This morning Pussy Riot released a new music video for "Make America Great Again"—a deeply unsettling depiction of what a Trump presidency could look like. This follows two other videos the Russian feminist collective has released this week, "Straight Outta Vagina" and "Organs."
"Straight Outta Vagina" humorously rails against men's disassociation from vaginas: "Don't play stupid, don't play dumb/Vagina's where you're really from." But its caption warns of the danger in presidential candidate Donald Trump's horrendous rhetoric surrounding women's bodies: "The owner of vaginas is not some narcissistic stupid orange ape who’d claim that he could easily grab women by their pussies. The owner of vagina is a woman."
"Organs" is far more sinister; Nadya Tolokno sits in a bathtub filled with blood as she sings in Russian about all the promises Putin made, but laments that "Freedom and bondage is the same shit now." The caption describes potential consequences of a Trump presidency: "They could close all independent media outlets. And they could control your body and sexuality. They could try to swallow your vitality and creativity."
But "Make America Great Again" is by far the most horrific and ominous of the three. Here Pussy Riot imagines a post-election America under Trump, where the media is reduced to the "Trump News Network" and protests are met with violent silencing. Those who fall out of line with Trump's great American ideal are branded with phrases like "outsider," "fat pig," and "she made an abortion." Between Tolokno's screams as she's brutalized by police, she sings, "Let other people in/Listen to your women/Stop killing black children/Make America great again."
Pussy Riot has experienced the impact of corrupt, bigoted political leaders firsthand. The protest group formed in 2011 following Putin's return to presidency, and shortly after their 2012 performance of "Punk Prayer" at Moscow's Cathedral of Christ the Savior ("Virgin Mary, Mother of God, put Putin away"), Tolokno, Maria Alyokhina, and Yekaterina Samutsevich were imprisoned on charges of hooliganism motivated by religious hatred. Tolokno and Alekhina remained in prison for almost two years, enduring terrible living conditions.
"Make America Great Again" is hard to watch, because they've seen what someone like Trump can do to a country. Just last February, Alyokhina and Ksenia Zhivago came to Portland for a lengthy discussion and Q&A with moderators John Sepulvado and local musician/author Storm Large. When someone asked Alyokhina to comment on the American primary elections, she drew parallels between Trump and Putin and warned, “They don’t believe in anything.”
Also see:
"Last Night's Conversation with Pussy Riot Was Weird" (2/10/16)
