"You Like It, My Beauty, or Not...": (En)Gendering War in Ukraine

Session Submission Type: Panel

Brief Description

It is hard to deny that Russian aggression against Ukraine has been accompanied by a series of symbolic conflicts: memory, language, or even religious “wars,” usually framed in terms of an epic Kulturkampf – a Huntingtonian clash of civilizations amongst the bulwark of Western freedom and democracy and its eternal antagonist, the backward, despotic oriental Russia. However, Vladimir Putin’s threatening feminization of Ukraine as a capricious “beauty”, or the latter’s self-understanding as an “unbroken”, “undefeated” nation expose surprizing links to gender identites, especially to the dominant masculinities.
Moreover, despite all fundamental differences in political and ideological agendas, the war actualized the traditional gender regimes, affecting even the current beauty standards. Another dilemma represents the paradox mobilization of militarist imagery – from iconic Rus’, Viking, or Cossack warriors to the iron “fathers” like Stalin, Bandera, or Zaluzhnyi. By foregrounding the gender dimension of the war, our panel aims first to investigate its impact on the current gender regime – the resurgence of patriarchal models and archives in both cultures. Simultaneously, the prevalence of the tropes of sexual violence reflects the (pre)war experience on both sides. Besides, the notion of the war as an evolution from the passive homo sovieticus loser to an industrious and responsible leader of a democratic nation (Tamara Hundorova) mirrors the Russian rhetoric of “rising from the knees” and its reversal of the geopolitical humiliation by the West. Consequently, these phenomena raise a question as to whether gendering the war might reveal the most intimate mechanisms that engendered it.

Sub Unit

• Anthropology, Cultural Studies

Chair

• Roman Dubasevych, Greifswald U (Germany)

Papers

• From Patsan to Veteran: Masculinity and War in Ukraine - Roman Dubasevych, Greifswald U (Germany)

• Father Bandera versus Father Zaluzhnyi: On the Economy of Cultural Paternalism in Ukraine after 2014 - Oleksandr Chertenko, U of Giessen (Germany)

• 'Beauty is Your Duty?': Appearance of Servicewomen in Ukrainian Media Discourse - Nataliia Zalietok, U of Jena (Germany)

Discussant

• Maria Mayerchyk, National Academy of Sciences (Ukraine)