Under Western Eyes

“Under Western Eyes is an invaluable contribution to the literature on gender studies and queer studies in the Slavic world, as well as an insightful treatment of cold war dynamics.” ― Eliot Borenstein, Professor of Russian & Slavic Studies, New York University

“Under Western Eyes takes an insightful look at how LGBTQ+ rights, race, and gender are caught in the crossfire of U.S. and Russian imperial ambitions. Beyond the East vs. West narrative, this book dives into how both sides manipulate these issues for their own political gain. From the Western media’s portrayal of Russian LGBTQ+ activists as heroic martyrs to Putin’s hyper-masculine image as the ultimate defender of "traditional values," the book unpacks how queer and feminist struggles are co-opted, distorted, and weaponized. It also exposes how racial and ethnic communities, both in Russia and beyond, are erased or exploited in these battles for global influence. Through a queer, feminist, and anti-imperialist lens, Under Western Eyes challenges us to rethink the stories about power, oppression, and identity across the East/West divide. In a world of rising authoritarianism, racial violence, and the ongoing Russia's war against Ukraine, this book is an urgent invitation to interrogate the forces shaping our political landscape.” ―Tatsiana Shchurko, Assistant Professor of Instruction, Department of Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, University of South Florida

“With keen cultural and historical insight, Katharina Wiedlack cuts through the overdetermined West/Russia binary re-produced in US/Anglophone media and academic discourses to reveal a far more complex terrain of entangled imperialisms. Wiedlack unpacks the sexual, gendered, racialized, and ableist stakes of projecting Russia as always already regressive through a range of cultural representations – from Pussy Riot and gay Russian refugees to American television and the sentencing of Brittney Griner. Under Western Eyes: Vulnerable Minorities and the Russian State in New Cold War Cultures is a much-needed queer, feminist, and anti-imperial take on how American superiority and imperialism both depends upon and constructs an 'evil empire.' In exposing what American culture gets wrong about Russia, Wiedlack also illuminates lived vulnerabilities in Russia’s ethno-nationalist global project.” ― Jennifer Suchland, Associate Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies and Slavic and East European Languages and Cultures, Ohio State University

“Wiedlack’s book is an important contribution to scholarship on how cultural production centering on sexuality, gender and race participates in geopolitical and imperial projects. Drawing on a rich material of film, television, photography and news media, her analysis troubles the simplistic, selective and often self-celebratory understandings that tend to structure US depictions of repression in Russia. The book advances ongoing conversations about visibility, victimhood and solidarity in global queer politics and provides contextualized knowledge that help us better understand the current geopolitical moment.” ― Emil Edenborg, Associate Professor of Gender Studies, Stockholm University

"Under Western Eyes is a bold reading of the new Cold War from a queer, feminist, anti-racist, anti-imperialist perspective, a reading that becomes more relevant—and more vulnerable—with every passing day. Offering an entangled history of US and Russian discourses on sexuality and gender, Wiedlack critically interrogates the biopolitics of Putin’s promotion of traditional family values and of Western 'queer imperialism' to shine a light on the vulnerable bodies produced by both." ― Brian James Baer, Professor of Russian and Translation Studies, Kent State University, President of American Translation and Interpreting Studies Association