Idealists. Racists. Fetishists. An obsession with Ukrainian women’s looks is taking bandwidth away from their struggle with Russian oppression. And it’s an issue the besieged democracy will have to contend with long after the last invading soldier is expelled.
Ukraine’s women are fighting on the front lines.
They’re keeping the wheels of industry turning despite the relentless missile barrage.
They’re leading the diplomatic push to secure international support.
They’re sustaining communities as death, destruction, and devastation surround them.
But they’re becoming increasingly frustrated at the fascination with their bodies.
“Online comments from pro-Z (pro-war) Russians on social media are packed with fetishistic sadism (for example, rape fantasies, queries about where to find a forcibly deported ‘Ukrainian refugee wife,’ and just general leering comments) aimed at Ukrainian women and girls,” says Ukrainian social commentator Oleksandra Povoroznyk.
A UN report states almost 20,000 civilian casualties have been recorded in the past year. Some eight million refugees have fled the country, while another six million have had to flee the front lines. A disproportionately high number of these are women and girls.
And social media isn’t helping.
“There has been a vigorous debate among Ukrainian supporters about why people tend to fixate on Ukrainian women’s physical appearances,” Povoroznyk writes in Foreign Policy.
“Just take a look at the comments under photos of Ukrainian servicewomen published online.
“The stereotypes are persistent – whether it’s in the relatively harmless form of Western supporters going googly-eyed or the far more disturbing language out of Russia.”
Of dreamers and fetishists
“Delicious cuisine, beautiful women, cheap gas, rich history,” thunders the Russian voice. “World-famous literature, unique architecture, fertile soil, cheap electricity and water … Traditional values, Christianity, no cancel culture, hospitality, vodka.”
This is the sales pitch of a recently released Russian advert seeking to attract immigrants.
The 53-second footage features a 27-year-old Ukrainian model as its definition of “beautiful women”. The rest is filled with Slavic women and girls running through fields, sitting in kitchens – and in the bath.
It’s a classic example of the sales pitch applied to Eastern Europe since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
Such marketing rarely reflects reality. But its impact can be seen in almost every social media thread beneath a photo of a female soldier, emergency worker or survivor.
“The men posting these compliments claim that they are simply appreciating Ukrainian women while supporting Ukraine’s struggle, but critics (many of whom are, coincidentally, Ukrainian women) call it creepy and perhaps even fetishistic,” says Povoroznyk.
Such thinking is entrenched and difficult to challenge, says University of Sydney lecturer in international relations Dr Keshab Giri: “The enduring configuration of men as ‘just warriors’ and women as ‘beautiful souls’ is hard to dismantle even if the reality on the battlefield is different.”
Fighting for their lives
As Moscow’s forces streamed over the border last year, Kyiv imposed martial law.
All men of fighting age were barred from leaving the country. However, women and children were encouraged to flee.
“At the core, this implied a masculine protection logic where all women are considered weak and vulnerable, unable to defend themselves, their families, and their land,” Dr Giri writes for Australian Institute of International Affairs.
But women have been part of Ukraine’s military since 1993. While initially limited to desk and support roles, the Russian invasion of Donbas and Crimea saw them admitted into many frontline combat positions.
Before the invasion of Ukraine last year, women constituted about 16 per cent of the nation’s defence force. This included some 900 command positions.
In Australia, 19.2 per cent of the Australian Defence Force are women. In the US, that figure is 17 per cent.
“Women today make up to 22 per cent of Ukraine’s armed forces, although their numbers on the front line remain small,” Trisha de Borchgrave states in a Chatham House think-tank analysis.
This has given Ukrainian women new status at home and abroad.
“Women’s inclusion can unsettle patriarchal myths and logics of masculinist protection that propel the essentialist notions of gender,” says Dr Giri. “Often clichéd but a useful adage in the favour of women in the military is the idea of being in the system to change the system.”
But despite putting their lives on the line, Ukrainian female soldiers still find their gender is the primary target of social media attention. Even in supportive posts.
“The image of empowered women is predicated on the militarisation of their bodies, wearing military fatigues, bearing arms, having the ability to kill, ultra-patriotism, and intense hatred of the ‘other’,” says Dr Giri.
Dark nature
“The weirdest interaction I’ve experienced was a foreigner angrily reacting to my celebration of McDonald’s return to the Ukrainian market,” says Povoroznyk, a translator based in Kyiv. “He was adamant that Ukrainian women are good-looking because we live off a steady diet of fresh produce and simple, healthy, home-cooked meals.
“He even tried scolding me for enjoying the cheeseburger (and the brief illusion of normalcy) I had been dreaming of for months.”
Others have been compelled to exploit such delusions.
As the war unfolded last March, Nastassia Nasko was desperate to find help for a male friend trapped in the path of a major Russian offensive.
An appeal on social media seeking support was met with no response. But it took just minutes for the 23-year-old’s message box to be flooded with offers after she promised to send a nude in payment.
Since then, Nasko has mobilised a group of Ukrainian women to raise foreign currency for emergency relief efforts through a nude subscription service named ‘TerOnlyFans’. She states: “We will end this project when Putin dies and Russia stops their aggression.”
But Povoroznyk is worried about the long-term fallout: “The stereotypes concerning Ukrainian women (and Eastern European women in general) are troubling and potentially harmful – and they point to issues of gender and national identity that a post-war country will have to reckon with.”
All things to all people
“A Ukrainian woman can do anything,” Ukraine’s deputy Minister of Youth and Sports Maryna Popatenko declared last year.
It’s a noble sentiment.
It’s an unrealistic expectation.
“Since the beginning of the war, my life has changed radically. Our family grew, but we had to leave home. We lost our income. I try to hold on, but anxiety follows me everywhere,” 26-year-old new mother Mariia recently told a UN relief agency.
Fear of attack has forced many women and mothers to take up arms, even as they attempt to go about their daily lives. Some corners of social media have found this immensely appealing.
“While this picture conveys a progressive image of gender equality and the strength of women, it also symbolises the double burden women face while transgressing traditional gender norms,” says Dr Giri.
And that’s proving a particular problem for Ukraine’s female soldiers.
“Women’s roles have come to include a requirement for more qualities than their male counterparts,” he adds. “They are required to be as masculine and capacitated as male soldiers while also retaining the feminine duties of motherhood, care, compassion, and empathetic leadership from which their male counterparts are usually exempt.”
The scars of battle
“If the country is to emerge from war as a strong democracy and accede to the European Union as it wants, it must recognise this emerging role for women and use it to improve its record on gender equality,” says de Borchgrave.
Some 21 per cent of Ukraine’s elected national parliament are women. In Australia, that number is 39 per cent.
But improving participation faces another challenge, with 90 per cent of those who have fled the country in the past year being women and children.
“Ukrainians are hardworking, well-adjusted people and will find their places in other societies, but we need them to come home,” says Ukrainian MP and head of the EU Integration Committee Ivanna Klympush-Tsintsadze.
But these refugees are also finding themselves vulnerable to Western expectations, says the UN Relief web agency. “Women and girls are not only at high risk of abuse on their way to safety, but oftentimes do not find the protection they need upon arrival to their destination points in Europe.”
Thinking of Slavic women as sex workers and mail-order brides isn’t the only problem, says Povoroznyk. Well-meaning but equally false ideals are also distorting the picture.
“Seeing Ukrainians as so-called perfect victims who are owed sympathy purely because they’re good-looking, predominantly white, and symbolise a certain type of femininity isn’t helpful,” she says.
“What happens if someone decides that Ukrainian women, as a whole, are not as pretty or docile as they thought they were?
“Would that be a reason to support Ukraine any less?
“And in the context of a war where the invader is using brutal sexual violence, fetishising women seems particularly uncomfortable.”
Jamie Seidel is a freelance writer | @JamieSeidel
