Sanna Marin and Theresa de Avila
Soren Larsen | Copenhagen, Denmark

The recent controversy regarding the Finnish Prime Minister, Sanna Marin, might be elucidated by Jacques Lacan’s famous “woman does not exist”. Marin is the youngest PM in Finnish history, taking office at 34, and often seen as a symbol, also outside of Finland, of feminist achievement. In August 2022, two private videos were leaked, which show Marin partying with her friends. In the videos, she flirts, sings, poses in front of the camera – an almost paradigmatic example of what Joan Riviere called “feminine masquerade”, later taken up by Lacan. When the videos went viral and global, many neoconservative and neo-masculinist groups on social media, predictably criticized Marin many variations of the phrase, "she shouldn’t dance with a man that was not her husband”.... [Read full article]