Authors

Ruta Skriptaite¹;  ¹ The University of Nottingham, UK

Discussion

The paper explores the ways traditional masculinity is reflected in political image-making in post-Soviet spaces, by providing a comparative analysis of Belarusian president Aliaksandr Lukashenka -‘Batka’, former Kazakh president Nursultan Nazarbayev - ‘Papa’, and now deceased Turkmen president Saparmurat Niyazov -‘Turkmenbashi’-arguably some of the most patriarchal leaders of the 21st century. Their ‘fathering effort’- patriarchal masculinity-based style and methods of political image-making, although being archaic and outdated, still has remarkable impact and results in hindrance to achieving equality in the societies the three patriarchs reign(ed) over for decades. Thus, the paper shall focus on the following three questions:1)In what ways the three leaders projected their political images as fathers of their nations?In what ways, if at all, they had an impact on preserving patriarchal values in their societies?3) Has there been a reciprocal relationship between the patriarchal image-making practices and the societal values of the three case-study countries? 

This paper is a part of my doctoral thesis project 'Political Image-making and post-Soviet Patriarchal Leadership: A Comparative Analysis of Belarus, Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan'. My methodology includes semi-structured expert interviews, relevant survey data and semiotic analysis of political images.