Sex Work in Contemporary Russia

Emily Schuckman Matthews

doi:10.5771/9781666915952

Summary

Sex Work in Russia weaves together a wide range of materials to examine the figure of the female sex worker in Russia from the early twentieth century to the present day. This book offers readers both an expansive and nuanced discussion of the significance of this archetypal female who appears with remarkable frequency in literature, film, and other cultural productions. Emily Schuckman Matthews explores the ways in which the fictional sex worker (and her real-life counterpart) has become a symbolic representative of social and moral instability, economic volatility, political, social, and ideological revolutions, and changing concepts of gender, sexuality, and the nation itself. Focus is given to the movement of the female sex worker from marginal foil to a hero in her own right, even finding a voice of her own in recent years. Works featuring this alluring and complex figure reveal critical insights into the changing position of women and other marginalized people in a volatile Russia.

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Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2023
ISBN-Print: 978-1-6669-1594-5
ISBN-Online: 978-1-6669-1595-2
Publisher: Lexington, Lanham
Language: English
Pages: 278
Product type: Book Titles

1. Contents No access
2. List of Figures No access
3. Acknowledgments No access
4. Notes on Translation and Transliteration No access
1. Why Sex Work? No access
2. Definitions and Legal Status of Prostitution in Russia No access
3. Theoretical Frameworks No access
4. A History of Prerevolutionary Fictional Prostitutes in Russia No access
5. Notes No access
1. “Sisters” (“Sestry”) No access
2. At the Turning Point (Na Perelome) No access
3. 1. The Prostitute (Crushed by Life) (Prostitutka (Ubitaia Zhizniu)) No access
  2. My Motherland (Moia Rodina) No access
  3. Women (Zhenschiny) No access
  4. Happy Moscow (Schastlivaia Moskva) No access
4. Conclusion No access
5. Notes No access
1. Sex and Prostitution as a Theme, Metaphor, and Reality During Glasnost and Perestroika No access
2. 1. Chernukha No access
  2. “Ksenia’s Daughter” (Doch Kseni) No access
  3. “Stars in the Morning Sky” (Zvezdy na utrennem nebe) No access
  4. “The Ministry of ‘Easy’ Behavior” (“Ministerstvo Legkogo Povedeniia”) No access
  5. Intergirl (Interdevochka) No access
  6. “The Three Loves of Masha Peredreeva” (“Tri Liubvi Mashi Peredreevoi”) No access
  7. Hunting for a Pimp (Okhota na sutenera) No access
3. 1. The Life of Insects (Zhizn nasekomykh) No access
  2. Brother 2 (Brat 2) No access
4. Conclusion No access
5. Notes No access
1. 1. Gender No access
  2. Women in the Post-Soviet Economy No access
  3. Iaia’s “Land of the Deaf” No access
  4. Sexual Identity and “Otherness” No access
2. 1. Rape No access
  2. Female Masochism No access
  3. Sexual Identity No access
  4. Lesbianism and Prostitution as Interconnected, Pathological Conditions No access
  5. Happy Endings No access
3. Conclusion No access
4. Notes No access
1. Moscow No access
2. Neo-Chernukha and Social Critique No access
3. 1. Sexuality and Agency in The Hope Factory No access
4. 1. The Familiarized Exotic of the Provinces in Chicks No access
  2. Female Sexuality and Feminism in Chicks No access
5. Conclusion No access
6. Notes No access
1. 1. Genre No access
  2. Neo-chernukha Elements in An Ordinary Woman No access
  3. Sex Workers’ Byt in Accursed Paradise No access
  4. Sex Work in An Ordinary Woman No access
  5. Biznes Women No access
  6. Working Mothers No access
2. Accursed Paradise No access
3. 1. Multi-Generational Caregiving No access
4. 1. Accursed Paradise No access
  2. An Ordinary Woman No access
5. Conclusions No access
6. Notes No access
1. Images of Elite Prostitution from Imperial Russia to the Present No access
2. 1. Sex Worker-Blogger: “Prostitutka Ket” and the Expansion of Sexual Discourse in Russia No access
  2. Sex-Worker Influencer: Nastya Rybka and Social Media No access
3. Why Are These Women Aspirational? No access
4. Notes No access
1. 1. Marusia Morkovkina No access
  2. Bread and Freedom (Zа khleb i volnost) No access
  3. Aphrodite’s Girdle (Poias Afrodity) No access
  4. I Am Julia Roberts (Ia—Dzhuliia Roberts) No access
2. 1. Victoria Lomasko: The Girls of Nizhny Novgorod No access
  2. Zoya Cherkassky: Women Who Work No access
  3. Antonina Baever: Mermaids (Rusalki) No access
3. 1. The Walk (Progulka) No access
  2. Daria Apakhonchich: Relaxation for Men No access
4. Conclusion No access
5. Notes No access
1. Economic and Social Realities for Marginalized Women in Russia No access
2. Women Challenging Patriarchal Norms No access
3. Sexuality and the Body in Russian Culture No access
4. Notes No access
Bibliography No access Pages 239 - 256
Index No access Pages 257 - 276
About the Author No access Pages 277 - 278