Julia Ioffe: belief

Transcript context

…It’s also a society where there’s a lot of room for weirdos, right? The great Russian mathematicians, or authors, or the holy men. There’s a certain space in which you can be a weirdo in Russian culture and be accepted. Yes, but that’s after you’re named already. Your parents might not have been weirdos. I think it’s just a very conformist place, and these are girls names, and these are boys names. I think you see people getting a little bit more creative with names now. I think what they’re reaching for are these old Slavic names. You see a lot more Zakhar, and let’s see, Sieva, for boys. For girls, you see Alevtina or Agroyna, these old, old peasant biblical names. I think that’s how this bougie, educated upper-middle class in Russia wants to differentiate itself, by reaching back to the Russian, deeply Slavic past. Why do so many Russian women seem to think that American feminists, they’re somehow weak or misguided or off? What’s going on there?…

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