Graffiti Girls: Gender Features of Russian Youth Subculture

The author describes the role of girls in the graffiti community and street art movement. The situation in the United States and in Russia are compared. Russian research results are based on interviews with girls from Samara, Novosibirsk, Gratifying, and Moscow. According to American researchers, the legal and personal dangers and the rebellious nature of writing graffiti are factors that writers conceptualize as male and use as achievements attesting to their masculinity. The purposeful exclusion of female writers is thus essential to the development of a (male) writer's identity. There were just a few women who penetrate the subculture during the 1980s, and they did with some difficulty. The women are typically characterized by male writers as “slutty”. Still, this fact has not deterred female writers but it has affected their numbers and the recognition (or lack thereof) of their work. Beginning with the pioneering work of NYC female writers, women's presence in the male-dominated world of graffiti has greatly expanded to our days. Today's female writers approach their writing from two opposite angles. Some take advantage of the anonymity of writing to disguise their sex or at least not call attention to it, while others are keen to make their work, through subject matter, colour, and style, appear blatantly feminine. In the Russian graffiti subculture, as well as in the American one, there is a gender asymmetry. This is due to the fact that the ideology, values and norms of behavior of this subculture are pronounced masculine in character. Ideology promotes the illegal nature of the activities of graffiti artists which is associated with a high level of danger. Therefore, girls rarely go in this area. In most cases, girls begin to draw graffiti, if their boyfriend is also engaged. They become a mentor and guarantor of security for girls. But girls rarely see graffiti as a way of self-realization. Graffiti for them is a way to expand the range of common interests with their boyfriends. Thus, graffiti for girls often has value not in itself, but as a tool that helps to build relationships with boys. Graffiti attracts girls who have a tendency to creative activity. The opportunity to creatively realize themselves attracts girls to street art: they use it as a means of professional self-realization, as in this art practical artistic abilities are valued, not the physical abilities and danger. Girls choose style in accordance to their aims. The mood inside the graffiti community doesn't affect it. There are no specific female roles in the subculture. Femininity in graffiti is seen as a weakened variant of masculinity.

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