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You are here: Home / Politics / Pussy Riot and the Threat to Women in the U.S. Today

Pussy Riot and the Threat to Women in the U.S. Today

May 10th, 2015 by Sallie Bingham in Politics, Women 1 Comment

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (Nadya) and Maria Alyokhina (Masha)

Nadezhda Tolokonnikova (Nadya) and Maria Alyokhina (Masha) – from sitesantafe.com

My town, Santa Fe, New Mexico, was electrified this week—or some portion of it was—by the appearance of Pussy Riot, the feminist art protest collective from Russia; two of the co-founders were performing at the Greer Garson Theatre, and there was not a ticket to be had.

These are the women who were censored by Russian authorities after their performance of a punk rock musical at Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, including a brief mention of President Vladimir Putin with the devout wish that the Mother of God remove him from office.

As a result, the Pussy Riot women served two years in a Russian prison.

Of course we were all outraged. But we are perhaps naïve if we believe that women in the U. S. are free of danger, especially young women who are expected to belong to young men.

We are perhaps naïve if we believe that women in the U. S. are free of danger, especially young women who are expected to belong to young men.

Recent news stories about women harassed on college campuses—many of those considered the most “prestigious”—and the failure of the administrations to deal justly and quickly with these offenses remind me of the dangers we court if we are outspoken; here in Santa Fe, I almost never meet a woman who calls herself a feminist, especially remarkable in a town with a history of distinguished women and with the highest percentage, per capita, in this country of women-owned businesses: 32 percent.

There is a reason for this reticence.

Grace Rebecca Mann

Grace Rebecca Mann – from nytimes.com

Now, on the same day as the Pussy Riot performance, a story in The New York Times addressed the murder in April of Grace Rebecca Mann, who was attending the Mary Washington University in Virginia (perhaps she found something appealing in the name?). The police immediately found the suspect, who was living in Mann’s off-campus house; her hospitality may have been misplaced since he had been a member of the rugby club that exploded with violent online threats:”Gonna tie these feminists to the radiator and rape them in the mouth”—after the club was suspended because of a song that created a furor. The Times article doesn’t mention the content of the song but it seems more than likely that it was another violent attack on women.

Before she was murdered, Mann and other students who belonged to Feminists United on Campus had repeatedly met with the university’s president to express their fears for their safety. Nothing was done, although after the murder, the university claimed that its number one priority is to create a safe atmosphere “where all students can learn and grow.” For Mann, it is too late.

Perhaps this is why so many of us are reluctant to call ourselves feminists.

I am reminded of the special danger young women face, even in situations where they are not linked to the women’s movement, by the grave in the woods at my Kentucky Farm of a young soccer player murdered at her mid-western university.

Interestingly, it is the threat to their Title Nine federal funding which is finally causing some universities to re-examine their failed policies toward sexual harassment; failure to do so might result in the loss of federal dollars.

And it may be that Title Nine, by opening sports to girls, is producing feminine examples of bodily strength that inflame violent reactions. Grace Rebecca Mann’s pretty kitten face does not disguise the fact that her courage represents another form of power.

Perhaps we are still trapped in a society where Alexander Graham Bell’s talking dolls, created in the 1880’s with his voice shouting “Little Jack Horner” (it sounded more like “Little Jack Murder”) are a more acceptable form of the feminine than the warriors and athletes who are not facing jail here but may face murder.

Before I knew what to call myself, in the dim years of the 1950’s, I saw a small example of what is happening in a much larger way now to women on college campuses: a Harvard student I had turned down for a date hid in the bushes near my off-campus house and knocked me down. I went to the authorities and he was perhaps “spoken to” but certainly not suspended or dismissed.

A small incident, although it frightened me, proving what I had not wanted to know, all along: that we are in danger.

[For more on Jena Marie Cooper, buried at Wolf Pen Mill Farm, please read my post “Just A Girl From Kentucky“. For a short story based on my college experience, please read “Winter Term,” available on this website and as a .pdf download courtesy of Sarabande Books.]

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In Politics, Women Pussy Riot Grace Rebecca Mann Title 9 "Winter Term" Greer Garson Theatre

A long and fruitful career as a writer began in 1960 with the publication of Sallie Bingham's novel, After Such Knowledge. This was followed by 15 collections of short stories in addition to novels, memoirs and plays, as well as the 2020 biography The Silver Swan: In Search of Doris Duke.

Her latest book, Taken by the Shawnee, is a work of historical fiction published by Turtle Point Press in June of 2024. Her previous memoir, Little Brother, was published by Sarabande Books in 2022. Her short story, "What I Learned From Fat Annie" won the Thomas Wolfe Fiction Prize in 2023 and the story "How Daddy Lost His Ear," from her forthcoming short story collection How Daddy Lost His Ear and Other Stories (September 23, 2025), received second prize in the 2023 Sean O’Faolain Short Story Competition.

She is an active and involved feminist, working for women’s empowerment, who founded the Kentucky Foundation for Women, which gives grants to Kentucky artists and writers who are feminists, The Sallie Bingham Center for Women's History and Culture at Duke University, and the Women’s Project and Productions in New York City. She lives in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Sallie's complete biography is available here.

Comments

  1. Kela Adams on Facebook says

    May 11th, 2015 at 4:07 pm

    The world remains an uphill path for most.

    Reply

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