Chauvinism is not dead

So this morning I had the TV on as background noise while getting ready to go to work. "Good Morning" was on. It's a Russian morning television show, a la Today or Good Morning America. I should have known it was fluff and changed the channel when they had a segment on mail order brides, but I didn't.

So this piece comes on about feminism, and women who are feminists. They showed an attractive, well-dressed woman driving her own car, parking it, and meeting her man for lunch. In-between the serious discussion and interviews, this woman's story is told in a soap-opera-esque setting.

They cut from this dramatization and begin interviewing an "expert" (you'll see why I am using this term loosely in a moment). I do a double-take when I hear him say "Women who try to work as hard as men suffer negative effects to the immune system." I tilted my head at the "expert" questioningly, thinking that perhaps I misunderstood because it just can't be that he is saying something so inherently ridiculous.

But no, that is not the case. This "expert" continues to say that women may try to work as hard as men and achieve as much as men, but they will never do so and it will just be a stress to their physical and emotional health. At this point, the soap opera shows the feminist's man try to hold her hand over lunch, which she pulls away. Then she dramatically puts her hand to her head, pulls out some pills from her bag, and takes them. I guess feminism gives one headaches?

The "expert" then states (I shit you not) that working hard actually makes women's looks suffer: they become ugly when under stress of work and long hours. Soap-opera girl pulls out a mirror from her purse and appraises herself critically. Then when the waiter delivers the bill, she grabs it, pays for her half, and leaves the rest for her man.

To be fair, they did state that what's important is to find a balance between work and personal life at the very end (where soap opera girl was strolling with her man in a park, then as they sat on a bench not only allowed her man to hold her hand, but then placed her hand over his). But that's hardly enough to redeem themselves from the other insane things they said!

So ladies, if you want to be pretty and healthy, don't be a feminist. Let men do the hard work.

Lord have mercy.

Men here offer help with your things in the guise of being a gentleman, but I get the feeling that they think women are weak and incapable, and therefore need the help. Which is so ironic, given that women in Russia (and many other former Soviet countries) run the household. Under Communism, Russian feminist writers likened Russian society to urban black society in the US: A matriarchy. It's women that call the shots and run the show, which is to be expected when the alchoholism rate among men is so high.

It seems to me that not much as changed on the chauvinism front since the last time I was here. What a pity.