Straight outta Vagina is currently the 10th (not in chronological order) video by Moscow-based punk feminist band Pussy Riot. According to Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova’s statement for The Guardian: “This song could be considered an answer to Trump. But I believe the idea of powerful female sexuality is much bigger than any populist megalomaniac man … Vagina is bigger than Trump.”
It certainly is. However, whoever said feminism is redundant probably voted for Trump, and now that someone who repeatedly manages to use sexist and shameful discourse in order to undercut and offend millions of people has been elected president of the U.S., this song could not be more important. Pussy Riot has ample experience battling Putin’s right-wing populist and bigoted ideas and being punished for it; and now in the aftermath of the US election and newly established Putin-Trump friendship, their expertise will come in handy. It seems as if there’s a lot of pressure on Pussy Riot’s shoulders currently, made more cumbersome especially since there have been a creative disengagement among the co-founders of Pussy Riot, Nadya Tolokonnikova and Masha Alyokhina. Pussy Riot is still expected to release two more videos with topics that deal with the politics of both Russia and the US.
Straight outta Vagina song featuring Desi Mo and Leikeli47 talks about marketing vaginas in a way we’re unfortunately not so accustomed to in our patriarchal culture. It’s inclusive and empowering, it talks about marketing vaginas as a type of currency that is above all currencies and not in a Beyonce’s feminist way (who sees getting rich as a solution to the problem, not seeing exactly how this option is made unavailable to most). Pussy Riot makes a strong case to surpass this type of unfair services exchange, but don’t exactly show us how. Then again, they are a feminist-punk band, they can inspire and aspire to, but in all honesty, we all gotta have a share in this battle if we really want a change. The lines “Don’t be stupid, don’t be dumb, vagina’s where you’re really from” provide enough political charge for one song to be significant, and really, how lovely they made it so catchy so we can chant it around when we need a quick relief from patriarchal woes. Thank you, Pussy Riot.
In the meantime, we’re still waiting for the day we can finally wrap up the disaster called patriarchy and send it to a dark hole (no pun intended) like we should have ages ago. Keyword: get informed and organize yourselves before it’s too late. Based on today’s election results, we can see that even the unthinkable is possible. What’s it gonna be, playing stupid for all eternity?
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CREDITS:
Directed by: Phillip R Lopez
Produced by: Super Fun Productions
Starring: Prymrr
