Pussy is grabbing back, and it’s not waiting until November 8th to do it. On Tuesday, Pussy Riot’s Nadya Tolokonnikova released “Straight Outta Vagina,” her response to the vaginally charged, phallocentric U.S. presidential election. While the collaboration with musician and producer Dave Sitek was actually recorded back in February, it’s a prescient pop culture clap back to a candidate who just can’t seem to keep his hands to himself.
As a member of Russia’s preeminent punk rock feminist collective, Tolokonnikova is uniquely positioned to criticize Trump and his merry band of Putin-praising Trumpkins. In 2012, she was among the five members of the collective to stage a performance in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Savior, billed as a protest against the Orthodox Church leaders’ support for Putin during his election campaign. Consequently, Tolokonnikova and Pussy Riot co-founder Maria Alyokhina were arrested and charged with hooliganism, the preferred crime of nasty women everywhere. After spending almost two years in Russian prison, the architect behind the “punk prayer” heard ‘round the world is back at it, dismantling the patriarchy via Pussy Riot’s trademark balaclavas and an army of well-placed, hard-working merkins.
According to Tolokonnikova, “This song could be considered an answer to Trump. But I believe the idea of powerful female sexuality is much bigger than any populist megalomaniac man…Vagina is bigger than Trump.” While vagina might be bigger than Trump, the relationship between the two entities has become a strange mainstay of this increasingly surreal election. Despite the Republican presidential nominee’s history of mistreating, maligning, and generally disrespecting women and their nether regions, his campaign has also given vaginal visibility an unexpected boost. This bump came courtesy of a now-infamous 2005 tape, in which the then-businessman bragged about his ability to grab beautiful women “by the
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With daily usage of the word pussy way up, the Trump campaign promises to do for vagina-related content what it temporarily did for Tic-Tacs and Scott Baio. Of course, Pussy Riot isn’t just riding this popularity wave for clicks—there’s also the political imperative of taking on the propagation of “patriarchal and misogynist ideas,” which Tolokonnikova has diagnosed as a sexually transmitted disease that’s spread from Moscow to Trump Tower. “Politicians are praising ‘strong leadership,’” she noted. “Trump openly supports the authoritarian methods of Vladimir Putin. And it’s scary. It’s not the world in which I want to live.”
Anyone considering fleeing the hellscape of America in 2016 should consider moving to the trippy, feminist fantasy world of “Straight Outta Vagina.” The high energy video melds Christian iconography, genderqueer fashion, and blue balloons to miraculous effect. As women strut in front of urinals and show off their muscles, men accessorize the frame in spiffy black suits and red heels. A little girl transforms into a balaclava-sporting MC, spitting a feminist rap with references spanning from Maya Angelou to Eileen Myles (“I wear my vag as a badge of honor”). “Straight Outta Vagina” might grab you with its girl power shenanigans and water-less pool party, but the real pull is the labial lyrics. These are lines like “Vagina gonna take the stage because vagina’s got a lot to say”—Hillary Clinton’s new campaign motto?—and “Don’t play stupid, don’t play dumb, vagina’s where you’re really from.” Pussy Riot is appealing to all genders to contend with the unbridled power of the pussy; like HeForShe, but with less Emma Watson and more pastel merkins.
Luckily (or unluckily) for us, Trump’s tiny, grabby, Twitter-happy fingers have given the punk rockers a lot of material to work with. Pussy Riot are expected to release two more videos in the near future, reacting to the overlapping injustices of American and Russian politics. And while the collective is sure to tackle on-brand topics like populism, nationalism, and patriarchy, it’s hard to imagine them topping this catchy, NSFW ode to all things vaginal.
