The political exclusion and commodification of women - Environmental and Human Security in the Arctic - page 260

society was high. In mixing the terms 'market economy' and 'democracy',
people started to substitute economic principles for everyday rules.
When the Soviet Union lost its empire and its regime and then finally
ceased to exist, the reconstruction of social life began, not with popu-
lar movement or new ideas, but with economic management … Given
that the Soviet regime had been totalitarian, economic freedom seemed
to many people to mark an immediate transition to democracy and even
prosperity.
(Touraine 1997:175)
From one point of view, the adoption of the market model was a necessary
step. The market economy allowed the integration of the Russian econ-
omy into the world economic system. It gave an opportunity for Russia to
develop free competition in its internal market. After empty shelves in the
shops and a period of deficit, people were looking forward to change for
good. But from another perspective, in addition to ill-planned reforms and
mass confusion, phenomena such as a growing sex industry and criminal
activity were left without any attention from a highly corrupted state. The
transition to capitalism brought Russia the possibility of participating in
the global market as a free and equal partner. But there were other less wel-
come outcomes such as involvement in the global sex industry and labour
migration. Trying to establish democracy in a form of market economy,
the government did not notice that a so-called 'market approach' started to
operate in all spheres of Russian life. The commercialization and privatiza-
tion of the education and healthcare systems was rationalized as an essential
step. The state that controlled so much previously now neglected a num-
ber of social issues: closed kindergartens, poor municipal services, increased
prices for travel and unchecked pyramid schemes, for example. Lack of state
regulation facilitated increasing discrimination against women in terms of
inequity in wages, reduced access to jobs, reduced career promotion and
increased redundancies. This played well into the sexual objectification
of women, who became increasingly linked to the domestic or entertain-
ment spheres as creatures defined by sexual capacity. The vast majority of
advertisements were based on the exploitation of women's bodies and their
sexuality. The sex industry developed rapidly. Women were increasingly
objectified as a possession, with sexuality as a profitable object. Democracy
understood as market economy had a distinct effect upon women's bodies
and lives.
The substitution of the term 'democracy' with the term 'market economy'
led to the transformation of mass consciousness. Young Russian capitalistic
society easily perceived sexuality as a commodity. Interpersonal relation-
ships became grounded in the 'market approach' or 'business imperative'
(Klimenkova 1994:14) and became the norm. The market economy brought