"Well, of course, this is a gorop!"

In Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the director of the amateur theater "Merac" Julia Tsvetkova was in the spotlight of law enforcement agencies. The city festival of theatrical art, organized by Tsvetkova, was banned twice, and now the director of the theater is accused of spreading pornography.

In mid-February 2019 in Komsomolsk-on-Amur, the Sharfran color festival was supposed to be held. But because of the performance in which the police suspected gay propaganda, theatrical shows did not reach a wide audience.

Our "scandalous" performance "blue and pink" can now be seen on YouTube. He was banned exclusively because of the name, not seeing the setting itself

“It became scary for everyone,” says Julia Tsvetkova, director of the Merc Theater. - And we decided to arrange closed shows. Parents, even those who trust me, began to ask for the public because of such pressure-is there really “something” is there? We have a small room, so 10 people came in total, mostly parents of the pupils. But the performance, because of which we were accused of gay propaganda, all those who came were shot on video, laid out on the network so that such questions would no longer arise.

- What is this performance about?

-Actually, our "scandalous" performance "blue and pink" can now be seen on YouTube. He was banned exclusively because of the name, not seeing the setting itself. Yes, he is about gender stereotypes. At the very beginning, we laugh at the stereotypes: that the boys do not cry, and the girls are all housewives. The boys are sluts, and the girls should endure. Then we talk about why these stereotypes are harmful. That, because of such social attitudes, boys are afraid to show emotions, and girls should be obedient and patient. In our performance, we say that every person is a person who needs to be respected. And girls can be strong, and boys can show emotions. And this is normal. But in our city, it seems that few people use Google and knows about Gender. Therefore, everyone thought - "Well, of course, this is a gorop!"

-Was the festival prohibited precisely because of your performance?

-The festival was prohibited due to supposedly gay propaganda. My lawyer saw statements for me: one from the operative from the "E" department, the second - from the "non -indifferent public". There is such an activist - Timur Bulatov, he seems to lead the group "moral jihad" in one of the social networks. It was he who saw propaganda in my performance. True, I have a counter question: is such a group not extremism? Police officers interviewed parents and children who are engaged in us. All these testimonies, by the way, smoothly migrated into a new business.

- The case is started?

- I can’t say whether they started it or not. In my apartment, on Tuesday at 8:30 in the morning the police knocked on, woke us up. The woman, she did not introduce herself, said that she came to see how we live. “We came to see how you live, open the door wider” - so she said. She asked us to move away from the door, they say, she could not see our apartment. But I did not show her anything, we talked on the stairwell. It seems to me that this behavior of the policemen is strange.

- Why did you need to watch how you live?

- I do not know, they did not bring any accusations to me. That morning, a woman from the police said that she would write a summons. But my lawyer was not in the city then, so we asked to postpone the meeting with the investigator on Wednesday.

- What did you show when you came to the police?

“We came on Wednesday, but neither I nor my lawyer understood what they want from us.” On the table lay a very large folder with business. Although, whether they started it and under what article, they never told us. The same folder was in the department for the fight against extremism, when there were trials with the festival "The Color of the Safran". There are conversations with the students of our theater, and with their parents, screenshots of my feminist posts, posts of completely different people, to whom I have nothing to do. I gave explanations twice. Now I was called to PDN ( division for minors. - S.R ). The folder has yet grown in volume. What in her - neither to me or my lawyer was given to get acquainted. The only thing they told me is you distribute pornography.

- Which one?

- When we were sitting in the police, we were told that we are also progressive women, but “this” is already too much! For a long time I tried to remember what "this" I posted, what could go for pornography. And then they showed my paintings in the framework of a body -positive project.

“ But this is not a new project?”

- I made these drawings back in June - July 2018. And only now they "surfaced." In general, a body positive is such a passing agenda of the feminist community. Half of the femacances draws such pictures, and in order to call it pornography - you need to have a very rich and unhealthy fantasy.

- What else did the police tell you?

- I was asked questions about whether I have the right to work with children? But so far neither I nor my lawyer understand what they want to get from me. In the folder that we were never allowed to get acquainted, there are screenshots from the Internet and the explanations that my students and my students gave a month ago during a police check of the theater festival. At least it was there in the "E" department, now the folder has grown. What materials were added - we do not know.

- But the audit on the theater festival is already completed?

- All those materials have been collecting from the case for a month. This first check was stopped quite soon, they say, there is nothing extremist in our festival. And here they pull and pull.

- How do you relate to you in the city?

- The separation is very strong. But those who know me say that accusations of pornography due to drawings are nonsense, and even defend me somehow in social networks. But a lot of negativity pours a lot. People who have not even seen the performance are judged by the name and say: Oh, this is a performance about debauchery! And even according to the latest body positive pictures, I came a lot of negative comments from strangers. Of course, this is a signal that an acute topic is affected, and people do not know how to respond to it.

After the media talked about the recent call of Julia to the police, her VKontakte public was attacked by the haters of feminism, who, not embarrassed in expressions, insulted the director. Judging by the number of heaters comments, many Komsomol residents (the so-called residents of Komsomolsk-on-Amur) share the point of view of the police.

"120 Hatter messages in one evening. 120 texts of full mud, hatred, threats and insults. And judging by the fact that new messages are sent to me every few minutes-this is not the final. And you know what? With this, they can’t do it by law-they have the right to write what they think. Even to complain about their vk-and where is our valiant department for combating extremism ... Only I see inciting hatred here? " - wrote Julia Tsvetkova on Saturday on her page.

In pursuit of the ideal of "sexuality" a woman is called to fight with everything that makes her alive and real

- Do you often draw paintings within the framework of feminist campaigns?

- In general, I have many paintings, you can say this is my hobby. Specifically, those paintings about the body positive, because of which they called me to the police, they are not unique, this is a passing project-another statement that a woman should not be like a Barbie doll. For feminists, this is a normal agenda, we are constantly talking about the fact that in pursuit of the ideal of “sexy”, a woman is called to fight with everything that makes her alive and real-with hair, scars, stretch marks, gray hair, wrinkles ... All these normal things in the eyes of society become something unclear, unnatural for the female body (although in fact-all this is normal!). This project is designed to recall that women are alive, and our bodies are not ideal and subject to changes. Women are not dolls, and this is wonderful.

- Do you associate pornography in your paintings with the festival "Safrana Color"?

- Of course, I do not have such evidence. But interest in these paintings by the police arose precisely after the closing of the festival. Apparently, they began to look closely at me.

- How did this story affect your theater?

- In our city, activists of any profile do not like and pressed. I also treat me differently: there are those who understand, but there are negative reactions. Each, of course, has their own truth. But I can say that now, due to the strong pressure of the "public", many parents took their children out of my theater.

On Monday, March 25, Julia Tsvetkova again visited the police with her lawyer. The activist was ready for the fact that she would be made an official accusation of "distribution of pornography." However, the investigator unexpectedly changed the subject of the conversation and began to be interested in Tsvetkova’s foreign contacts. According to the assumption of her lawyer, the investigation is now looking for an occasion to assign the status of a foreign agent the status of the “Mearah” Theater.