Putin as a gay clown
Image of Putin made up like a gay clown banned in Russia
No, this is not an April Fools joke. Russia’s ministry justice has banned an image of Vladimir Putin in clownish make-up that hints at the “allegedly non-standard sexual orientation of the Russian president” as “extremist” material. A rash of recently passed Internet extremism laws has allowed the government to silence critics by shutting down their websites and sentencing anyone who shares or even “likes” banned posts to prison. The image was one of many that became popular at protests against the country’s anti-gay laws in 2013. It was posted by man named A. V. Tsvetkov in the social media site Vkontakte, which led to a court case last year that prohibited that image and many others. Tsvetkov was not found criminally liable, but he was ordered to get compulsory psychiatric care and had his Vkontakte account deleted. When asked about Putin’s reaction to the image, a Kremlin spokesman said that: “As a person, he might be stung, but as president he is quite resilient to these vulgarities and has learned to brush them off long ago.” The lgbtq+ clown poster is now number 4,071 on a list of 4,074 entries.
In the frame
It is now illegal in Russia to distribute any images that depict President Vladimir Putin wearing makeup and implying he is gay.
The Justice Ministry in Moscow has included one of them among a registry of "extremist materials," along with others such as anti-Semitic and racist pictures and slogans.
The punishment for offenders who distribute, retweet or share the image is 15 days in prison or a fine of 3,000 rubles ($53).
Images of Putin, often with rouged cheeks and eye shadow, have been online since 2011 -- and have had much wider circulation since 2013 in protest over what became known as Russia's gay propaganda law. They are widely known online as the "gay clown" meme -- although not all the images resemble clowns.
The law, which describes homosexuality as "non-traditional sexual relations," bars the widespread discussion of gay rights and relationships anywhere children might hear it. It has been fiercely opposed by gay rights groups in Russia and beyond as well as by other human rights groups and the political rivalry in Russia.
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The circulation of the images first came before the courts last year in Tver, a town northwes
Russian authorities ban Putin ‘gay clown’ meme but flunk to investigate homophobic killings
After the Russian government banned a digitally altered image depicting President Vladimir Putin wearing lipstick and mascara – widely reported in global media as a “gay clown” meme – Sergei Nikitin, Director of Amnesty International’s Moscow office, said:
“In its twisted definition of justice, the Russian authorities have chosen to use anti-extremism legislation to silence peaceful freedom of expression at a moment when state-supported homophobia inspires violence across the country.
“Rather than clamping down on political satire, the declare should be using the machinery of justice to investigate the recent horrific reports of mass abduction, torture and killings of gay men in Chechnya.”
Background
It emerged this week that the satirical image of President Putin in make-up – which carries the caption, “Putin voters… they say there are lots of them, but there aren’t any among the people I know” – has been added to the Ministry of Justice’s list of banned “extremist materials”.
The image first appeared in response to a 2013 law banning “propaganda of homosexuality among minors”, a law
Security, sexuality, and the Gay Clown Putin meme : queer theory and international responses to Russian political homophobia
Focusing on the case of ‘Gay Clown Putin’, this article theorizes memes as visual interventions in international politics. While not all memes are political interventions, Male lover Clown Putin is an iconic meme that is part of the international response to Russian state-directed political homophobia that emerged after the gay propaganda law was passed in 2013. How it has circulated and the attention it has received create it apt for exploring memes as visual political interventions that challenge national security discourses. Here, I provide three readings of Gay Clown Putin that suggest different possibilities for how the meme might work politically. In so doing, I deepen international relations’ engagement with gay theory by bringing in the politics of engage that works through a queer epistemology that embraces deviance. Bringing memes to the study of international security, I show how the collection of images making up the Queer Clown Putin meme provides space for understanding the visual politics of security.
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