St. Petersburg, Russia A Perspective on the Women of St. Petersburg By The following is an excerpt from a thread in Cruise-Chat.com on St. Petersburg. I thought it interesting enough to post here for everyone to enjoy. Thank you for allowing me do share this information. This was in response to a post that I had made regarding the unbelievable beauty that the women of St. Petersburg possess. "Jet Set or Plaza will have more really attractive women than Magribs because they attract a different sort of visitor than Magrib. Even relatively poor women look very sharp in their coordinated outfits and super slim figures and 10 cm heels. Style is very important to a large portion of the population but not as much as a few years ago. Now, western style extreme casualness has become popular with about 40-50% of the college age people. They were a lot of unisex layered casual clothing, but not the baggies and sags as in the west. Just 3 years ago it would have been almost unheard of to see a woman under 40 not wearing high heels on or fully made up if she anywhere outside the home. I visited at least 6 times before I saw a woman under 40 who was overweight back in the late 70s and early 80's. Back then, imported designer clothes were difficult or impossible to find but they were copied by many women who kept stylish by visiting Italian boutiques each season and sketching the new styles and going home to make them. I used to have a girlfriend who was poor, making about $160/month and had never had a date in the 6 years after her divorce. She was 28 at the time and about as stylish as any girl you might have seen on Nevsky or in Magribs, a truly beautiful ultra-feminine young woman. All her clothes except for her high heels were home made. When I started buying her clothes as gifts, it was funny to see her so carefully inspect each item and the quality of fabric and stitching and report whether I was taken advantage of. For two years of being together I never saw her without looking like she came from the pages of Vogue, even if she was just going out to buy vegetables at the open air market down the street. I doubt she would have been able to walk a block in my home town without being accosted by men trying to meet her, but in Russia the men are spoiled rotten. Teenage boys have learned that women and girls exist for one reason, to take care of them and treat them as kings. All women in their lives proved that to them. Most can not and will not do anything for themselves, why, that is what women are for. As a result many self confident young women find it fair play to get what they can from the men. Foreign men do not understand that dynamic and often get chewed up in the process. Nowhere I have I seen as dramatic difference in the sexes in behavior and rolls as in Russia, women want to be feminine and want men who are completely opposite them. Personally, being a bit older and having grown up in another era, I enjoy being around feminine women, but it took me a long time to figure out how to be firm and decisive regardless of situation. I was always "a partner" type, wanting fully balanced decision making in a full democracy of a relationship. That does not work here. Asking too many questions probing the interests or feelings of a partner is considered weak and unmanly. I've learned that if, as a true gentleman I try to order all food, decide where to go and when to do it all without asking but carefully observing and deciding on choices, as if she DID tell me exactly what she wanted. It takes getting used to but both men and women seem to be happy with such an arrangement. It is a GREAT pleasure to socialize here because social behavior stresses gracious and and slightly formal set of manners that never confronts or embarrasses anyone. That is changing however, as more and more western influence on behavior and expectations is dramatically changing all cultures world wide, it is sad to see. A man, if polite and well spoken, can approach any woman and start a conversation and be assured it will be a pleasant experience (with no hint of rejection) even if she is not interested, she will politely and graciously demure. Men and women do not seem to fear each other and both enjoy emphasizing the differences between men and women. But make no mistake, despite what men believe and their titles, the country is run by women both in the home and in the work place, even if the salaries do not reflect that."