Mater Nostra: The Anti-blasphemy Message of the Feminist Punk-Prayer

Abstract

In this essay I develop a blasphemy counter-discourse arguing that it was ecclesial and state authorities who committed blasphemies, which were condemned by Pussy Riot’s punk-prayer. Thus, the performance in this respect may be interpreted as an anti-blasphemy protest. The blasphemy list includes the collaboration of the church with the authoritarian state, known as heresy of Sergianism; Caesar and Temple idolatry, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, Virgin Mary and Folly for Christ’s sake. The punk-prayer may be interpreted as a feminine version of the Lord’s Prayer – Mater Nostra. Several corporeal narratives in the background – women’s dress code and rape debates, Virgin Mary’s belt, and its alleged miraculous ability to help women to deliver a baby – may be seen as allegories of feminist vs. patriarchal opposition in Russian religious and political culture.