ABSTRACT
This chapter foregrounds the role of a female macro-celebrity as a mediator of public views on feminism. The case in point is Ksenia Sobchak – a 43-year-old journalist and socialite – who ran for the Russian presidency in 2018 and continues reporting from Russia. By using digital ethnography and the multimodal discourse analysis of her mediated public stance over 12 years (2012–2024), the chapter explores Ksenia’s communication strategies in an increasingly conservative and authoritarian context. Sobchak represents a distinctive combination of the neoliberal celebrity female entrepreneur with an occasional re-branding as a female politician, who strives to balance incompatible views and adopt numerous personas (a feminist, a patriot, a mother, a journalist, a female politician cherry-picking Western liberal ideas). By engaging in either direct or subversive tactics and using various digital platform affordances, this high-profile celebrity mediates collective public views about various topics, ranging from female agency to nationhood. Post-2022, Sobchak’s stance has become more complicit, as she promotes a (subversive) patriotic submission within a highly commercialised celebrity culture.
