Reflections
Vanity is definitely not respected in our culture. In America, we would somehow feel ashamed if someone caught us looking at ourselves in a mirror or the reflection of a store window as we were walking past, but here, vanity, or at least "mirror gazing" seems to be a national passtime especially for women.
Mirrors can be found in almost any conceivable place. They are standard on the dancefloor and almost always present at restaurants. They are mandatory in schools as well. It is strange for at least this American woman to see young girls preening themselves in an educational establishment, always reapplying makeup and brushing hair. I have tried to figure out where this comes from culturally--wondering if this is an old habit even from Soviety times, or if this is relatively new? There is certainly an emphasis on appearance here, especially for women. I barely meet any standards to be considered womanly, as I barely wear makeup or bother to iron clothes, brush hair, etc. Ukrainian women take pride in their looks and will always share the "fact" that Ukrainian women are known internationally for their beauty (if not their modesty).
My assumption has been that there (now as during Soviet times) has been an emphasis on looking clean and tidy and after the Iron Curtain fell, this somehow also got changed around to looking sexy, and the only acceptable concept of sexy is wearing revealing clothing, a lot of make up, stilletto heals, and every other stereotypical "sexy" thing you can imagine. (I have seen enough see-thru shirts and pants to last a lifetime).
On a side note, when I was visiting Izmael a while ago, we went to the beach. There, playing in the water we saw a little girl, maybe four years old. She called out to her mother to take her picture. The mom got her camera and the little girl, bez clothes, began making Playboy poses for the camera, jutting out non-existant hips and leaning over. This continued for several minutes, with the little girl changing up the poses, but never to any sweet little girl looks, always doing something she must have seen in a magazine. Another female PCV and I looked on in horror as a male PCV tried to convince us that it was normal, or perhaps we were misconstruing the situation. I don't know how anyone can say that who has seen a Ukrainian family's photoalbum, which is usually chock full of wives, daughters, sisters, girlfriends half clothed on their beds making near pornographic poses. No. I am not exaggerating. And yes, it does take most of us by surprise and we rarely know how to respond until by the third or fourth time you realize that this is normal.
All of this I suppose continues with an earlier entry about the hyperfeminity the women here seem to exude and my own thoughts about how this can be perhaps detrimental to the women here, as they learn that it is more important to look good all the time and act sexy than to say learn and be a good pupil. Why else would they put mirrors in a school anyway?
In contrast to this behavior that I noticed at camp, I never once bothered to look in the mirror there. When I arrived home and went to the bathroom (the first non-outhouse I had been in for a week) I noticed I had cut my nose. I asked the other PCVs who were staying at my place when this had happened and they noted they saw it yesterday.
Such are the cultural differences.
Mirrors can be found in almost any conceivable place. They are standard on the dancefloor and almost always present at restaurants. They are mandatory in schools as well. It is strange for at least this American woman to see young girls preening themselves in an educational establishment, always reapplying makeup and brushing hair. I have tried to figure out where this comes from culturally--wondering if this is an old habit even from Soviety times, or if this is relatively new? There is certainly an emphasis on appearance here, especially for women. I barely meet any standards to be considered womanly, as I barely wear makeup or bother to iron clothes, brush hair, etc. Ukrainian women take pride in their looks and will always share the "fact" that Ukrainian women are known internationally for their beauty (if not their modesty).
My assumption has been that there (now as during Soviet times) has been an emphasis on looking clean and tidy and after the Iron Curtain fell, this somehow also got changed around to looking sexy, and the only acceptable concept of sexy is wearing revealing clothing, a lot of make up, stilletto heals, and every other stereotypical "sexy" thing you can imagine. (I have seen enough see-thru shirts and pants to last a lifetime).
On a side note, when I was visiting Izmael a while ago, we went to the beach. There, playing in the water we saw a little girl, maybe four years old. She called out to her mother to take her picture. The mom got her camera and the little girl, bez clothes, began making Playboy poses for the camera, jutting out non-existant hips and leaning over. This continued for several minutes, with the little girl changing up the poses, but never to any sweet little girl looks, always doing something she must have seen in a magazine. Another female PCV and I looked on in horror as a male PCV tried to convince us that it was normal, or perhaps we were misconstruing the situation. I don't know how anyone can say that who has seen a Ukrainian family's photoalbum, which is usually chock full of wives, daughters, sisters, girlfriends half clothed on their beds making near pornographic poses. No. I am not exaggerating. And yes, it does take most of us by surprise and we rarely know how to respond until by the third or fourth time you realize that this is normal.
All of this I suppose continues with an earlier entry about the hyperfeminity the women here seem to exude and my own thoughts about how this can be perhaps detrimental to the women here, as they learn that it is more important to look good all the time and act sexy than to say learn and be a good pupil. Why else would they put mirrors in a school anyway?
In contrast to this behavior that I noticed at camp, I never once bothered to look in the mirror there. When I arrived home and went to the bathroom (the first non-outhouse I had been in for a week) I noticed I had cut my nose. I asked the other PCVs who were staying at my place when this had happened and they noted they saw it yesterday.
Such are the cultural differences.
posted by Molly | 7:39 AM
1 Comments:
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