Geoscience Reference
In-Depth Information
The political exclusion and
commodification of women
Maria Lvova
Introduction
As the Russian Federation evolved from the ashes of the Soviet Union, an emerg-
ing phenomenon appeared to take shape in the form of an increasing tendency
to tolerate the 'sex industry', 'trafficking' and 'prostitution' and to accept them
as essential parts of post-Soviet society. At the same time, Russian society has
also appeared to reject, if not ignore, such notions as 'violence', 'discrimination',
'inequality' and 'sexual harassment'. Attitudes towards sex since the fall of the
Soviet Union provides just one example of how women have been commodified
in post-communist Russia. At the same time, women's participation in demo-
cratic processes, as well as attitudes towards such participation, has been very
poor. In combination, the democratization processes taking place in Russia have
not had a positive effect on women and women's security. Russian democra-
tization has been operationalized largely through an assumption that periodic
elections combined with an unregulated market economy leads to democracy.
In this chapter I wish to raise the conflicting issues around democratization pro-
cesses and how this has affected women, in particular with regards to attitudes
towards the sex trade. The prognosis does not look promising for Russian women
and their overall security. I argue here that we need to look into Russia's past,
and the attitudes inherited from the USSR, to understand how attitudes towards
women have developed over time. I then examine this issue through an analysis
of the relationship between economics and the concept of 'democracy' occurring
at both the state and individual levels, as well as through concepts within liber-
alism (negative and positive freedom). Thereafter I discuss current state policy,
what values are reflected in these policies towards prostitution and trafficking,
and how this relates to what democracy means in Russia.
The two terms 'trafficking' and 'prostitution' are often closely linked.
As stated in the study commissioned by the Norwegian Ministries of Local
Government and Regional Development, and of Justice and the Police, car-
ried out by the Fafo Institute for Applied International Studies: 'the terms
prostitution and trafficking are not necessarily self-evident in their mean-
ings, and to operate with a clear line of demarcation between the two may be
 
 
 
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