Katharina Wiedlack, "Under Western Eyes: Vulnerable Minorities and the Russian State in New Cold War Cultures" (Academic Studies Press, 2025)

About this episode

The episode discusses how Anglophone media portrays vulnerable minorities in Russia amidst the New Cold War, contrasting liberal and Russian values.

Under Western Eyes: Vulnerable Minorities and the Russian State in New Cold War Cultures (Academic Studies Press, 2025) examines the New Cold War between Anglophone Western and Russian media, focusing on its coverage of LGBTIQ+ topics and representations of Russian femininity, masculinity, racial and gender diversity, and disability. It interrogates how the Anglophone media constructs images of vulnerable bodies and groups in Russia, juxtaposing them with the vengeful state and the powerful figure of Putin. These media discourses delineate and unify liberal values as American and Western and contrast them with "backward" Russian values. Paradoxically, in its endeavor to accentuate American dominance and its role in global affairs, various news outlets and entertainment media amplify homophobic, heteronormative, and racist narratives stemming from Russian sources and lend support to Putin's self-portrayal as a formidable opponent to the West. While the West expresses outrage at Putin’s criminalization of LGBTIQ+ activity, it draws on homophobic language to mock his shirtless horse-riding and “bromance” with Trump; the West condemns Russia's oppression of women, yet peddles the…

People in this episode

Guest: Katharina Wiedlack

Topics covered

• New Cold War
• LGBTIQ+ topics
• media representation
• Russian state
• gender diversity
• racial diversity
• disability

Keywords

• New Cold War
• LGBTIQ+
• media
• Putin
• Russian femininity
• masculinity
• racial diversity
• gender diversity
• disability

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Academic Studies Press

More episodes of New Books in Russian and Eurasian Studies

• Yiddish Ethnography and An-ski · May 29, 2026
• Gennady Estraikh, "The History of Birobidzhan: Building a Soviet Jewish Homeland in Siberia" (Bloombury, 2023) · April 26, 2026 · 1h 0m
• Stephen F. Jones, "The First Social Democracy: The Democratic Republic of Georgia, 1918–1921" (Harvard UP, 2026) · April 21, 2026 · 1h 5m
• Sasha Senderovich and Harriet Murav, "In the Shadow of the Holocaust: Short Fiction by Jewish Writers from the Soviet Union" (Stanford UP, 2026) · April 20, 2026 · 1h 2m
• Kristan Stoddart, "Russia's Hybrid Warfare Offensive Against the West" (de Gruyter, 2025) · April 19, 2026 · 1h 21m
• Donald Sassoon, "Revolutions: A New History" (Verso Books, 2025) · April 14, 2026 · 56 min