Sexual citizenship of ageing migrant women: Constructing sovietness though hierarchies of intimate partners

This article develops the concept of sexual citizenship by interpreting it as a form of belonging to a national moral community. Drawing on 30 semi-structured interviews, we examine the intimate partner choices of aging women migrants from the former Soviet Union who are actively seeking relationships in Israel and Finland. Adopting a postcolonial critical approach, we analyze these women’s partner preferences and demonstrate how they are shaped by constructions of Sovietness and moral belonging to national communities. We use the term Sovietness in a critical sense, referring to discourses about the Soviet past, its consequences, and perceived continuities, which often signify backwardness, patriarchy, and ageism, particularly when contrasted with Western ideals of modernity, progress, and gender and sexual liberation. Within this framework, Sovietness is constructed by aging migrant women as a gendered dimension of sexual citizenship. It is associated with undesirable masculinity on the one hand, and with integrated, attractive femininity on the other. Both Finland and Israel are described as more gender-egalitarian and progressive societies. In both cases, men from the former Soviet Union are perceived as embodying patriarchal and traditionalist values, and are contrasted with native-born men, who are seen as more egalitarian and less ageist. However, expectations toward native-born partners differ across national settings: in Israel, women prioritize sexual pleasure, while in Finland, they seek respectability and protection. These differences reflect varying forms and degrees of moral belonging in the two countries.