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April 25, 2005
Russian men vs. American men
Imagine a huge hall. On one side a table of seven American men, on the other seven Russians, all having a rousing good time, with piles of food and batteries of bottles. Which group would I join? I'd make a bee-line for the Russians. Why?
...
Seven men would fly up out of their chairs, set before me a plate full of food and glasses filled to the brim with wine, water and vodka. They would tell me how glad they were that I showed up to lighten an otherwise dull evening. They would compete with each other to get my attention, each out-doing the others in flattering toasts to my beauty, intelligence, kindness. Of course, it would all be perfect nonsense. They might, in fact, rather resent my presence, since before I arrived they were busy hammering out a deal to corner the market in precious metals or discussing the latest scam to get around-with dubious legality-the tax code. But they've been trained to be nice to women, and besides, they really like women.
My unsubtle excerpting doesn't do justice to this lively article. (My linking to it is not necessarily an endorsement of its conclusions, by the way.)
When I lived in Hong Kong I used to go out with a nuclear physicist from Novosibirsk whose idea of a date was setting off late at night on a five-hour hike with several bottles of red wine, a tub of marinating shashlik, and the rest of his research team. The last leg of the hike was down a rocky slope without a path, which I can't decide whether the wine made more, or less, dangerous. I certainly would never have walked down it sober. At the very bottom was a small and deserted beach, where we'd pitch a tent, light a fire and cook oniony shashlik at god knows what hour of night. We did this all through the winter.
When we woke up there'd usually be some stray cows milling about and befouling the sand. Climbing back in the daylight was usually less entertaining, but the plus-side to the Russian man's inborn misogyny is a kind of perverse chivalry which meant, at least, that I never had to carry the barbecue or any of the camping equipment.
Posted by michele at April 25, 2005 2:24 PM
Comments
That's it, you've nailed it. I keep getting scandalized at absence of chivalry in American men, no matter how many times I remind myself they're all brainwashed by extreme feminist educators in their Univercities and televized female mud-wrestling.
Posted by: Tatyana at April 25, 2005 8:52 PM
Hey, I resemble that remark!
Posted by: Kevin at April 26, 2005 2:13 PM