November 2, 2016
Watch: Pussy Riot Video Seeks to 'Make America Great Again'
Winnie McCroy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
In their third new song and satirical video this week, "Make America Great Again," the feminist punk group Pussy Riot imagines the aftermath of a Donald Trump presidency, to horrific result. The video follows YouTube breakers "Organs" and "Straight Outta Vagina," and it's the most political of the three.
The video, directed by Jonas Akerlund with additional music by Ricky Reed, shows cops in Trump wigs branding a rioter with tabs like "Outsider," "Pervert" and "Fat Pig." The imagery depicted harkens back to Soviet-era propaganda.
"What do want the world to look like, what do you want it to be?" sings Nadya Tolokno, dressed like Trump, as calypso-type music plays. It then shows a woman being made to fit a chart matching Trump's "Ideal Body Proportion: Female."
The video features graphic imagery of branding, prison rape, forced abortion, shooting, and even more frightening -- actual footage of Donald Trump. The video has surprisingly high production values.
"Can you imagine a politician calling a woman a dog? Do you want to stay in the kitchen, is that where you belong? How do you picture the perfect leader, how do you want him to be, has he promoted the use of torture and killing families?" they sing.
The refrain rings out, "Did your mama come from Mexico, papa come from Palestine?" with the chorus, "Let other people in, listen to your women, stop killing black children."
In an interview with Billboard, Tolokno spoke about the song and compared Trump to Putin saying, "I know more than Americans, unfortunately, what it's like to have such a guy as president. That's why I came up with the idea of burning and stigmatization [in the video]," she stated. "I wanted to warn people that words do hurt physically. When he calls people 'fat pigs' it affects their physical existence. That's why I came up with this image [of 'fat pig' being branded on a woman's body]."
The video is one of three that Pussy Riot released for their new EP "xxx," released on October 28.
Winnie McCroy is the Women on the EDGE Editor, HIV/Health Editor, and Assistant Entertainment Editor for EDGE Media Network, handling all women's news, HIV health stories and theater reviews throughout the U.S. She has contributed to other publications, including The Village Voice, Gay City News, Chelsea Now and The Advocate, and lives in Brooklyn, New York.
