Patriarchy is boring — Russian punk activists Pussy Riot release a new song that hails the vagina in all it’s glory at a crucial time in global politics.

If your vagina puts you in prison, then the whole world is going to listen.” So say Russian Punk band Pussy Riot, who since their release from jail after their notorious anti-Putin ‘Punk-Prayer’ protest have not stayed quiet.

Following on from their ‘Refugees in’ video, shot at Banksy’s Dismaland and ‘I can’t breathe’ – a comment on the death of Eric Garner, ‘Straight Out of Vagina’ produced by Dave Sitek, is four and a half glorious minutes of Nadya Tolokonnikova and her team of trailblazers explicitly and unashamedly celebrating the holy grail of female genitalia.

“Don’t play stupid, don’t play dumb, vagina’s where you’re really from”, chants Nadya, clad in what looks like church robes and her signature blue balaclava. In true Pussy Riot style, the video features everything that could cause the fainthearted to collapse, from men donning stilettos in cubicles, women pissing into urinals from their bright blue vaginas, and a girl who, after taking some sort of magical vagina pill, becomes something of a feminist rap god.

The song, recorded in February, was not explicitly created as a retort to the egotistical maniac taking stage in the US election who thinks it’s acceptable to “grab [women] by the pussy”, but acts like one nonetheless. The ‘vagina gonna win the race’ lyric taking on a whole new weighty meaning as the U.S. moves closer to election day.

Whether this overt, crude and vividly brilliant work of art manages to persuade people not to give their political power away to a bright orange buffoon or not, at least it might manage to remind people of the magical power of the vagina that at one point we all spawned from.

Enjoyed this article? Like Huck on Facebook or follow us on Twitter.

Latest on Huck

Exploring the impact of colonialism on Australia’s Indigenous communities
Photography

Exploring the impact of colonialism on Australia’s Indigenous communities

New exhibition, ‘Under a Southern Star: Identity and Environment in Australian Photography’ interrogates the use of photography as a tool of objectification and subjugation.

Written by: Miss Rosen

My sister disappeared when we were children. Years later, I retraced her footsteps
Photography

My sister disappeared when we were children. Years later, I retraced her footsteps

After a car crash that saw Magnum photographer Lindokuhle Sobekwa hospitalised, his sister ran away from their home in South Africa. His new photobook, I Carry Her Photo With Me, documents his journey in search of her.

Written by: Lindokuhle Sobekwa

Inside New York City’s hedonistic 2000s skateboarding scene
Photography

Inside New York City’s hedonistic 2000s skateboarding scene

New photobook, ‘Epicly Later’d’ is a lucid survey of the early naughties New York skate scene and its party culture.

Written by: Isaac Muk

Did we create a generation of prudes?
Culture

Did we create a generation of prudes?

Has the crushing of ‘teen’ entertainment and our failure to represent the full breadth of adolescent experience produced generation Zzz? Emma Garland investigates.

Written by: Emma Garland

How to shoot the world’s most gruelling race
Photography

How to shoot the world’s most gruelling race

Photographer R. Perry Flowers documented the 2023 edition of the Winter Death Race and talked through the experience in Huck 81.

Written by: Josh Jones

An epic portrait of 20th Century America
Photography

An epic portrait of 20th Century America

‘Al Satterwhite: A Retrospective’ brings together scenes from this storied chapter of American life, when long form reportage was the hallmark of legacy media.

Written by: Miss Rosen

Sign up to our newsletter

Issue 81: The more than a game issue

Buy it now