a whole new chic

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

pussy riot is a world craze with a whole new styling or so the media would have us believe eh ...

on the other hand they might just be grown up women with a very real point to make

they are an amazingly perfect antithesis to bare chested Putin and have completely thrown this judo hick off his balance; did a regime ever lose a battle for world opinion so stupidly?


and as the second article makes clear no men could have done this .... imagine a "dickmob" eh .....


only when women are on the streets does the revolution start, men only is a brawl ....but watch the meedja create the pussy fashion romp and pop star fetish

women fight for their children, Pussy Riot are mothers ..... shame on us fathers leaving our kids futures to the gangsters ....

[Lateralthinking1]

I keep trying to find comparisons and contrasts with 1977 - the Sex Pistols out of control on a boat beside the Houses of Parliament and Jamie Reid's safety pinned Queen. It isn't easy to do and would probably require chapters rather than sentences.

I think by contrast Malcolm McLaren appears less than serious - a maverick impresario who at most was a cultural revolutionary. Remember that ultimately he wanted to be the Mayor of London. John Lydon (Johnny Rotten) always tended towards vaudeville. Both were, of course, serious in their own ways but far less so than people like Mary Whitehouse in their reactions to them.

There is also a contrast between the response of the British authorities then and the response of the Russian authorities now. The Russians have taken action. Perhaps the British would have done too had there not been a pro-establishment brigade which did their jobs for them. In a sense, Whitehouse and Company enabled the levers of state to appear relaxed and even liberal.

Oddly, I don't think I have ever seen a series of photographs in which police officers appear so benign. Look both at their faces - in some cases the expressions are almost angelic - and the manner in which they are holding those involved. It is a far cry from kettling. I'm not sure whether to comprehend those as indicative of sympathy with the protesters or acting on command!

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

a useful corrective to the universal disapproval of Russian jurisprudence in this case which rather supports the view that Pussy are the new Chic

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

Senior clerics in Iran's theocratic regime have become concerned about the social side-effects of rising educational standards among women, including declining birth and marriage rates.

if this is true it is a catastrophe for the Iranian people and the rest of the world, especially those parts receptive to the theocracy

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

radical chic continues with an epic protest against a protest against gay rights in Paris by FEMEN

[Flosshilde]

Not sure where you are going with this thread, Mr Jazbo? Just because people adopt the masks that Pussy Riot use doesn't mean that it has become 'chic'. The masks serve a double purpose - concealing identity, and removing the 'personality', so that Pussy Riot is whoever wants to join & take part in the actions. The four women (not 'girls', Mr Jenkins) aren't the only members of Pussy Riot.

& in what sense is the protest referred to in your last post an example of 'radical chic' - a term "coined by journalist Tom Wolfe in his 1970 essay "Radical Chic: That Party at Lenny's," to describe the adoption and promotion of radical political causes by celebrities, socialites, and high society. " (from Wikipedia). It's a term used to trivialise protest action. I don't see that Pussy Riot's actions are the work of celebrities (the use of the masks is a deliberate act to avoid becoming celebrities), or trivial.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

they deliberately use tactics that attract the fame driven media to make their serious point ... i find them ambiguous in some respects - the mechanisms of celebrity & fame take on a life and course of their own, creating a media brand out of the control of the original activists ... and they risk their 'look' or media brand being acknowledged far more widely than their political intent

that said i must say i admire them and respect their activism and messages

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

ah the power of a brand eh

[Flosshilde]

they deliberately use tactics that attract the fame driven media to make their serious point ...

"fame driven media"? I have to say that I didn't notice extensive coverage of the Pussy Girls in Hello etc. But I don't read it very often - perhaps you see it more frequently?

It's not much point in making a public demonstration if the media don't report it & discuss the issues you are trying to raise (although that's a bit difficult in Russia)

[ahinton]

if this is true it is a catastrophe for the Iranian people and the rest of the world, especially those parts receptive to the theocracy

Indeed - but, fortunately, this tends to be a thing that comes and goes, rather like the Iranian attitude to the practice of Western music in Iran which, since the 1979 revolution, has been a good deal more hard-nosed and punitive at some times than at others; anyway, there's also http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worl...assassins.html which, if also true, at least appears to evidence massive inconsistency. Perhaps there's more than a grain of falsehood in both...