This reminds me that I once visited my host sister in her office in the town city hall, where she worked as a social worker. She took me around to introduce me to everyone. They did the typical Bulgarian host treatment, which was to use my presence to not work for a couple hours while everyone produced packages of cookies and bottles of rakia from drawers. We ended up in the office her boss. Who had posters of pinup girls on his wall.
The boss.
In a city government.
Had pictures of naked girls on his wall.
In 2006.
No one seemed to think twice about it, but I was, as you can probably guess, deeply shocked.
I know a Polish woman who met a guy from around here, and thinks that he is the greatest thing ever. It’s not like they were newly weds, but she constantly liked to talk about how he was absolutely perfect.
At first, I thought she thought I was giving vibes that I liked her (and she wasn’t unattractive, even if it was mostly personality), but I noticed she did it to everyone else, too. She honestly thought he was the greatest thing ever.
I always assumed it was either a personality thing, or that Eastern Europeans were just intensely loyal. But the idea that her standards were lower is interesting too. Especially seeing as she was one of the only people I’d ever seen who did not try to stop this lech of a teacher that we had.
A slavic sister who’s spent half of her life in the barbaric clutches of the capitalist America, checking in. Yes, they are really all so hot.
In my experience, it’s a rare woman that does not realize the effect her looks do (or do not have) on members of the opposite gender. The “E.U. girls are easy” stereotype could be chalked up to the disparity in economic situation between the girls and the guys under consideration. There’s also the (possibly justified) stereotype of E.U. guys, being less family-oriented and "Wall-you-can-hide-behind"ish then the competition…
Well, there’s my SIL. She is East Asian and married my husband’s brother when he was living abroad–well, they still do. At the time she was 32, which is well into old-maid-dom in her country. I think she kind of felt like she hit the jackpot–not only did she find the right guy when everyone else had consigned her to the shelf, he was more fun and treated her better than her friends’ husbands did. She told me “Most guys come home from work and want you to feed them and then watch TV, but he comes home and wants to take me out to do something fun.” And one night when they were visiting us, the two guys asked if we’d like ice cream and went to serve some up. She turned to me and essentially said “Do you* know* how amazing it is that they’re in the kitchen and serving us?” They have been very happy together for quite a while now.
I have heard that Eastern European/Russian men are not that much fun to be married to and make American guys look pretty good in comparison.
I remember reading an article about a young woman school teacher living in the Soviet Union. She made enough money to support herself and provide a little for her future. Alone. She said in her city the majority of single men were all hopeless alcoholics, unemployed, connected with criminals, or just getting by with odd jobs. She said she didn’t want to live her life supporting a drunk just to be able to say she had a man. So she was prepared to live out the rest of her life, alone, than suffer the grief those men caused her friends, co-workers, and relatives. I often wondered what ever became of her, if she ever did find someone not “attached to the vodka bottle”.
Wait a minute. You’re telling me that the secret to romantic success and marital harmony is to do housework?!! That’s like saying you’ll be successful for breathing.
I can’t speak for Estonia or Russia or Slovenia, but I have been to Helsinki, which is a crossroads of East, North, and West, and not far from the Russian border. There, I bought a Coke from the most surreally-gorgeous woman I have ever seen (she was selling them in a glass booth in the park). It was a strange experience to be there… I kept seeing people out of the corner of my eye who I thought were my Swedish cousins, but they turned out to be just random people on the street. There is a look to Swedes or Russians, but I have no idea how to desribe it.
I don’t know, but after living in Hungary for about 5 1/2 years, I came to the conclusion that a pretty average looking guy by American standards can find what would be considered a “hot” girl here in the US. But, to tell you the truth, for my subjective standard of beauty, if the average American girl is a 5, the average Hungarian girl was around a 7 looks-wise, while the average Hungarian man, in my estimation, was about the same as an average American man. It was far more common–once again, in my experience–to see an American man date/marry a Hungarian woman vs vice versa. It did frustrate some of the expat women as women that would normally get regular attention from men in the US sort of faded into the crowd.
Well, she was coming from a country where the men are renowned for their sexism and expecting their wives to do everything in the house and always serve the man. Where men consider the kitchen to be foreign territory that they would simply not enter. A guy who treats a woman better than that is naturally going to be more attractive.
I don’t understand how eastern european women could be considered “hotter” as a whole than (I’m assuming white) Americans. Don’t we all kind of share the same genes? I feel like everyone in the states is a little Polish . . . what, is it diluted down with the ugly from their Irish or German contributions or something?
I honestly think it’s more a case of, "Ooooh, this person has an accent and a name with “y"s functioning as vowels and wears more make up than the girls back home! Sooo hot” sort of fetishism that makes girls in small town Wisconsin swoon over every gap-toothed pale British dude with an Manchester accent.
In my personal experience, Eastern European women as a whole look a bit skanky for my American tastes. Like, they wear clothes that are too tight/revealing, teased hair, lots of makeup, maybe use perfume in place of showers, etc. Sort of all look like they’ve been rode hard and hung up wet. I much prefer our fresh-faced blonde Midwestern look. Just my bitchy little observation.
No, not really. I’m not talking about accent or exotic looks or anything. I’m just talking from a purely visual standpoint. Of course, standards of beauty are completely subjective. That said, a few times I’ve perused dating sites for girls in Budapest vs. girls in Chicago. I would say that I was attracted to about 4 out of every 5 girls based on their profile pictures alone. For the Chicago matches, I would say 1 out of every 5, if that.
You’re right that there is a lot of that skanky look going around, moreso than in the US, but there’s also plenty of girls who go for the more nicely dressed, minimal makeup look. (And forgive me for this observation, but even the streetwalking hookers would pass for high-class call girls here.) It was really odd to be in such a place surrounded by beautiful women everywhere–so much so that eventually you stop paying attention to it.
In Soviet Russia, the hot babes whistle at the pigs!
Sorry, I couldn’t think of anything funny, but I wanted everybody to know my heart was in the right place.
I am disposed to say, however, that I believe that the EE babes have a vast edge over the US ones. And, I don’t believe it’s the exoticism factor, because, let’s be real, when you’re as desperate as I am, and have been for ever so long, you’d take anything, of some kind of quality. Since I ain’t gettin nothin’, I have had a chance to study what is on the market. I can tell the difference between a new Porsche and a new Ferrari, and which looks better. Same thing.
I am with **pulykamel **here.
Now, I also believe that when the EE’s start going downhill, it’s a bit quicker, or more steep a dive than the US. Overall, that is.
Well, again then, since I think a large chunk of White America ™ has eastern european genes, it must be uglied up by the German or English or whatever contribution.
I guess I’m also surprised because in my experience, people who are from a bunch of different genetic backgrounds tend to be waaaay more attractive than people whose ancestors are relatively homogenous. That’s why Brazilians are so good looking, right? And every person I know who is like, 1/4 Persian and 1/4 Egyptian and 1/4 Swedish and 1/4 Thai is so beautiful I hate them. So I guess I am surprised that so many people would find someone of generic “slavic” stock more attractive than the ethnic mix that is the White American Female.
But, hey, it is totally in the eye of the beholder. And my Romanian professor was super beautiful, very classy, could eat whatever she wanted and stay tiny, dark-haired and pale skinned (something that I personally like except when it’s all goth-y) and one of the nicest ladies I know. She was the whole package.
