Valerie Sperling, “Sex, Politics and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia” (Oxford UP, 2015)

In Conversation: An OUP Podcast · May 23, 2016 · 57m

The prevalence of media that reinforces a traditional masculine image of Vladimir Putin, Russia’s leader, is at the core of Valerie Sperling‘s analysis of gender norms and sexualization as a means of political legitimacy. Not surprisingly, the cover of her book Sex, Politics, and Putin: Political Legitimacy in Russia (Oxford University Press 2015) , features a photograph of Putin bare-chested and riding a horse. Sperling demonstrates the ways in which both Putin’s supporters and the opposition use cultural idioms of masculinity, femininity and homophobia — grounded in widespread acceptance of…