"Anyone can be Pussy Riot": Exploring the Possibilities of Transnational Digital Feminism

Abstract

Abstract:This essay examines the digital feminist strategies of the Russian political performance group Pussy Riot. At the same time that I argue that the risks the group takes in creating a digital transnational feminism on YouTube are interesting for how they open up translocal critiques of authoritarianism, I ask a broader question regarding the criteria by which international feminist scholarship evaluates its objects of analysis. I avoid relying on holistic judgements of success or failure, and instead focus on Pussy Riot's legitimate and tangible feminist engagement with police brutality and border regimes between the United States and Russia.