What would conservative Russian politician Yelena Mizulina say about Tolyatti's entertainment on Children's Day? Images mixed by author.
The Russian city of Tolyatti [1], an automobile-manufacturing center not unlike Detroit in the United States, recently celebrated a dual holiday. The city turned 277-years-old last Sunday, June 1, 2014, the same day as the International Day for Protection of Children [2]. In honor of the two occasions, there were several public events throughout Tolyatti. Not all the attractions were family-friendly, however. The city also hosted an outdoor car show [3] that featured scantily clad women pole dancing. Unsurprisingly, images from the spectacle have both captivated and outraged many Russians online.
Vkontakte user Mikhail Kalashnikoff, a self-described Tolyatti native, appears to have uploaded to the Web some of the first video footage [4] of the pole dancers. His recording and a (graphic) photograph [5] by another eyewitness have allowed Internet users to view the performance with their own eyes, adding to the scandal a mix of voyeurism that has only boosted public interest. The story is currently trending [6] on the Russian image board Pikabu.ru, where it has attracted over 100 comments and more than 900 “up-votes” in the past 11 hours.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pnswgvnK45E&feature=youtu.be [7]
Holiday footage from Tolyatti on June 1, 2014.
Many RuNet users have been quick to mock the irony that Tolyatti hosted lewd dancing in broad daylight on a holiday dedicated to keeping children from harm. Some commenters posted [8] images of Yelena Mizulina [9]—the Russian politician responsible for laws against “gay propaganda,” obscenities online, divorce, and foreign adoptions of Russian orphans—implying that her conservative social campaign has failed. Others quoted a popular sketch [10] by the troupe Comedy Club, where a character, the corrupt mayor of the fictional city of Ust-Olginsk, defends the decision to build a strip club on the ruins of a schoolhouse, arguing, “What’s the big fuss? Strippers are kids, too. They walk around in underwear and sleep during the day.”
Still others have battled over semantics [11], insisting that pole dancing isn’t the same as stripping. Indeed, there is a whole body of literature [12] delineating the differences between stripping, exotic dancing, strip dancing, striptease, pole dancing, and so on.
RuNet users have been happy to debate the nuances.