Soviet Style Beauty: Tsogzolmaa and Suvd

Hey lovelies! I can’t believe this year in Mongolia is almost over, and I *of course* came back from Korea and got super sick. But since I can still read (thank god!) and walk, I have been spending the previous few weeks getting ready for talks, and immersed in books, transcriptions, and 12^th century adventurist writings.

Since I am a firm believer in the embodiment of gender norms through beauty ideals in any society, I thought it would be interesting for me to track down some beauty icons during Mongolia’s long and intense Soviet stage to see if the policy of gender equality had any significant effect on concepts of beauty during that time period.  I was also really interested in comparing concepts of beauty during the Soviet era to modern concepts, to see how radically everything changed in the last 20 years once the country ‘opened’ to the West.

Mongolian Communist Gender History

A little gender history for those who don’t know the first thing about Mongolia’s Soviet era (and I am guessing there are a lot of you), Mongolia, or the Mongolian People’s Republic, formed with support from the Soviet Union in 1924.  This traditionally nomadic, pastoralist society then underwent the Soviet-style process of collectivization of property in a novel way; they collectivized all livestock into agricultural cooperatives called nedgels.  Each person was required to complete a certain set of work units in the nedgel each week: men had 150 work hours, and women, 100.

The open party line was of absolute gender equality (Mongolia’s second constitution of 1940 stipulated that citizens’ rights be enjoyed by both sexes, and outlawed polygyny) and the nedgel did raise women’s position in various ways (education, work, maternity leave).  However, the work divide was highly gendered and “women became worker-mothers with double work while men had a higher-status role to play.” And women were commonly seen as ‘weaker,’ while men with harder, dirty jobs were commonly compensated by being officially recognized as state heroes (Ashwin 2000).

Iconic Mongolian Communist Beauty

Ok, so obviously it wasn’t absolute gender parity, but it did re-traditionalize women’s roles and conceptions of beauty in Mongolia.  So, I decided to try to track down two of the icons of beauty during Mongolian’s Soviet era, Tsogzolmaa and her daughter, Suvd, to see how they felt about beauty, body and women’s roles.

Tsogzolmaa was born in 1924, at the turn of the revolution, and is considered by many Mongolians to be the pinnacle of Mongolian Soviet era beauty. She starred in the movie Tsogt Taij (“The Spirited Knight”..?) in 1945. Her daughter, Suvd, born in 1948, was the lead in the film Mandukhai Tsetsen Hatan (“Wise Queen Mandukhai”) in 1989.  I am constantly told everywhere I go that they were then and are still considered two of the most beautiful women in Mongolia.

Yes, Mongolia is small enough that through two degrees of separation you can obtain the phone  number of practically anyone in the country, even the most famous of Mongolians (I kinda love this). So, I got in contact with Tsogzolmaa through a teacher’s grandmother, but Tsogzolmaa (who was born in 1924 when Mongolia became the ‘republic’ and is now at the tender age of 88) has been too sick to go anywhere or see anyone.  However, she gave us her daughter’s number without hesitation, and so I follow with a few quotes from my interview with Suvd, and a few from a similar interview on beauty and fashion done with Tsogzolmaa a few years ago.

Let me just say that this was the easiest interview I have ever done. Usually I have to sometimes wrestle answers out of taciturn people, but all I did was tell Suvd what I was doing and she proceeded to talk for 20 minutes. (Note: The lovely Nomin helped me transcribe, and the translations are mine, altered a bit to sound better in English).

On the standards of beauty in Mongolia during her time:

“According to the traditional Mongolian standard of beauty, a good demeanor and an intelligent mind are highly regarded. This may possibly be the case all over the world. Also, especially to Mongolians, a person’s status was traditionally really important.”

About physical appearance during that time:

Tsogzolmaa herself is the archetype of Mongolian communist beauty as she described: "A woman with a big face, narrow eyebrows, and red cheeks was esteemed as beautiful."

“Each group of people on this earth has their own conception of beauty.  According to tradition, Mongolians like round faces, complexions white as snow, and a round faced woman was looked at a lot, for example. External forms of beauty change with the times.”

You can compare this to the similar answer given by her mother (who is only 24 years older):

About the standards for women of your time?

In my time, women only really looked at the face and clothing. It’s not like now. Well-defined eyebrows, red cheeks like fruit, etc. were sung about. A woman with a big face, narrow eyebrows, and red cheeks was esteemed as beautiful.

On the changes in beauty ideals through globalization:

“Now, a great deal of beauty standards are becoming similar, since economies are universalizing through globalization, and thus things are carried out the same way all over the world. Through globalization, [Mongolian] beauty standards are now changing to the way it is in other countries, which I don’t like. And thus, my daughters are now aspiring to be thin, have long legs, and be slender… they really have been trying to conform themselves to this standard.”

“However, Mongolians on average still don’t overly look at the external appearance, which is a vestigial of our traditions, and is still lingering on. Now, percentage wise, I would say it’s about 50/50. Generally, the focus on the external appearance is rising… if people all around the world become the same it is incredibly boring.  Everything is heading towards this, I think this world lifestyle is boring and we are all going in this direction and thus life is becoming very boring to me. I live like this now, I went to America and lived like this and to Germany and lived like this, and it is all the same. There is nothing interesting or novel about it. Everywhere there are super thin girls who live similarly, all wear the same clothing, have the same face, have had plastic surgery, and children watch the same films like “Tom and Jerry,” and as soon as we all become like this, I feel there will be nothing interesting left. Now everyone has plastic surgery and gets the same eyes, the same nose, etc. When I now watch films, I can’t tell the difference between the contemporary actresses, I can’t tell who is who.”

Suvd's almond shaped eyes are her trademark, but would not be considered beautiful by today's standards.

On the evils of the modern media:

I asked if she agreed with the statement that beauty was much more internal during the Soviet era in Mongolia, and has now become much more external, especially in the city:

“I agree, I agree. We are now in the transition phase. During our era, the country was closed, right? We didn’t have the opportunity to see foreigner singers, like the beetles, and watch foreign movies….there wasn’t a lot that was allowed. And the blocked stuff was super interesting to us, and we would find it, listen, and watch anything we could… [but] we knew that these forms of media were part of its system and connected to it…. It was promoted to us as bad, so when we watched it we could see the good and the bad elements to it and view it objectively. Now, generally, this media is contemporary and supposedly all good, none of it is bad anymore, so like water, it can’t be filtered and 100 percent of it gets in.”

On why it is important for Mongolian women to maintain their appearance:

“There is this Mongolian wise phrase, maybe you know it: You enter the yurt through the husband’s name, but how you leave the yurt is dependent on the wife’s name (This implies that the husband is the public sphere and allows you to enter, but the care you receive and the respect you show is up to the wife). In this manner (needing to care but also entertain), a woman gets pleasure from being both internally and externally beautiful… her mind is sharp, her mien expressive, and the external is not only her complexion, but also her clothing…a woman’s external must be maintained…[which they] learn from a young age, and has been the custom until now.”

Suvd: Considered by many to be one of the most beautiful Mongolian women.

On why, despite women’s increased education, most power positions are occupied by Mongolian men:

“I also think this is connected to tradition…usually Mongolian women have regarded their husbands as higher and superior. The husbands, in return, highly respect and cherish their wives. But these days, the higher ones are propelled to the top. This is our psychology, and women still consider their sons as superior… yes, this is tradition.”

My follow up question: So, because of that traditional respect, it’s still easier for men to become members of parliament than it is for women?

“Yes, maybe. It is possible.”

****

Recently while in Korea, I had the impression that a lot of people I was encountering had very black and white images of what women and men think of as beautiful.  Maybe it is because I am locked away in this country where the female bonding ritual of ‘fat talk’ between women (you know the type: “omg I look so fat in this,” “omg no you don’t, but I do in this,” “on shutup you look fantastic” etc.) is something non-existent, and I have thus become overly sensitized.  Anyway, some of the statements I heard about all women supposedly wanting to be thin, and diet, and be pretty got to me, and these two answers from Tsogzolmaa were geared towards this (as well as the above statements from Suvd):

Normally all women proclaim that they are fat. Did the women from your time say this?

I was quite large at one point: 80 kilos. In order to get thinner, I worried a lot and after doing a lot of strength activities in my home, I automatically got thinner. Getting thinner was a subject for the woman of my time. Athletes officially were made to do a lot and worried a lot. During our time excessively large people didn’t exist.

Can you name what influenced the measurements of female beauty?

One side of the standard was we thought that if we just used natural things, everything was ok. A peaceful disposition, joy was important. It was called an ‘unhurried disposition.’ The other side was that eating a lot wasn’t good, and using a lot of make-up was said to be bad, especially when older. And being overly thin was also inappropriate.

So what is Soviet beauty?

So, in general it seems that Mongolian women thought about their appearance during the Soviet era, but not nearly as obsessively and externally as (city) women do now. Being thin might have been a topic, but excessive thinness was not viewed positively, and most appearance factors focused solely on the face (round), the skin (white with red cheeks), and the eyebrows.

This is super interesting when you consider that the most commonly operated on body parts in modern Mongolia are the eyes (to make them bigger – which wasn’t even a topic 20 years ago!), the nose, and the lips. The focus on which body parts are considered important amongst Mongolians have changed radically in the last 20 years with the free-market.

But throughout the two interviews, both women continually stressed the internal and collective nature of beauty; Tsogzolmaa in her longer interview talks about several women who were considered georgeous in her day due to their behavior, but did not try to dress up and look overtly feminine.  To this day, when I ask others why Tsogzolmaa and Suvd are considered knockouts, they tell me it is because of the respect they show others and their demeanors.  They have ‘royal’ demeanors; when I interviewed Suvd, she had this way of folding her hands, tilting her head, and smiling in a very fuzzy, warm motherly way. Really, their attraction then and now to all Mongolians is that they are nice-looking, peaceful, classic and warm people; nothing sexy, showy or dangerous about it.

Suvd went on a nice long rant about the evils of media and how Western media is changing beauty standards, which I appreciated. As someone who has been considered a beauty icon and had a mother who was a beauty icon, she has been inundated and surrounded by this topic since day one. So, her ascertainment of beauty in Mongolia as transitioning due to global market processes making universal beauty standards uniform, is accurate and refreshing (that I am not the only one saying this stuff!).

The opinions in this blog reflect solely the personal opinions of the blogger and in no way represent the Fulbright Association, the Mongolian National University, the Free University Berlin, nor the Mongolian United States Embassy.

Hovsgol: The Mongolian Wild West

I know it has been two months since I have updated – I mentally slap myself on the wrist and will try to avoid that in the future.  I have just been SO BUSY!  Not to mention out of internet reach for the last three weeks since I decided to return to the place that kicked off my whole Mongolia obsession five years ago.  Namely: I returned to Hovsgol to surprise my first homestay family.

Ok, for those who don’t know what I am talking about: I participated in a study abroad program called SIT five years ago (the only study abroad program in Mongolia) that takes small groups of university students to communities of Mongolian nomads and places those students with families for extended periods of time.  In my semester, we had the great fortune of having two extended homestays: one in the northern region of Hovsgol, in an area known as Ulaan Uul (Red Mountain) closs to the Russian border, and the other in Bayankhongor in the Gobi desert.  I am still in contact with the program director and most staff members and thus when I heard that SIT was heading back to this Hovsgolian community with a new group of students, I asked if I could hitch a ride ;).

Ulaan Uul is in the very most northern part of Mongolia in Siberia where there are no roads and very few people, so getting there required an old-school russian bus (поргон) and over 20 hours of driving through Siberian taiga (if you are lucky and there is no snow as my return trip evinced: it took me around 40 hours to make it back to the city).  It is located in the Darkhan Valley, which is also well known because of the presense of the Tsaatan, reindeer herders, and now because of a recent influx of ninja miners in the mountains.  It is most probably the most beautiful place I have ever been and comparable only to (as a member of Mongolian parliament said to me) Yellowstone National Park or the Alaskan wilderness.

Since my family from five years ago did not have TV or electricity at the time I thought there was no way I could really inform them of my coming.  My plan was originally to just show up and say surprise and see their faces, but since my family was so fantastic, SIT had planned to give them a new student this year.  Thus, I was not ‘allowed’ to live with them, but SIT offered me another family.  So, basically I repeated what I did five years ago with a new family: except this time, I was older, everyone in the community knew me, I decided to do a beauty survey amongst the nomads which required extensive travel between the various families, and last, but by no means least, I can speak Mongolian.

After driving the 15 hours to Mörön (the capital of Hovsgol), picking up the new students, and driving another 7 hours to the local sum

Five years ago: This is a picture of my home-stay mom and dad that I took five years ago.

(district) center and another 1 and half to the remote community where we lived, I found myself entering the same ger (yurt) I had entered five years ago when I was picked up by my home-stay dad on horseback.  I sat down amongst the students and all the Mongolian occupants of the ger starting wispering furtively about the surprise number of students (“Eleven? I thought there were only supposed to be ten??!”).  I had on a scarf, which I used to (I thought surreptitiously, but I now know bogglingly obviously) to cover my piercings.  My family’s gesture for me three years ago was forming their thumb and pointer finger in the sign of a ring and placing it on their lip (I had a fairly big lip ring then), and I thought my piercings were a dead give-away.  So, I sat in the corner with a scarf covering half my face…

Bold (current): My home-stay dad from five years ago. He didn't have a motorbike back then, much less electricity and television, but now greatly enjoys hearding on motorbike.

And my former homestay dad walked in – a wrestler, big guy with his two front teeth missing and a tiny goatee – who sat down next to me, not recognizing, and lit up a cigarette.  Amused, I decided I would just go to their ger and shock them all at once, but my plan was thwarted when my former homestay mother arrived.  Even though I covered half my face, I walked out with the students to get a quick horseback riding tip lesson, at first not realizing that she had been secretively eyeing me and asking everyone who I was.  She waddled after the group of students and from a distance starred at me with a quisical, mustering look…

So, I cracked and ran over to her and their faces light up with recognition and shock and laughter at my badly obvious attempts at covering my face.  (Apparently, she spent the next three weeks telling this story to every visitor to the ger, animatedly imitating my covering attempts).  She then took me by the hand and started leading me to the horses to take me ‘home’ (“well now I have my daughter back, we can go”), but my insistance that they had a ‘new’ student and couldn’t take me home, stopped her.  Instead, I spent the next few weeks riding/walking/motorcycling between the family I was staying with and my former homestay family, learning songs with them (since I could barely speak any Mongolian five years ago, we communicated and bonded through singing) and now being able to communicate ideas about my life and theirs.

It is incredible to now be able to talk to the nomadic families that took me in five years ago and I

Reunited

decided to utilize the opportunity by doing a little beauty survey.  So, while in Hovsgol the last few weeks, I horse-back rode and repeatedly drove the several kilometers between various families, explained my research to the nomads in the area and ended up collecting 20 surveys from them (20 doesn’t sound like much, but the population density of this place is very low) regarding beauty ideals.  Amongst the questions were, of course, what does it mean to be a beautiful woman, but also if this was different than a ‘sexy’ woman, which ellicited a lot of really funny comments from older nomads (“wait.. you mean a sexy woman is not someone who just wants to have sex? aren’t we all sexy?”).  I am not finished evaluating them yet (it is really hard for me to read cursive Mongolian), but cursory looks already reveal what I already knew to be true: that beauty amongst Mongolian nomads is very functional and internal based.  Comments on “what does it mean to be a beautiful woman” included the classic answers, hard-working, well-behaved, well-versed in tradition, commonsensical, good-mother, but also others like “a woman who drinks milk,” “not a miss (beauty pageant) contestant,” and “a humble looking woman.” External physical qualities are almost never mentioned.

So, I guess I can now be sure that the nomadic conception of beauty varys little amongst nomads on complete different sides of the country (since I have now been in the Gobi, in horse-country and in the Siberian extremes), but more so amongst city and countryside.  But I guess I knew that already.

Modernity vs. Nomadicism?

Ulaan Uul is the most isolated place I have ever been – with it taking over 30 hours in an industrial-style Soviet bus over terrain with no roads- to get there.  The Darkhan Valley is relatively protected from the currents of change in the rest of the country, but even the Darkhan are on the cusp of modernity.  Five years ago, my home-stay family and about half of the other families in the valley did not have either electricity or TV, and only a few had motorbikes.  Everything was still done by candle and fire-light, people generally went to sleep and woke up with the sun, and entertainment consisted of card games and singing.  I once asked my home-stay dad if he knew where America was (and Germany for that matter) and still remember very clearly the shrug of his shoulders as an answer.  Why is it important for a nomad in a remote valley to be concerned with America anyway?  I found this super refreshing.

The powers of marketing: Even nomads now drink Pepsi and Cola and discuss which is better.

Now, five years later, all the nomads in the valley have cell phones, TV and electricity.  Television commercials make nomads wonder what these new wonder products are (coca-cola? oriflame beauty products? pepsi?) and they go into town to try them out.  Global warming makes people have to move, because the grasses are getting shorter, and families complain to me about the changing health and increased drunkeness of the nomads since the advent of free-market capitalism.  Entertainment often consists of TV (especially among younger families).  And in the last two years, SIT could not go to this valley, because the discovery of gold in an area 60 km away caused the valley to be overrun with ninja miners who arrived, incured debt for the equipment to search for gold, found some gold, drove up the prices in the area and ruined the nature, and then peaced out as quickly as they came.

What you see in this area is kinda the same old story seen amongst all sorts of indigenous groups the world over once they started adapting to Western capitalism and ‘modernity.’  Rises in modern diseases (cancer, hypertension, high blood-pressure), changes to nature dependent on market forces (mining), break-down of old bonding activities replaced by TV, increased consuption of refined sugars (thank you coca-cola and refined flour) and alcohol abuse.  And with focus on my research, I see these changes reflected in the changes of beauty ideals amongst Mongolians – a gradual but definite spectrum from large, healthy, motherly ideals to skinny, fast, ‘sexy’ ideals the closer you get to the city and sedentary life.

It has kinda left me questioning at the moment if teaching people about Western nutrition (which I had planned to do by creating a health booklet for women before leaving Mongolia) is really the best idea.  The West doesn’t know everything either.

And in case you were wondering, my nomad dad still doesn’t know where America is. 🙂

Culture shock

Driving back to UB: Only way we got home was by picking up other busses that got stuck in the snow, helping them, and then forming a chain of busses that helped each other when one got stuck.

Well, now I am back in the city and physically and mentally exhausted.  I separated from SIT a week ago, when they continued to the local lake with their students, and I was left getting back from Ulaan Uul on my own.  And since we live in Mongolia, snow had already fallen between Hovsgol and UB, but, also since we live in Mongolia, that didn’t phase people and drivers decided they wanted to drive through it anyway.  What ensued was a 40 hour Soviet bus ride over Mongolian terrain, mountains, and through cliff-passes in a bus designed for 12 people where we had stuck 17 and which got stuck in the snow at night for 10 hours and had to wait until the snow thawed a bit to keep moving.  Furthermore, we had to get out several times and trudge through the snow pulling on a rope attached to the back of the bus as it went down slopes to make sure it didn’t skid-out and fall off the cliff.  Luckily, we were also in a Soviet bus, because the larger busses has also decided to go, which definitely got stuck and spent over 25 hours stuck in the snow out of any cell-phone range.  These are the vageries of traveling (and doing anything for that matter) in this country.

The constant unpredictability of life here, coupled with language difficulties (my Mongolian is

No, I can't be vegan in the countryside; but there is something to be said (and to be tasted) about drinking the milk you just milked yourself. Totally different way to relate to animals and food.

advanced, but not fluent – so I get confused a lot), extreme cultural differences (which I encountered a lot of while doing my survey with the nomads), and radical changes of dietary routine (I was vegan for five years, went to the countryside for 3 months and lived with 8 different carniverous families, came back to the city and was vegan again, and went back to the country where I drank the yak’s milk I had just milked myself every morning and ate freshly slaughtered marmot), and hygienic circumstance (nomads don’t use soap for washing most things, the word for privacy doesn’t even exist in the Mongolian language, and I have not showered for several weeks repeatedly in the last months) have taken a huge toll on my body.  I have actually never been so repeatedly physically uncomfortable in my life.

I kinda feel like I am physically and mentally tettering between Western ideals and Mongolian nomadic culture and I don’t know which one is right anymore.

My mongolian teacher told me my home-work this weekend was to rest cause I looked so exhausted… oh je.  At least my life in this country is ridiculous.

I hope the lengthiness of this entry has made up some for the silence… I have also drafted another entry about the beauty image workshop Young Women for Change and I held a few weeks ago, which I will post very soon (I promise!)

As previously mentioned, I also spent the last few weeks learning songs from my former nomadic family.  In vein with my research, my former home-stay sister taught me this song about a beautiful woman called монгол бүсгүйн үзэсгэлэн (Mongolian female beauty).  Below is an mp3 with my home-stay sister singing the song, including my (as of now hastily done – I will correct it soon) translation and the cyrillic lyrics, if you are interested.

Харзны ус шиг мэлтэлзсэн     Emotionally contained like the water in an ice hole
Намуун зөөлөн аашаараа     With calm soft temperament
Хараацайн жигvvр шиг тахиралсан     Curved like the wing of a swallow
Нарийн сайхан хөмсгөөрөө     With thin beautiful eyebrows

дахилт (Refrain):

Миний хайрыг татах     Pulls my love
Учиртай төрөө юү     Like the reason you were born
Монгол бүсгуйн үзэсгэлэн     Mongolian female beauty
Улам ч хөөрхөн болгоо юу     Forever becoming prettier

Гурваар дарсан гэзгийг чинь     Your three modest braids
Элбэн таалахад ханамгvй     When caressed calms
Гуалиг тєрсєн биеийг чинь     Your natural graceful body
Налан суухад уйдамгvй     lovely to sit next to

УЙлэнд урнаа илчилсэн     Good at needle-work
Сvмбэн цагаан хуруугаараа     With rod-like, white fingers
Vрийн бvvвэй аялсан     A mothering lullaby is sung
Сvvн цайлган сэтгэлээрээ     With a heart kind like milk

the state of gender (in)equality in Mongolia.

I have up to now been unfortunately neglecting the main topic of this blog; chronicling the women’s struggle, beauty ideals, and experience of being a female in Mongolia.  I think that has to do with me being overwhelmed by stimuli and impressions after arriving, and me needing to absorb and sort out these thoughts in my head.  But I have oh SOOOO many thoughts and will try to give some initial impressions on the status of women in Mongolia:

A quick combing through the forums and travel websites of the internet will reveal a plethora of websites that make claim to the respect afforded women and the general equality between men and women in Mongolia.  Travel websites and forums claim that Mongolian men have a lot of respect for women, which comes from the socialist past and the herder upbringing (appealing to the supposed power of women during the times of Genghis Khan), since a woman was an integral, celebrated part of the family. Others claim that women are very strong here, because they are on-average more highly educated than men. 

And a cursory exposure to this country (trans-sib tourists, maybs) could seem to validate this.  In the vein of quick judgements, women are not ‘covered’ here, they have legal equality in all aspects, have little polygamy, nor is there genital mutiliation.  And EVERYWHERE EVERYWHERE EVERYWHERE in government, offices, stores, banks, science, universities… are women. 

This country is basically run by women.  In the university affair’s office, there are only women, in the state foreigner’s office, there are 20 women and 3 men (according to my own personal calculation 🙂 ), in all the NGO’s I have been to, there have been maybe one out of 10 workers that are men.  WHERE are all the men?  Does that mean that women are in control of this country?

S.Oyun, member of Parliament since 1998 and 2012 Presidential Candidate, went with SIT to meet here last time I was here.

Unfortunately, no.  Out of 76 members of the State Great Khural (the Mongolian parliament) only four members are women.  This ratio stands greatly at odds with the day to day governance of this country.  And this fact reflects a pervasive idea that is still deeply ingrained in Mongolian culture: that is, that men ultimately make the decisions.

The fact that women are everywhere in the bureaucratic and civil runnings of this country is less a result of gender egalitarian thinking, and more a result of historical circumstance.  For those who don’t know, Mongolia was a soviet satellite that was greatly, greatly funded by the Soviet Union.  The Soviet Union wanted to make an example of Mongolia, and flooded it with money.  But when the Soviet Union collapsed, these money sources disappeared virtually overnight and the infrastructure of the country collapsed.  Life got REALLY hard and changed very rapidly.  And pastoralist, nomadic families started sending their daughters into town to go to school and get educated, giving them a possiblity for another life.  But the sons had to stay home, in order to help with the labor.  So, essentially, it was the preference for a son to remain at home for work, which led to the rise of a class of educated Mongolian women.

However, despite the ranks of amazing, highly-educated Mongolian women… patriarchy remains.  Yes, women are not veiled, nor forced into marriage, nor denied basic rights, but violence towards women is rising.  With the rapid economic changes in Mongolia, pastorialism is no longer as sustainable as it once was.  People are now dependent on market forces and global changing weather patterns, which has caused many nomads to give up their lifestyles and move into the cities.  However, not being educated, these nomads have few job opportunities, and turn to the bottle (aka vodka). 

The result is what I have called a patriarchal “sandwich effect.”  At the top of Mongolian society, are the well-educated men, who rise to prominance more easily than women, because of the deeply ingrained belief that men have the decision-making capacity.  Underneath is a class of highly-educated women running all aspects of the country.  And under them are a lot of very poor -and often drunk- men.  And due to the cultural ideals of what it means to be a man  -aka, the bread-winner, providing for the family, and being a strong, nomadic man- these men feel very threatened in their masculinity.  So, they lash out.  They beat women.  They attack them on the streets and after dark.  Rape is a growing and big problem.  And these are all ways for these men, who feel threatened through their failing of reaching the cultural ideal of masculinity, to utilize violence in order to show women their place.  And many Mongolian women live with fear.

So, Mongolian women are not equal, despite what the travel broschures are trying to sell you.  Both above and below women are marks of patriarchial cultural hierarchy; at the top are men who have been propelled by their gender and below is an angry backlash against female personal power.  To be a woman in Mongolia means to live in a country where traditional gender divides are failing, men are reacting to their loss of power, but also to be at the cusp of change. 

Although there is a backlash, the fact remains that women run this country.  They are starting to get together, and are starting to discuss words like “feminism,” and starting to write and talk about their experiences.  And as a feminist, it is inspiring to be here at this time where women are starting to realize the power they have.   

More on one women’s organization that is doing exactly that next time I get a breather :). ❤ 

(Anthropological sidenote: One of the best ethnographies on Mongolia covers the rise in maternal mortality and stresses on women after the fall of the Soviet era: “Free Markets and Dead Mothers” by Craig Janes 2004)

The opinions in this blog reflect solely the personal opinions of the blogger and in no way represent the Fulbright Association, the Mongolian National University, the Free University Berlin, nor the Mongolian United States Embassy.