Revolutionary Manliness
By Sean at 2 November, 2009, 12:51 pm
For those interested in a taste of my academic work, I’ve contributed an entry called “Revolutionary Manliness” to the Soviet history site Seventeen Moments in Soviet History. If you register, and you should because the site is a wonderful resource especially for instructors, you can check out the accompanying source, “Klasha the Komsomol Girl.” Here is an excerpt from the essay:
The Komsomol gender problem, however, cannot be simply reduced to sexism, indifference and harassment. The difficulty was also that the ethos of a young communist was coded masculine. Even if a girl negotiated boys’ torments, her very femininity precluded her from becoming a true communist. In order to craft a “new everyday life” in the 1920s, young male communists denied all signs of the feminine in mannerism, dress, and emotions. The most visible symbols were the leather jacket; knee high leather boots, a Sam Brown belt, and a pistol. Indeed, one commentator noted that the “chador” of the so-called “pure blooded proletarian” included a whole assembly of fashion and attitude. Komsomols went around in dilapidated boots with permanently stuck on black dirt, a long, worn out leather jacket, living on dry crusts, and denying themselves rest, entertainment, and often food.” Emotions like sentimentality were rejected for a cold, hard demeanor. The ideal communist, according to a certain Nikolai Kartsev, was “serious, businesslike, showed disdain for all dancing and any gallantry, only sang revolutionary songs, dispersed in secluded pairs [having sex], didn’t attend village parties, and only hung out with “non-party” guys for political discussions and not for fun.”
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I had a friend who went to see Angela Davis speak at a local university. I asked him to tell me all about it, and he said, “She was dressed really well. I mean, for a Communist.” It totally cracked us up. Because we’re social-minded intellectual types who aren’t supposed to care about such things. Communists aren’t supposed to care about such things. But it was this huge weight off our shoulders that you could be a commie AND look good!
I’ll refrain from drawing any comparison between the aktivistka in that drawing and most female lefty activists I know.
Maybe Communism failed because it just wasn’t sexy. I think I’ve found my calling…
Though she’s supposed to disdain all boogying, her left leg has a distinctly danciness about it.
“…the leather jacket; knee high leather boots, a Sam Brown belt, and a pistol.”
Funny, that’s how I always pictured ‘poemless’ in my mind…
“…dispersed in secluded pairs (having sex)…”
All right, which joker translated that?
Well you actually got the first two right.
Who say’s Soviet can’t be made sexy? Well, post-Soviet kitsch anyway.
(Warning: slight nudity.)
I used to listen to Radio Moscow in the 1980s. The female presenters were sexy sounding. Soviet spies in films are always sexy women. Reilly Ace of Spies got shot by men. Nasty horrible things Soviet men. THank god they’ve all gone? Or have they? When the gas starts running out I reckon Communism will make a come back. What goes around comes around. This time it’ll be led by women.