Cooper-Cunningham, D. orcid.org/0000-0001-6043-2911 (2022) Security, sexuality, and the Gay Clown Putin meme : queer theory and international responses to Russian political homophobia. Security Dialogue, 53 (4). pp. 302-323. ISSN 0967-0106
Abstract
Focusing on the case of ‘Gay Clown Putin’, this article theorizes memes as visual interventions in international politics. While not all memes are political interventions, Gay Clown Putin is an iconic meme that is part of the international response to Russian state-directed political homophobia that emerged after the gay propaganda law was passed in 2013. How it has circulated and the attention it has received make it apt for exploring memes as visual political interventions that challenge national security discourses. Here, I provide three readings of Gay Clown Putin that suggest different possibilities for how the meme might work politically. In so doing, I deepen international relations’ engagement with queer theory by bringing in the politics of play that works through a queer epistemology that embraces deviance. Bringing memes to the study of international security, I show how the collection of images making up the Gay Clown Putin meme provides space for understanding the visual politics of security.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
---|---|
Authors/Creators: |
|
Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2022 The Author(s). This is an author produced version of a paper subsequently published in Security Dialogue. Uploaded in accordance with the publisher's self-archiving policy. Article available under the terms of the CC-BY-NC-ND licence (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/). |
Keywords: | Critical security studies; memes; queer; sexuality; visual politics |
Dates: |
|
Institution: | The University of Sheffield |
Academic Units: | The University of Sheffield > Faculty of Social Sciences (Sheffield) > Department of Politics and International Relations (Sheffield) |
Funding Information: | Funder Grant number Independent Research Fund Denmark 7015-00093B |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Sheffield |
Date Deposited: | 03 May 2022 11:27 |
Last Modified: | 03 Feb 2023 15:27 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | SAGE Publications |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1177/09670106211055308 |
Related URLs: | |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:186291 |
Download
Filename: Security, Sexuality, and the Gay Clown Putin Meme - author accepted manuscript.pdf
Licence: CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0