(David Oliveira / NurPhoto via Getty Images) |
By Felicia Kornbluh | Sociologist and author Laurie Essig has decades of experience studying and visiting Russia (and before that, the Soviet Union). Her first book, Queer in Russia, chronicles and analyzes the time between the dissolution of the USSR and the solidification of Putin’s non- (or anti-)democratic rule in Russia.
As Trump’s second term intensifies anti-gender rhetoric, sociologist Laurie Essig draws chilling parallels between rising U.S. authoritarianism and decades of state-sponsored repression in Putin’s Russia.
“One of the things we can learn from Russia is just how important resistance is. There were moments when things could have gone differently. They didn’t, but I don’t think that was pre-ordained. …
“Every strongman, every dictator we look at, had anxiety about masculinity.” (Click here to read more) |
