The Man Shortage

One of the things that becomes rapidly apparent is that young Russian ladies tend to dress for the hunt. This is because there is a shortage of men in Russia: the competition for possible mates is intense. Conversely, even gorillas can get a date. This doesn’t mean the girls have lowered their standards: you still have to behave like a gentleman. And the girls expect it. So if the lads haven’t learnt by their mid-teens that they should hold the door open, pay for everything, give flowers and so forth, they’re either thick or completely uncouth.
For their part, the girls try to look their best. Short skirts and high heels are the uniform in warm weather (anything above 0C). There’s also a fair amount of cleavage on display. As one of the US students said, “Welcome to Russia, land of legs and tits.” The short skirts are self explanatory. The high heels are worn for two reasons; firstly, they accentuate the shape and length of the legs. Secondly, most Russian young ladies are midgets: the average height is about 5’, in the heels.
Not that they are all short, or all wear heels. Only 90% of the girlies wear heels, the rest are in sneakers of some sort. Even the tall girls wear heels, but not as often. Meeting tall girls is a bit of a surprise: midget, midget, midget, midget, basketball player, midget. And the tall ones loom over me by quite a bit. Mind you, if Russian women are short, so are Russian men. While I’m not tall, being of average height for a Kiwi, I’m about 5cm over the Russian average for guys. This means I have a better chance of seeing things in a crowd.
Russian girls also use mirrors. Constantly. They are forever checking their hair, make-up, clothes. Deprive them of a mirror (or a cosmetic pack) and they are either completely helpless, or forced into displacement activity. One of the foreign students here said she saw a lass in Moscow applying lip gloss and making sure it was perfect for 5 minutes. Mind you, Moscow is somewhat different. More on the Big M in another post.
The other thing about the girls (and Russians in general), there seems to be a weight limit. There are very few really fat people in Russia. It’s as though there is a sign at the border: Welcome to Russia, fat bastards need not apply. Indeed, the biggest girl I know here is a German, and she’s not huge neither.
For their part, Russian men are expected (and do) open the door, pay for the meal, give flowers, chocolates, at so on. Women’s liberation may have arrived here, but the girls are treated as ladies. Or else the gorilla gets dumped. One of the American lasses studying here commented on her Facebook page about the charming manners of Russian males, and her wish that American men should copy this. Started a bit of a slagging match.
For my part, I try and behave like a gentleman, help the neighbours, etc... So far I’ve had to buy a chance acquaintance early dinner and got a free dinner (and 3 hours of conversation practice) out of one of the neighbours. So it balances out.
Next post: Study!!