Dear Bridget,
Every day on my way to class,
I pass a paint store.
Like most of the shops and restaurants on the outskirts of the city, it escaped my attention for a while due to a lack of overt advertising and, of course, my inability to read the Czech signs.
Yet one afternoon, I took a leisurely stroll down the street past this paint store and stopped to gawk at a sign advertising a brand of paint sold at this location. The house paint advertisement features a blonde model from her stomach to her neck, with her arms raised over her head and her back arched. Aside from a coating of bright green paint, she is completely naked.
Not long after seeing this ad, I spied a service van parked along a street with an ad featuring another naked model, this time holding the advertised product - toilet paper - in front of her breasts. Body paint I can sort of understand - the ubiquitous Pink Floyd dorm room poster has forever linked the idea of sexy women and body paint - but sex and toilet paper? I fail to see the connection.
Maybe you've seen 2004's "EuroTrip," that ridiculous comedy that plays up every European stereotype known to Americans, making up a few new ones along the way, too. I thought the scene featuring a commercial for "Happy Juice" with two naked women kissing was a gross exaggeration of the advertising styles here. As it turns out, it isn't too far from the truth.
After over a month of being here, I still can't really get over the overt sexism that's wormed its way into Czech society, such as the ridiculous advertising schemes used here and around Eastern Europe. I'm not a prude, and it doesn't bother me to see nudity. But using sex to sell everything from ski equipment to washer/dryer units is beyond my comprehension.
I'm taking a sociology class about gender relations in Eastern Europe, and my teacher has shed some light on the more puzzling issues I've faced here. During Communism, the market didn't allow for freedom of expression or consumption. So, when the market finally opened, Czechs were treated to a barrage of images from greedy investors telling them what they should aspire to be in this new democratic age.
The moral implications behind the ads didn't really matter when advertisers could spin consumerism as a declaration of social liberty. Even over a decade later, there are still few legal requirements for sexually explicit imagery in the Czech Republic.
Of course, sex is in the American media: That's where it was honed into a delicate science of beer commercials and Cosmo. But something about it here is a little bit different; they often don't even make an attempt to veil the rampant objectification of women (and the human body in general).
I see that objectification when I go out in the city, especially on public transportation; men stare, and they give women the once-over without any pretense of a casual glance. At least half a dozen times I've caught men staring at me on the Metro, and often they won't look away - even when I act so bold as to make eye contact and hold their gazes. It's not as though I dress provocatively or claim to possess any arresting beauty; I could be in my sweats on the way back from yoga or bundled up in a scarf and jacket, and I'm still subject to the scrutiny of men.
Actually, the Metro itself is an interesting study in gender relations. Here, on the transportation systems, people follow unwritten rules of etiquette.
First, no loud or boisterous conversations. Second, give your seat to the elderly (especially women) or passengers with small children (usually young mothers). The third and final tenet is that the escalators (extending several stories each - think Porter Square) are to be used as grounds for gawking at social displays. If you ride the escalator, you are on parade, whether you like it or not.
The parallel ascending and descending stairs offer everyone an express form of people-watching under bright fluorescent lights. This is the worst place to get stared down because there's simply no escape. But I'm learning to enjoy this bizarre ritual, the silent, conspicuous observation of my fellow commuters. It's a veritable showcase of European fashion and culture, and my favorite thing to do is to play "Count the Mullets" and pretend the man behind me isn't staring at my butt.
Yet the most notable phenomenon is the prevalence of young Czech couples making out on these escalators in passionate, hormonal fits. You dare not erupt in raucous laughter while riding the Metro, because that would disturb others' riding experience, but it's quite all right to suck face with your partner in full view of the general public.
I've never seen PDA quite like this before, and they never fail to make me stumble off the escalator as I gawk in disbelief.
So what's a traveler like me to do? I guess I'll continue to watch and learn as an informed observer, trying not to let my shocked Western feminist philosophies get the better of me. Just know I might be calling you for bail if I let go on the next man who gets a bit too close to me on the subway...
Miss you a lot; I can't wait to see Vienna in November!
Kate
Bridget Reddington and Kate Peck are juniors majoring in English. They can be reached at bridget.reddington@tufts.edu and katherine.peck@tufts.edu.
