Championship on hypocrisy: Who shames Russian women for sex with foreigners
Natasha Fedorenko
FIFA World Cup in Russia continues and in stadiums, and on the streets, and in dating applications. The latter demonstrate a significant increase - for example, the Tinder press service reports that in the first week of the world championship the number of likes among users increased by 42%, and the number of couples increased by 66%. Dating service representatives point out that they are always seeing an increase in the popularity of such applications during international tournaments - for example, according to Business of Apps, during the 2014 World Cup in Brazil, the number of users of the tinder doubled.
This trend, however, not only leads to fun, good sex and new acquaintances, but also brings to the surface numerous problems with sexism and discrimination. Before the start of the championship, State Duma deputy Tamara Pletnev said that Russian women should not have sex with guests of the championship, and especially "representatives of a different race." The press secretary of the president, Dmitry Peskov, tried to make up for her statement, saying that the Russians themselves will deal with their sex lives, but for some reason he added that "Russian women are the best in the world."
Pink vagina
Problems with the "best women" arose from the first days of the championship. Photos of fun festivals and acquaintances were periodically interrupted by news of harassment from foreign fans. Brazilian fans deceived the Russian woman, forcing her to chant in an unfamiliar language "Russian pink vagina." Because of this, one of the participants of the antics lost his job in the airline, and the other - the police lieutenant - was given a disciplinary check on the service. The Argentine fan, who cruelly mocked the Russian woman in a similar way, paid the price: the man was removed from the championship by the decision of the Argentine authorities, and he also had to apologize on television. I had to apologize to the Russian fan, who kissed the correspondent of Deutsche Welle live on a dispute with a friend. After the incident, the woman continued to work as if nothing had happened, however, Deutsche Welle and other media clearly identified this incident as harassment.
Each of these cases caused a reaction abroad and was resolved without the intervention of the Russian authorities. But anyway, ostentatious machismo in this championship almost always led to loud scandals: bawdy jokes with foreigners turned out to be a serious problem for the reputation and career of the people of Argentina and Brazil.
Russian beauties
We are used to hearing that Russian women are “the most beautiful”, and their appearance is a separate subject of “national pride”. Unfortunately, behind the complimentary words lies the conviction that the Russian woman’s body does not belong to her, but to her country. The unlucky women simply forgot about this for the time of the FIFA World Cup and decided that they could spend time with foreigners wherever and whenever they like, not reporting to their homeland. But the media, even the liberal ones, ordered it differently: Radio Liberty released a documentary about how Russians search for foreign fans, and the Championship went to glue on foreigners with Russian beauties. The successes of the Russian men among the foreign women went unnoticed.
The fact that compatriots, communicating with fans, deserve condemnation, say not only the deputies of the State Duma. “My friend and I were sitting outside in Moscow and talking to Brazilians who came to the FIFA world - they just talked about their country, it was quite interesting. But several drunk Russian football fans sat next to us and shouted some kind of nasty things. Something about that “they are the same as we are,” and that my friend and I want to go after them to Brazil, ”says photo editor Nastya Likkey.
A resident of Moscow, Alisa Kuznetsova, faced a similar aggression - a woman was explaining the way to a Mexican, which is why an aggressive Russian fan began to molest her and eventually called her “sh *** nd”. "These men were not ready for the fact that women have a choice. And instead of trying to be respectful, empathetic, interesting, they are trying to prevent women from choosing. To humiliate, crush, use violence," Kuznetsova wrote on her Facebook.
Natasha Russophobia
These situations could be attributed to a pinnacle of street harassment if it were not for the surge of sexist comments on the web. MDK, the largest public in Russia, gushes with words about "Natasha" and "Natashek" (the classic derogatory nickname of Russian women at popular resorts). At the time of the world championship, “Natasha” is called indiscriminately: as if the authors (obviously, from proprietary considerations) are basically unbearable the idea of the potential sex of a Russian woman with a foreigner.
The content of these memes perfectly demonstrates the system of mizoginnyh myths: for example, that women certainly look for sex for one night with a foreigner for the sake of marriage and emigration and are unaware of the existence of contraception. It is believed that sex with foreigners happens only from the desire to move up the social ladder, and not just for pleasure. Talk about female sexuality is not conducted at all, in the place of the “Russian beauty” an image of a greedy predator appears. Foreigners are attractive to women only as a ticket to life.
Women who have decided to have sex with someone other than their compatriots, of course, are also accused of Russophobia, allegedly preferring foreigners to Russians on a national basis. The charges are usually received from men who call women "inkpots" (an offensive name for women, meaning that they only have sex with non-Slavs). This racist myth says that in this championship Russians are aiming to get acquainted with Latin Americans.
“They are dragged from Mexicans and Brazilians. There are, of course, a couple of enthusiastic comments about the Swedes, but there are few of them,” writes one of the members of the group “BUCETA ROSA”, where they gather to discuss the “dissolved” Russians. This is at odds with the idea that Russians have sex with foreigners only for selfish motives - the standard of living in Sweden is much higher than Brazilian. But the controversy does not bother commentators: from the "dear guests of the championship," Latin Americans and Africans are turning into hostile representatives of the "alien" race, about which deputy Pletnev warned, and "Russian beauties" - into "inkpots."
“I don’t consider them as people and citizens of the country. It’s sad that they are a disgrace to the country and the people as a whole,” writes Roman in the BUCETA ROSA group. The machismo here is intricately intertwined with patriotism and the reluctance to "lose face" in front of visitors. As an example, Russian women in forums often cite residents of the republics of Chechnya and Dagestan, where girls "behave chastely and disgrace no one."
Paradoxically, this rhetoric is used not only by the “ultra-right” in this championship. For many Russians, a woman’s right to privacy and self-management of her own body is still a reason for humiliating jokes and insults. After the World Cup, very active commentators promise to boycott their compatriots for bad behavior - well, okay.