Question of the day: «А где твоя фуражка?» [And where’s you cap (peaked cap)?] Of course you haven’t really been to Russia if you haven’t had a Russian officer place his old «советская ушанка» [Soviet (i.e. Red Army) fur hat] on your head!

But I can already hear your objections, «дорогие читатели» [dear readers], that today – the 23rd of February – is NOT «день мужчин» [‘the day of men’, or why not simply: ‘man day’] at all, but «день защитника Отечества» [Defender of the Fatherland Day]. Women can also be – and often indeed they are – «защитники» [pl. defenders] (though in this case it would be more correct to use the female form of the word: «защитницы»). Today is historically known in Russia as the day when we celebrate the army; back in Soviet times this day was as a matter of fact called «день Красной армии» [Red Army Day]. So how come I take the liberty to call this public Russian holiday “Man Day”? There are a couple of reasons for this. First of all, in Russia «ВСЕ мужчины обязаны служить в армии» [ALL men must serve in the army]. For women, on the other hand, this is not so much «обязанность» [obligation, responsibility, duty] as it is «по своему желанию» [at one’s pleasure, at one’s will]. Thus when we celebrate «армию как таковую» [the army as such], we are implicitly celebrating «мужчин как таковых» [men as such]. But to say that every Russian man has at one point in his life been a soldier is of course not correct. I know plenty of Russian men who have NOT served in the army – but spent every day of their lives after turning eighteen until the age of twenty-seven (when you’re deemed as ‘too old’ to serve) hiding from the army. Many Russian young men try to do this (and some of them are successful in it), not because they’re not «патриоты» [pl. patriots] but because the Russian Army is no «рай на земле» [heaven on earth]. Enough said! (It is not my subject to speak on at length, after all, being as it is that I have two gigantic arguments speaking against me: a) I’m a woman; and b) I’ve never served in ANY army). Secondly, coming up soon here in Russia is the public holiday «международный женский день» [International Women’s Day] on the 8^th of March. On this day it is tradition to «поздравить всех женщин» [congratulate all women], so why shouldn’t there also be a day to «поздравить всех мужчин» [congratulate all men]? I think it is only fair!

Besides, in Russia both of the traditional gender-oriented ‘Western‘ holidays of Mother’s Day and Father’s Day are only slowly gathering popularity. But this also means that in Russia you don’t have to have children in order to have someone congratulate you! Really, women on the 8^th of March don’t have to do ANYTHING to get flowers. By our birth right we’re simply «прекрасный пол» [the beautiful sex] and we don’t even have to try and prove something further than this, unlike the men who in Russian are known as «сильный пол» [the strong sex]…

But while speaking on the differences between male and female in Russia, let me share this my «местное наблюдение» [local observation] with you: at my university every spring there is a beauty pageant known as «Мистер и Мисс УрГУ (Уральского государственного университета)» [Mister and Miss Ural State University]. About a month or two before this pageant the walls all over our university are filled by enormous amounts of posters of its female participants. These posters are usually not outright ‘sexy’, rather they’re «суггестивные» [suggestive], but I think that to the untrained western eye most of them would seem a bit ‘sexist’. However, there is not a single poster of a male contender – not yet at least. How come? Our university has more female students than male students, it would surely only make sense if it was the other way around? Also I would like to say that I think – this is only my strictly personal opinion though – that a beauty pageant has no place at an institution of higher education. Not only because in order to take part in it – though these ‘rules and restrictions’ apply only to female contenders – one must be of a certain height and weight (last time I checked this was taller than 168 cm and lighter than 58 kilos – I checked this because once upon a time I was younger and wanted to participate in it, but «увы!» [alas!] they told me that even though I’m light enough, I’m too short). One of my Russian friends informed me though, that at the university where she studies – «Уральский политехнический университет» [Ural Polytechnic University] – where there are a lot more male students than female students, the male contenders put up plenty of more ‘suggestive’ posters than the female do… I guess that no matter how you look at things, Russia will always seem to be «без логики!» [without logic!]

Who would you vote for to be «Мисс УрГУ 2010» [Miss Ural State 2010]?