Russian Women – Anna’s Out of Town News

A Russian Definition of Feminism?

A friend linked me to the poll featured in the online version of the Russian Cosmopolitan.

The question reads: “Who is a feminist?” Check out the only potential answers:

-A woman who doesn’t wear bras.

-A woman who has bad luck with men

-A lesbian

-Condoleezza Rice

That’s deep, isn’t it? If you weren’t upset enough, here is more:
— The other polls that website features appear to be more or less serious, so it was not a New Year-induced hangover joke.

— The magazine’s primary audience is women, so it was not a poll published by some chauvinist publication, which would have at least made more sense. It was apparently published under the “a poll for him” category, but I have strong feeling it was the women who voted, since they are the ones who visit the site.

NB: Please don’t think that Condoleezza Rice is listed there as a role model. Russian mass media enjoy mocking her personal life, so no, she is not perceived as a successful woman.

To get to see what the other readers thought, I had to vote. To have to pick one of these extremely intelligent option was embarrassing enough, but the results made me go look in the family tree for some proof I was not a Russian.

Guess what? Almost five thousand readers voted. And here is what they picked:
-A woman who doesn’t wear bras — 8.7%

-A woman who has bad luck with men — 58.49%

-A lesbian — 6.81%

-Condoleezza Rice — 26.01%.

So to be a feminist, you have to be single. Or wait, it must be the other way around. You get dumped, get bitter, and get a feminism handbook.

I guess readers of the Russian Cosmo would rather be married with one in four chances of being domestically abused by their husbands (Amnesty International figures from here) than be a secretary of state.

The Lipstick Effect: Russia, the Beauty Industry, and the Financial Crisis

In the USSR, industrial products were prioritized over consumer goods. While industry produced many tanks and guns and much heavy machinery, women often struggled to find decent make-up or clothing. Eighteen years after the communist behemoth collapsed, guerrillas worldwide employ leftover AK-47’s, post-Soviet states sell leftover Soviet tanks to African nations, and the levels of make-up consumption are higher than in many historically capitalist countries. Make-up is readily available now, and many middle-aged women rarely reminisce about the times when they literally used to spend one quarter of their salaries on black-market French mascara.

It is now the time of the year when it becomes especially obvious how far Russia has come in terms of consumerism. Around New Year’s, Russia’s consumerist equivalent of Christmas, stores are abuzz with customers looking for gifts for their near and dear. With online shopping still undeveloped, the number of customers in the stores is a good indicator of the current economic situation. The unemployment rate has skyrocketed, petrodollar flow has decreased, stocks are down, grocery prices went up, and the ruble is being slowly devalued. Yet, the atmosphere is not quite as morbid as I expected. Most stores have not resorted to the unprecedented sales of the US, although many of them have experienced a reduced flow of customers. While the ones selling furniture, expensive clothing, and electronics struggle to stay afloat, the ones offering make-up and sometimes jewelry are — surprisingly — experiencing a wave of consumerism.

In the somewhat pretentious chain make-up store to which I went in hopes of checking off some items of my gift lists, the dreaded krizis was seemingly ignored. The intrepid crowds were joyfully choosing between Chanel, Dior, and Givenchy. But the displays with more modestly priced brands were even more crowded. The customers were scouting the store for the yellow sales labels, but once they identified them, they often bought multiples of the good. At the register, many were flashing the “gold” discount card, which one gets after spending an equivalent of $340 at the store (may I remind you that the average monthly salary in Russia in 2008 is reported to be around $700 (in the pre-crisis exchange rate)?.

That sight reminded me of the article I recently read that discussed the “lipstick effect” apparent in Russia right now (here’s a link for the Russian speakers). In short, the “lipstick effect” is an increase in the demand for perfume and make-up during the times of financial instability. Since people can’t afford much, they resort to buying fun affordable goods such as a new shiny, candy-flavored lipgloss. This theory does appear to be very true right now. Some friends of mine who would have bought more expensive gifts before opted to get perfumes for their male friends or make-up for their females friends instead. Men’s perfumes have been flying off the shelves, a buyer acquaintance of mine confessed. They are replacing the pricier cashmere sweaters, iPods, or cell phones, traditional New Year’s gifts for husbands, boyfriends, fathers, and sons.

Further research suggests the lipstick effect is felt worldwide: from the US to India to New Zealand, “small luxuries” are substituting “extravagant purchases.” Consumerism is an inherent part of the 21st century, and it is quite understandable that people would go for cheaper goods on which to spend their disposable income when the times are tough. As the name suggests, these effect is primarily facilitated by women. And could you blame them for that? In the times of unemployment and the gloomy Russian winter, inexpensive bright lipstick may be the only available kind of retail therapy.

Although I couldn’t find any quantitative research on the lipstick effect in Russia, I would expect it to be even stronger than in other developed countries. First, there is an entire social strata — young, single, well-educated, middle-class women — who gladly spend their money at the make-up counter. Many of them make enough money to have some disposable income left after paying their bills. But it is not enough to buy an apartment or to take out a mortgage: the salaries are still low, and property prices some of the highest in the world (although the property bubble has been bursting recently). There is not much of an investment culture: years of communism and the volatile post-communist market did not exactly help develop one. Saving for retirement is still a foreign concept to many. So these women resort to renting and spending the rest of the money on make-up, hair cuts, pedicures, and salon anticellulite services.

Then, of course, there is the mentality: the “if you’ve got it, flaunt it” attitude is still de rigueur for many. I know plenty of women who would rather buy a mink coat and be on the potatoes-only diet for the next year or two than buy a regular coat and good food . This ostentatious approach causes producers of luxury good all over to swear by the Russian consumers. Those not rich enough to afford haute couture go for the hot finds of the numerous glossy magazines instead: the new mascara brush, the new season nail polish, the new miraculous anti-wrinkle skin cream. Considering the ridiculously low men to women ratio and a common belief that a woman has to a) get married to be successful; b) wear a lot of make up and be always perfectly groomed to catch a man — you get a perfect beauty industry consumer. There are more beauty salons in place in an average Russian provincial town than I have ever seen anywhere. Just a few months ago, everything was overpriced, but women were happy to pay. I remember running out of lipgloss and finding it to be three times as much in Moscow as I paid in NYC. A friend of a friend reportedly used to make a living by taking Russian upper middle-class women to Berlin, where they would stay at nice hotels, eat at fancy restaurants, and shop excessively. With plane tickets and visa costs, they still spent way less than they would have if they bought the same things in Russia.

Now that incomes are down, purse strings are tightened. The sun has set on expensive salon treatments. The beauty parlors, especially the more expensive ones, attract fewer customers, but women are not about to stop getting highlights. A friendly shop assistant reported a drastic increase in the demand for their home hair-dye kits. Likewise, women are not about to stop exfoliating, moisturizing, and de-wrinkling. Some internet forums featured women admitting abandoning the more expensive foreign skin care lines and resorting to the reasonably-priced Russian and Belorussian ones instead (which is generally deemed “ok to do, if you don’t admit it publicly and still have a compact and lipstick by a fancy brand to use in public”).

I happen to like a certain hair conditioner that is made in Belarus. Every time I go to Russia, I attempt to buy several bottles — it does wonders for my hair, it’s very cheap, and it’s patriotic (Russia and Belarus are supposedly one state, no?). It is very popular, but I usually have no problems locating it. This time around, it was nowhere to be found. Previous L’Oreal and Schwarzkopf customers were now making an extra effort to find something cheaper and at least of the same quality, and that conditioner happened to be their best bet. Remember Chanel’s Black Satin hysteria two years back? This is actually worse: instead of the civilized waiting lists at Bloomingdale’s, women are said to bribe shop assistants to keep these conditioners for them when they next become available.

If I had several million dollars to spare, I would be very happy to invest in buying up a skin care factory — preferably in Belarus, for the workforce is cheaper there — and to hire chemists, package designers and advertising experts, pay for a celebratory article in some glossy magazine, and promote my products as de luxe — there will be a high earning potential (and workplaces, too). Do you want to know why I think that? Here is a story:

A sales assistant at that make-up store helped me pick a few gifts, and I commented on the limited selection of the Chanel nail polishes, given that the new line named after Russia just came out. Oh, she was very worried about it, she said. In fact, she wanted it for herself so badly that she had booked train tickets to Moscow to go to the headliner Chanel store, where said nail polished are still available. The dark red version was her favorite, and she was looking forward to finally being able to wear it.

I later found out that a sales assistant in that shop makes around $400 a month. The cheapest return trip to Moscow would cost around $60; that nail polish retails for $38 in the US, and it probably costs more in Russia. It looks like Russian women are still ready to drop a quarter of their salary on the nail polish. Forget Gazprom. With the oil prices plummeting, make-up may be the way to go.

What (Russian) Women Want

I had a girls’ night in a few days ago. There were seven of us. We all have Russian passports that we use extensively to travel and sometimes to study abroad. Three of us currently attend colleges abroad, the other four are at school in Russia. Together, we have two foreign and three Russian boyfriends; two of us just got out of relationships. Between us, we speak eleven languages and one dialect. All in all, we were just your average group friends catching up with it each other.

And, as always happens, we talked about what we want in life. One of us wanted more Versace in her closet; another just got addicted to thrift stores. One felt like she needed a more caring boyfriend, while another wanted a more romantic one; a third had just decided to be single for a while. One was excited about starting her Master’s, the other one was tired of doing her bachelor’s, another one just discovered she wanted to be in the academia. One wanted to travel more, and two of us wanted to stop traveling obsessively and to spend more time at home instead.

Out of seven friends, all of us aimed for different things. Sometimes our targets overlapped, but most of the time they contradicted each other. So what is it that women really want?

I asked myself that question because someone recently found my blog by searching for “what Russian women want.” To investigate, I typed in that same exact phrase on an internet search engine. And something curious came up.

According to Google, all Russian women strive for one thing: a marriage with a foreigner. The first link that came up stated “All Russian Women Want to Escape from Russia” — with an only intention of finding a foreign partner, of course. All other top nine search results are clearly about what men want: most are dating agencies, including the one that promises to regale foreign men with “Russian Girls of Model Quality.” Once a man finds that model-quality Russian Woman, getting her full attention is easy. Two guides aid one in doing that: a “Russian Brides Cyber Guide” and “Russian Brides or How To Marry a Russian Woman” (correct punctuation is clearly not a way to go). If your Russian woman is stubborn and is not willing to give in to your cyber charming skills, there is an ultimate weapon — Russian cuisine recipes. Because we all know a way to a Russian woman’s heart is through her stomach.

The ‘Russian woman’ as been turned into a brand by the internet. I am surprised no one has registered the Russian Woman trademark yet. (Or has someone?)

Clearly, we have no other desires but to popularize ourselves with handsome foreign strangers who will whip out their cyber guides, make us borsch, and will then whisk us away from our homeland. Do women in other cultures have a better digital reputation?

I googled my other ethnicity — Ukrainians. A quick Google search — and the terrible truth is revealed. Ukrainian women have the same interests as the Russian ones. They are clearly desperate to leave Ukraine by means of being with a foreign man. The second top search result proclaimed “A Million Young Ukrainian Women Want to Leave Their Country.” All the other ones in top ten had to do with dating. But sadly, instead of advertising hot foreigners to the Ukrainian users, they promote hot nubile Eastern Europeans.

The unexpected outcome of my experiment can be to some extent explained by the Beautiful Docile Eastern European Woman Stereotype. But what about other nationalities? I explored two other ethnic backgrounds of mine: the Finnish and the (Outer) Mongolians.

Mongolian women seem to be less obsessed with finding a foreign husband than the Russians and the Ukrainians. Despite three in four top results advertising photos that show off the looks and the beauty of “Mongolian Women, Mongolian Girls, Mongolian Singles,” women in Mongolia clearly have other interests. Apart from dancing, (as YouTube video illustrates) they unfortunately have a variety of issues, including cross-border sex work in China. Fortunately, some ngo’s like the Mongolian Women Fund help those who need help.

It turns out Finnish women have needs and interests drastically different from their ex-Communist counterparts. Top two results claim Finnish women “want from a relationship same things other women want: loyalty, company, love.” At the same time, they also “appreciate sexual affairs which are safe and yet exciting.” The other interests were spread from from women in parliament to home visits of public health nurses to hysterectomy to infertility treatment and to the original Mel Gibson movie with Finnish subtitles.

I subjected American women to the same search that the other aforementioned nationalities underwent. (I assumed Google would treat “American” as a synonym to “US-American.”) The US is supposedly a melting pot of all cultures, so the women there should have have interests representative of all the women worldwide. My logic was rather faulty.

American women appear to be more health- and politics-conscious than anyone else. Four out of ten top links deal with health and wellness. Four links discuss what American women want in politics and society. One link is about women traveling. The top search result comes as a bit of a shock.

“The fact is that control-top granny pants are simply not a substitute for regular exercise, thoughtful grooming and a healthy diet. Certainly not if you’re single and interested in men.” Here is what single American women want — to look good.

Surprisingly for such a politically correct and litigious country, the article, originally published in The Times, compares nothing else but how well-groomed American and British girls are. Those American women who naively believe that men should like women for their personality, not their looks, will have to find consolation in the fact that American girls are said to be better groomed overall.

It’s highly debatable if a google search in English is an accurate reflection of needs and values of societal group, whether in an English-speaking country or worldwide. It is remarkable that men, not women, wrote and designed most of the search results that came up. I am not writing this post under the aegis of feminism. But I would like to know if all those men actually bothered to ask women what they want. I bet if they did, the search results would look drastically different.

Sinful in All Kind of Ways: Encounters with Orthodox Christianity

I recently discovered that I am doomed to face a fiery eternity in hell for doing yoga. I used to think I was a good person– as a regular college student, I’m no saint, but I hadn’t thought of myself as a particularly bad sinner. Until a week ago, I thought I belonged, at worst, in purgatory. That was all before I went to an Orthodox Christian monastery and learned just how terrible a person I truly am in the eyes of God.

First, a little background about my personal religious history. Being agnostic has always tempered my encounters with religion. I had a chance to experience many religions in the places where I have lived, but I took them all with a grain of salt. I went to a Buddhist monastery in a high rise building in Hong Kong; I listened to an organ in the German church were Johann Bach worked; I gave food to Buddhist monks in a traditional Thai ritual; I debated role of women with my Muslim friends, and went to a Baptist sermon in the US South.

The only religion I have always been obsessively fleeing is Orthodox Christianity — the religion to which I supposedly belong.

I was baptized when I was three. Most Russian parents, religious and secular alike, follow that tradition. Many people in my generation feel that baptizing unsuspecting children is a violation of their human rights. It always made me angry to know that when I was an infant, some bearded man immersed me in water three times in the name of Holy Trinity — without asking for my consent. It could have been worse (think recent and not so recent sexual abuse scandals in another prominent religion), but it’s of no comfort to me. Ever since I was old enough to realize that I was forced into a religion, I have despised all things Orthodox Christian.

At my baptism, I was given a cross, which was misplaced several years later. I don’t know if I have any godparents and don’t have any intention of finding out. I don’t know where I was baptized. I’ve never read the Bible, although I have read most of the Koran, some of the Torah and various Buddhist manuscripts.

It has always been that way: I never got along with the predominant religion in my part of Russia. Save for a few weddings and funerals, which are usually performed at churches, even for non-believers, I have been inside a church only a few times, mostly on tours while traveling. Most of my post-USSR Christian friends are non-believers, so I never had a chance to learn about any positive aspects of Christianity, like spiritual betterment. Instead, my friends told me truly terrible stories about going to church for the very first time in attempts to seek guidance: the priests simply yelled at them for being sinners who could not be saved. I did hear stories about great, nice, friendly and supportive Russian Orthodox priests, but they appear to be legendary, mythical creatures who live in the Land of Faraway.

Returning to the story of how I learned of my brimstone-filled-fate: I was bored to death on a weekend at a spa in Western Ukraine. There was a state of emergency in place in the region, so I could only go visit a few places — most bridges were washed away and the roads were destroyed. The Internet wasn’t working, and I’d I left my laptop in Kiev besides. The only tour available was to a major monastery, a very important place for any Orthodox Christian.

It was meant to be a religion-oriented tour — a pilgrimage of sorts. I always reckoned that sort of thing is done via climbing uphill barefoot while observing lent. Instead it was done aboard an air-conditioned bus. However, women in attendance were required to dress as “proper Christians.” I used to have a Muslim roommate who looked very fashionable in a headscarf, but I can’t pull it off. To worsen the situation, I had to team it up with a very long skirt. Upon entering the church’s premises, an armed guard informed me that a proper Christian woman is not allowed to wear makeup, dye her hair or get manicures/pedicures. With my mascara, highlights, and red finger-and-toe-nails, I wasn’t off to an auspicious start.

While the rest of religion tourists crowded inside a church, I sat outside the cathedral in a headscarf with my knitting, feeling my most decent and modest ever. What naiveté — a female passerby began yelling at me. Knitting on a Sunday turned out to be a sin. I wondered if yelling at non-believers is one, too?

I can decipher that woman’s anger. Her and I are hell-bound for just being female. Testosterone is clearly the hormone of choice in Orthodox Christianity. Women can’t be priests. Menstruating women are considered “dirty” and are not allowed inside a church, because they will “contaminate” it. All forms of contraception are prohibited, which means a woman has no control over how many children to have. We must be a nation of masochists, for despite these sexist rules the vast majority of church-goers that day were women.

I worsened my sinfulness by refusing to kiss two glass boxes filled with the mummified remains of two saints. I always liked the Egyptian section in museums, but it never occurred to me to kiss the glass boxes with the mummies. So why do that in a church?Kissing icons is a very old Orthodox tradition designed to venerate the deity or saints portrayed on them. It might be life-transforming, but it’s also unhygienic, unless the supposed sanctity kills all bacteria and viruses. I didn’t care if it was God’s will, science, or the elements that saved the bodies from rotting — I had no intention of touching the glass with the saliva of thousands of fanatics. When I turned around to escape, a priest nearby proclaimed I would burn in hell. Strike three.

His threats didn’t bother me. By that time, I was quite convinced I was bound not only to burn, but to slowly deep-fried and simmer. You see, I had discovered a startling list of rather unconventional sins posted on the church wall. Alongside the ten commandments and DUI, there were some that were new to me, including but not limited to…
* practicing yoga
* martial arts
* taking contrast showers
* and of course, giving human names to pets

My soul thus doomed to an eternity of hellfire, I headed back to the spa for my sinful massages and yoga.

Being Fashionable in Eastern Europe and Beyond

Call me crazy, conservative, and non-Slavic, but I can’t wear a mini skirt and glittery, strappy sandals to work. Ironically, I spend enough time shopping, matching clothes, and collecting high-heeled shoes for my friends to make fun of me. Most of the time, I tend to be on the overdressed side. But not by Kievan standards. For the past few weeks, I have been feeling quite underdressed.

“So, where do all the prostitutes work?”

Oh no, I thought. I am hallucinating from the hot Kiev weather and too many meetings with depressed and depressing Ukrainian political scientists.

A Ukrainian friend had another friend visiting from a European country where women in general, save for the Sex and the City fans, don’t fetishize high heels and mini skirts. He is a really nice but somewhat naïve guy who hadn’t traveled outside Europe before. He is really enjoying his stay in Kiev. He doesn’t mind hot weather, lack of air conditioning, or disastrous public transportation. He was warned about the mysterious Russian (in this case Ukrainian) soul and is very open minded. But taking him to a red lights district (if there is one in Kiev, of which I am not sure) is too extreme. What was my friend thinking?

“Where have you seen them?”

“On the metro every morning there are tons of them. Where are they going so early?”

And then it hit me. He seriously thought all the made-up ladies in revealing clothing he saw on the metro at 9am were in the business of selling their bodies. But they were just on the commute to work — which most likely didn’t involve selling their bodies.

The conversation above took place several days ago. Today, another friend told me a very similar story about a Dutch guy who asked the same question. This is just sad. The last few days have been really hot, so light, transparent and short clothing are a necessity. Most men on the streets, Ukrainian and foreign alike, don’t seem to mind. They probably don’t mind women wearing clothes like that at work.

Continue reading “Being Fashionable in Eastern Europe and Beyond”

Shopping in Kiev: Ukrainian Wives and iPhones

As I was walking down Kreschatik, Kiev’s main street, I saw a billboard in English that targets foreign men.

Conveniently for visiting foreign men who fell prey to Ukrainian women’s charms, you can now get a Ukrainian wife while doing sightseeing. The company’s office is right there, on Kreschatik, so you can quickly get a brand-new wife, a “fast visa,” and then keep exploring Kiev. For those who want to accessorize their newly acquired wives, iPhones are sold two or three buildings down from the billboard. By the way, iPhones are not officially sold in Ukraine, but the store doesn’t seem to care, openly selling them on Kreschatik for three times the US price.

I wonder how much Ukrainian women are worth these days. I was really tempted to call Joe, the “American manager” of the Ukrainian wives, but I can’t pull off sounding like a man. My boyfriend refused to partake in this. Anyone wants to give me a hand?

“Russian Seasons” at JFK — the Russian Interns Are Coming!

I blogged several times about the complexity of Russian Women — Western men relationships. I wrote about the mail-order Russian bride websites; I made fun of the scammers who rip off Western men looking for such a bride; and I wrote how these societal trends make some Russian women, including myself, uncomfortable when they are abroad. To get an outsider’s perspective (which, surprisingly, turned into an insider’s perspective), I asked my dear friend Arnie Zambrano to write a guest post for me. I know he is interested in finding an Eastern European soulmate. Over a course of a recent MSN conversation, his “Russian Intern Season” at JFK (which is where I actually met him) came up. So here’s what he has to say:

(please note — I may not agree with the author’s opinion (especially about the Ukrainians :)) ), I asked Arnie to write it as his personal opinion on an interesting phenomenon).

Every year around June, I anticipate the hoards of pretty Eastern European girls who will come through the gates of JFK. To see them makes me truly happy that I work for an international airline and get to spend time at an international terminal. Even though I’ve been working in JFK for 3 years, every year, I still look forward to the Russian Intern Season as much as a child anticipates Christmas.

So what is the Russian Intern Season?

It’s the time when Russians and other Eastern Europeans send many 18-24 year old girls to the United States to work here for 3-9 months. Thanks to an agreement with the United States and Eastern Europe, CCUSA (Camp Counselors USA) hand-picks (or so the rumor has it) only the best looking women out there (some men participate, too, but I am not interested) to work in the US. They work as camp counselors — or work other similar jobs. For over 90% of them, it’s their first time in the states (and even abroad), so these young ladies are looking for a friend to get them oriented. That’s where I come in.

I’m the pioneer of my personal Russian Intern Season (RIS) at JFK. The young post-Soviet ladies flock to the specially organized JFK’s CCUSA’s desk. For the first 3-5 days, they are free to do whatever they please, so here’s your (and mine) chance to charm a pretty Eastern European!

I started the RIS when I got sick and tired of American women (I’m American, but find our women too arrogant high maintenance — compared to the Eastern European ladies). It’s simply standing at the carousels (after I do my job for an airline, of course) and having to pick the most amazingly looking girl in the intern group. At times it’s so hard, since there are so many great ones to choose from. Most of them are Russian, but there are also Ukrainians, Moldovians, Armenians, Georgians, Kazakhstan, Belarusians etc. And I am the first American man they can talk to. You can’t get more “fresh off the boat” than that.

Why do I like these Eastern European ladies so much? Unlike American women, they don’t ask to take them to expensive restaurant or to take them shopping! Perfect date material.

It is remarkable how you can identify a nationality of an Eastern European female by the way she talks to you. And no, I don’t mean an accent. Here’s my personal classification:

–Ukrainians: Wear Blue T-shirts. When you start a conversation with them, they look at you in a confused manner. [Note from Anna — as a half-Ukrainian myself, I find it hard to believe, but oh well].

–Russians: Wear red T-shirts. When start a conversation with them, most of them give you that nice warm smile; they generally have so many interesting things to say. Overall they are very glad that you are talking to them no matter the situation.

–This year, however, the new hot thing are the Kazakhstanis (T-shirt color: orange). They are brought over here by boatful, and I love spending time with them. It definitely makes after work hours and my days off much more entertaining.

Any Ukrainian reading this post is probably thinking “Why does this author hate Ukrainians?” I know there are some nice ones out there. I personally have been lucky to meet a select few. But it seems that they’re keeping all the nice and sweet ones in Ukraine. (Guess the Ukrainian guys want to keep their nice women for themselves — good for them). Unfortunately, so far, I haven’t had any luck in meeting a nice Ukrainian intern. So I stay away from the blue-clad crowd.

Most of the girls don’t stay in NYC for too long; some of them are here for only one or two days. Then they go off to their respective workplaces, which could be as close as Ocean City, NJ (3 hour drive from New York) to San Diego, CA (6 hour plane ride). But for an adventurer like me that’s what makes it more entertaining. I met a couple of Kazakh girls and spent a couple of days with them before they went off to Los Angeles, CA. I was planning on going to LA in a 3 weeks time anyway. Now I have someone with whom to hang out over there (in case you’re wondering how I can afford to travel, working for an airline gets one cheap or even free flights).

I will most likely end up marrying a sweet Russian girl, but she has to be a Russian-Russian, not a Russian-American. I can’t stand Russian-American women. They are aware of how Eastern Europeanly beautiful they are, plus they’re extra snobby, since they were born in the US. My Russian-American co-worker is a perfect example. She manipulates all the guys in doing favors for her, makes them spend money on gifts, and, simply put, walks all over them. (She even admitted that she made my friend, who is blindly in love with her buy, her a Prada handbag… and they were not even dating!!) On the other hand her Russian mom also lives in the US. Being born in Russia, she’s such a great person. I am not attracted to her (not my age category, really), but if I had a choice between a Russian-American daughter and her Russian mom, I’d go for the latter. I am worried that if I marry a Russian, which is want I really want to do, my children will be the product of the same thing I hate!

Sometimes, I look at the Russian Brides websites, and I can’t help but laugh at all these ridiculous fees that they add on just to talk to her and see a picture. You even have to pay anywhere from $1000-$5000 to have her sent to the USA. If I were someone looking for a Russian Bride, I wouldn’t need to go further than JFK. Just stand outside the international terminal during the Russian Intern Season — and have your pick. Most of them are extra friendly, but good luck with the blue-wearing Ukrainians. (On a side note, if you’re on the internet all day looking for Russian Brides, get a life!)

By the way, if you for some reason are not attracted to the Eastern-European looks, there is also my Brazilian Intern Season. Lots of (hot) Brazilians come from Disney World to go shopping in New York. Sadly, only few speak English, but with my knowledge of Spanish, English, French and Italian, I can pick up a great percentage of what they’re saying. To anyone else, you’re out of luck.

I’m off taking a Russian girl to Coney Island, thank you CCUSA 😀

How I Became A Russian Dating Scammer

What do I and Russia’s new first lady have in common? We are both dating scammers.

Well, not us, but Russian women with the same names. At some point, I googled my name to see how my blog was doing in the rankings, and one of the links that came up in the top 20 was “dating scammer Anna Ershova.” Upon clicking on the link and seeing a picture that differed very much from my visage, I realized my reputation was not in any danger. Even though we share one name, she is 30 and comes from Rostov-on-Don. According to John, who submitted her profile,

She is very skillful woman with using copy and paste contents in mail.
She requested much and many.
Very quick temper.
And her photo on the site may be photos when she was very young age or much decorated. Pay attention.

I found this fascinating, but not worth investigating, and went back to studying for finals. Now that I am done with my freshman year, I have a bit more time to investigate this interesting phenomenon. It’s even more exciting, because there is a dating scammer whose name is the same as President Medvedev’s wife — Svetlana Medvedeva. She is listed under a Russian Marriage Scams category on a website that appears to be originally dedicated to computer programming. (I wonder if its founder got scammed by a Russian bride wannabe?) Her semi-provocative photographs are accompanied by an e-mail Ms. Medvedeva’s potential victim received. Here is an excerpt:

You know for these some letters I have fallen in love with you very strongly. I for a long time did not test anything to men, and you seem have demented me… I very much want to arrive to you but unfortunately I have no such opportunity… I must have registration of visa and passport, so I must pay about 250-290 $ US for those things. This amount includes: payment for visa and passport registration, payment for promptness because sometimes registration borrow 4-6 months. Also this price include Interview in embassy and medicalsurvey… I will have work visa so my firm will pay for tickets so you must not worry about tickets or money for tickets because my working firm will pay for this. But I must ask money help from you … because I do not have any money right now. So please try to find way to help me this money sooner, so I might pay for it because as you may understand it will borrow sometime. So if you would send money help that amount today or tomorrow I will be able to pick up your money help faster and pay for it, so it would take less time…

Both of these two websites have other profiles of Russian or post-Soviet dating scammers. One of them even offers “The Complete, No-Nonsense Anti-Scam Guide For Men Seeking a Russian Wife.” Why a Russian wife? There are slightly under 200 countries in the world, so why not look for matrimonial happiness elsewhere? The RussianWife website claims:

We are owned and operated by an American who is very happily married to a fantastic Russian woman. I have been to Russia several times, and one thing I was struck by was how many fantastic women over there who are alone.

This is indeed true. Russian men live significantly less than Russian women; alcoholism and domestic violence are a huge issue, and, unfortunately, many Russian women struggle to find a partner. But do all marriage agencies and their clients have such altruistic motivations?

Russian marriage agency offering single Russian women, young Russian girls and mail order brides for dating and marriage.

This is what the agency Your Bride offers. Sounds a bit like a marketplace: you have your pick of a Russian bride, all combinations of eye color/hair color/age/weight/height possible. Not satisfied? We’ll ship you another one.

Here is one question I would like to ask any man who ever used any of these services: What kind of women do you think would gladly provide their information to be in a website like this? I would imagine that an overwhelming majority of single Russian women would prefer submitting their profiles to a website that would present them as humans, not as bride meat.

There are a plethora of scammers who try to get money from the naive foreigners. While in some cases it may be difficult, if not impossible, to recognize them, sometimes it is fairly obvious. CNN features a story about two young Russian men who collected $56K from Westerners. No women were involved in this scheme; this means the eager Western men parted with their money without even speaking to their “loved one” on the phone (not to mention videochatting). Were they so infatuated by the photographs and sweet e-mails? Did they think there were no telephones in Russia? (the “woman” wrote her e-mails in English, which means the two criminals couldn’t use “her” lack of language skills as an excuse) Why didn’t they spent the money on a ticket to Russia for themselves? The actions of the Russian men were doubtless illegal, but a little bit of common sense on the part of the Western men would have helped prevent the crimes.

By the way, the Russian-speaking internet is full of stories about Western men who would engage in an online relationship with a Russian lady, then invite her over, where she would learn her knight in a shining armor is in fact homeless/a father of six children he had never mentioned/has a different job from what he claimed to have/disabled. It looks like Russian brides and their potential Western husbands are even.

How (Not) to Date a Russian Woman

There are only four things one needs to know to date a Russian woman: her age, height, weight and bra cup size. Who cares about all those old-fashioned things like personality, values and sense of humor anyway?

No, this is not just a misogynist statement by an old-school chauvinist. It is what many men in Western Europe seem to believe. I got to see an interesting catalog in Germany once: a thick volume filled with photographs of Slavic (mostly blond and blue-eyed) women in the most alluring of poses. Next to each photograph, there was a reference number one would need to contact the agency and the four aforementioned essential figures. If you are a bored Western European man and tired of the picky women around you, why not flip through a catalog and order a docile Eastern European who would be so happy to live in your developed country that she would cook, clean your house, and raise your kids 24/7?

For those brave enough to deal with the bureaucracy and get a Russian tourist visa, there is an even better option: a bride fair. All one needs to do is board that flight to Russia (usually Moscow and St. Petersburg), where he would be taken to an epitome of the social gatherings. Many charming Russian women would try to charm him in hopes that he would pick her as a potential life partner.

In fact, if one is too lazy to order a catalog or leave his home, there are plenty of resources online. Try googling a “Russian woman.” The first link that comes up lures one to the joys of marrying a Russian woman: “Meet Single Russian Women for Marriage: Mail Order Brides.” There are another 2,200,000 links to websites relating to Russian women. I am too lazy to go through all of them, but the top ten results are directly related to dating. A Google search for a “Russian bride” yields 881,000 results. The search for an exact word combination provides one with a whopping number of links: 711,000.

So why this Russian women frenzy? According to Mr MacCarthy, an American owner of the Ukraine-based marriage agency Mat-rimony.com, “Ukrainian girls and Russian women are very beautiful, well educated and are renowned for their strong traditional values of maintaining a home and raising a family.” If one reads along the line, this praise would sound something like this: “Russian and Ukrainian women, mostly the ones living in the poor provincial citizens, are desperate to get out of their countries where chauvinism prevails and an insane percentage of men are alcoholics. But the desperate situation many of them find themselves in is actually great for us Western men. We can come and lure them with our foreign passports and a promise of a nicer life. It is a fair exchange: we get free household help and they get a chance to get out of their countries.”

Even though there many countries where women face poverty and violations of their rights, the post-Soviet countries are especially attractive as the source of potential wives to the single Westerners. Slavic women conform to the Western beauty standards: everyone who has been to Moscow knows there is an immensely high density of tall, thin, blonde women per square meter of malls. Most “Russian wives” come from Russia, Ukraine and Belarus. The population in these countries displays a traditional Slavic look. Among the other post-Soviet countries, Latvia and Lithuania enjoy membership in the EU, so their women can live in a Western European aka civilized country without marrying a sleazy foreigner. The Central Asian countries like Azerbaijan and Tajikistan are predominantly Muslim, which makes their women less attractive on the mail order brides market.

Due to the way an education system functions, most Russian women get at least a bachelor’s degree; many speak at least one foreign language decently. A traditionally patriarchal society tells women they should know how to clean and cook. In fact, 99% of Russian schools have mandatory housekeeping classes for girls, where they are taught how to cook, clean and sew. Most women get married fairly early (usually in their very early 20’s) and they are taught by the society to obey their husbands. Even though most women work nowadays, the glass ceiling is ever-present; a woman is expected to take care of the household and make money. It is still very rare for a husband to help his wife with any household work (unless it involves opening a can of beer). No wonder the average Russian woman can be so attracted to the possibility of marrying a foreigner.

According to some of my sociologist friends, many Russian women who marry a foreigner out of material reasons end up getting divorced after they get their new foreign citizenship. In the meantime, they often manage to get an education and a job. Many of them end up finding a man who is interested in things other than their similarity to Victoria’s Secret models.

Even though I have not been living in Russia for a long time, I go back on a regular basis. Last year, I was unwillingly exposed to a family reunion. At one point, a distance relative of mine, an accomplished diplomat, asked me what I wanted to do in the future. I told him I was in the process of applying to colleges. He proceeded to ask me what my intended major was. Political science, I said. Everything went quiet. All the patriarchs of the family were looking at me as if I suddenly declared I was a lesbian (another pet peeve in the Russian culture). Then that diplomat relative of mine used the main argument against my career choice: “But you are a WOMAN.”

I was lucky because I did not have to stay in that country. But I can certainly imagine that if I had had to work amongst misogynists like him I might have contemplated going online and posting my profile on one of those online dating websites. Anything to escape a life like that of so many Russian women, so severely and tragically limited by backward perceptions of my gender.