Miley Vs. Pussy Riot

Amidst all of the furor over Miley’s twerking, Rihanna’s latest selfie, or the Kanye/Jimmy Kimmel “feud,” there lurks a story that is deserving of your outrage. Months before the VMAs, there was a truly revolutionary musical performance. Maybe you’ve heard about it, maybe you haven’t; the thread of Pussy Riot and their perfomance, arrest and attendant convictions and prison sentences have been lost in the aftermath of...uhhh.. twerking.

Quick synopsis: here we have several twenty-something “anarchist” Russian musicians, jailed for a performance in a church deemed so offensive, it landed the girls hard time in the Russian penal system. H-A-R-D time. According to the band, the performance was, in part, to protest the church’s increasing role in Putin’s hard-line government. Westerners everywhere have almost certainly witnessed worse performances in punk clubs the world over.

It earned the girls a two year sentence. Here is an open letter from Tolokonnikova describing her conditions at the prison. It’s a pretty shocking letter.

Pussy Riot member Nadezhda Tolokonnikova embarked on a hunger strike seven days ago. She was placed in solitary confinement and denied all visits, even by family members, heightening concerns about her condition. The Russian authorities say the move is “to protect Nadezhda Tolonnikova’s fragile health.” That hunger strike, now in its seventh day has landed her in a hospital. Ironically, that is good news.

So let’s think about what these young women are facing before we get so outraged and disgusted with a little bit of ass-shaking or semi-naked selfies. It’s not the end of the world; Elvis Presley should have taught us all that. If outrage is your response, perhaps it would be better directed at the persecutors of women who speak their minds, rather than a hot-mess cartoon character “outraging” us in a crass, calculated publicity grab.