ivanova, Natalia Seibil
Olga Shnyrova heads the organization, which has been awarded the title of a foreign agent. For more than twenty years, the Center for Gender Studies has existed and has been operating in Ivanovo. Scientists conduct sociological surveys and publish articles and books on gender relations, the perception of themselves by modern women and men, and on social status and many other topics. For example, what the guardians and supporters of the “new Middle Ages” prefer not to talk about: the wage gap between men and women in Russia is 30% - naturally, not in favor of women. Or that the pandemic has seriously worsened the position of women, in general, and the situation of women in the family. Not only did a large number of women lose their jobs, but for those who did, the apartment turned into a workplace, and the workload on them increased. Now the bosses can easily call the workers at home and demand that some work be done at 8 o'clock in the evening.
"This is not only a Russian trend, but also a global one. She worsened the situation of women in the family. Domestic violence has increased, because people are locked in 4 walls, and it is clear that this can lead to conflicts", - says Olga Shnyrova.
Feminists and childfree, not to mention LGBT people, take the arguments of a defender of children against destructive content more than seriously. After the news that all "other" should be declared extremists, there was silence in chats and on pages of social networks. All the "others" were simply taken aback. Everyone is already accustomed to foreign agents or unwanted human rights defenders, but to put entire social strata practically outside of society and the law?
“Looks like they will soon introduce the postscript status“ a person banned in the Russian Federation ”, - one of the most famous feminists in the country, Zalina Marshenkulova, jokes bitterly in her telegram channel“ Women’s Power”. “The most intelligent, educated, talented and passionate people - as always, are not needed by this state. History repeats itself".
“Five minutes before” the unwelcome ones on the net shout: bastards, tell me, what country are we agents?
In response, an even more remarkable interview with Andrey Tsyganov appears. At first, the child advocate wanted to confer extremist status only on radical feminists. Now the road to prison threatens everyone:
“Feminism as a phenomenon in our country has mutated from the classical one, which boiled down to the protection of women's rights, to the current stage, which consists of man-hatred, child-hatred and all kinds of anti-family and anti-demographic attitudes,” Tsyganov said in an interview with Fontanka.ru
Tsyganov is sure that feminists are unattractive women who cannot get married and have children. The trouble with most feminists is that they are not married, have never been there, and, apparently, they have little chance. They can only be pitied. But why smear your complexes on everyone else and infect them with your negative energy? - Tsyganov asks.
Zalina Marshenkulova, a married woman with a child, never gets tired of wondering how ignorant people who influence decision-making in the country can be.
“Some complain that the“ leftist dictatorship ”wants to write denunciations on everyone and imprison for words. Meanwhile, denunciations are written by anyone, but not leftists! On the contrary, they are right-wing and write, as a rule. They wrote to me twice. So far, the most traditionalists are imprisoning people for words”, - writes Zalina Marshenkulova.
Such persecutions are connected with the fact that the Russian state has become traditionalist, Olga Shnyrova believes. It is based, among other things, on patriarchal values. Feminism is an ideology that counterbalances the patriarchal:
- Feminism stands for a partner family, and not for a patriarchal family, where the husband is the head and master, for the woman's right to dispose of her body, including deciding how many children she wants to have or does not want at all, this is actually childfree concerns. This is probably seen as a threat to demographic policy, but also to public policy in general, as well.
- Dinosaurs died because they had a weak sensitivity to diversity, says Academician Academician of the Russian Academy of Education, head of the Department of Personality Psychology, Faculty of Psychology, Lomonosov Moscow State University, Alexander Asmolov . - When a society rejects diversity, and with it all “others,” it inevitably drifts towards xenophobia, which can take various forms - from racism, Caucasian phobia, anti-Semitism to the rejection of any others according to community attitudes.
This, according to the academician, refers to the LGBT, this refers to the childfree movement - everything that does not fit into certain rigid norms, everything that turns out to be behind the Procrustean bed of the so-called canon should be subject to elimination, destruction. Therefore, in culture we have two poles - the pole of tolerance, where the key norm is the norm of supporting diversity and thus others. The second pole is the pole of xenophobia, where the key norm is the elimination of diversity, this is its erasure. Once cultures begin to wear off their sensitivity to diversity, cultures are evolutionarily doomed to perish.
Fear of the “other” leads to the emergence of new “walls” and borders, on which ideological border guards stand, whose slogan is to keep and not to let go.
In addition, to a certain extent, the conflict of "fathers and children" is being implemented in Russia in a harsh manner. Youth groups sometimes shockingly, sometimes harshly nihilistically say: we don't want to be like you, says teacher and psychologist Alexander Asmolov. The state or totalitarian parents want to force their children to live the way they want. Children want to live their own lives.
Cultural diversity enriches society and contributes to its development. Most recently, Olga Shnyrova and her colleagues conducted a survey called "Provincial Masculinity" among young people in Ivanovo. Since 2005, researchers have measured how young men's perceptions of masculinity and attitudes towards women are changing.
"We had a boy gamer among the participants. He plays computer games where gender roles are equal. During the interview, he poured in terminology like a good gender researcher. There are guys who watch YouTube channels, listen to podcasts. At the same time, they choose for themselves heroes, whom they are interested in, which are difficult to attribute to the "Men's State"", - Olga Shnyrova is sure.
If earlier feminism and childfree as a form of outrageousness could only be found in capitals, now interest in gender themes is awakening throughout the country. Researchers from Ivanovo were invited to give lectures and performances to Barnaul, Vladimir, Vologda in the newly opened feminist discussion clubs.
The desire to preserve the patriarchal structure of society with the help of prohibitions leads to sad consequences. Russian religious and public figure Andrey Kurayev warns that the search for "something to ban" leads to the normalization of evil:
"When among the prohibited things are not criminal at all, but simply controversial, polemical, but not criminal in any way, then in this case the question arises: maybe something else is on this list, maybe not so scary? And this is the normalization of evil, and it is very sad that everything is going this way".
Are those officials and deputies who are afraid of adopting the law on educational activities or many other similar legislative acts, as Alexander Asmolov says, or they just want to drill a hole for the order, so they jump and say - I am on guard, according to Andrey Kurayev, by and large, not that important. What is clear is that the witch hunt is not a thing of the past.
- You know, our government has a fever. Remember this kind of phenomenon? This kind of fever becomes a symptom not only of alcoholics, but a syndrome of power, which is afraid of itself, and thus is afraid of everything that happens around, and in response gives out only the logic of repressive actions, says Alexander Asmolov.
For the Russian authorities, like-mindedness is a blessing. The state seeks to gain stability through like-mindedness. But scientists say - in a society in which there is no initiative from below, it does not develop. Nevertheless, Olga Shnyrova is optimistic:
"I do not think that conservative movements or Orthodox adherents dominate, although they have the best conditions for development. All in all, you cannot stop the upgrade process. In large cities, even the economy is developing so that the patriarchy will not work, because she is considering a woman's entry into the market and her rather active position in life".
Meanwhile, in Warsaw, in Catholic Poland, where the struggle for women's right to abortion continues, the Leaders of Change exhibition is being held. On the posters there are portraits of Russian women who have made the struggle for their rights a work of their lives. Tatiana Nikonova, Pussy Riot, Tatiana Nikonova, Yulia Tsvetkova... Among them is Zalina Marshenkulova. "It is a great honor for me to be in such a cool company!", - she writes in the Telegram.
It is a pity that the exhibition is not held in Russia, and the heroines are there. Here they are extremists. "Five minutes".