Personal is Not Political? The Sexual Self in Russian Talk Shows of the 1990s

Abstract

AbstractThe changes in the public discourse on sex and the sexual self in post-Soviet Russia are usually referred to as a “sexual revolution”. However, the fast rejection of freedoms with respect to sexual identities, same-sex relationships and withering of the public discussions about intimacies and sex-education already in the early 2000s requires closer look at discourses of the “sexual revolution” of the 1990s in Russia in order to understand better the character of this rapid change. In this paper I am particularly interested in the discursive dimension and historical implications of the new sexual selves as expressed in the public space in a form of TV-show. The article is analyzing discourses around sexuality and intimacy with focus on two talk-shows broadcasted by the Russian television in the 1990s (“Ya sama” and “Pro eto”) and dealing with gender identities, sexualities and intimacies. I show that articulation of the sexual self as a choice that is relatively free from political and material constraints was an important dimension of the public presentation of sexuality. At the same time differences and deviations from the institutionalized and normalized (hetero)sexuality started to be seen as a subject of “personal choice” and “individual responsibility”.