My upcoming trip to Iceland is one of the few in my life I actually want to do.
If Anne Tyler had met me she could have taken notes for "The Accidental Tourist."
I do not like travel. I hate waiting on lines. I hate airports--although the Iceland airport is actually gorgeous. I am acutely uncomfortable among people who do not speak English. I usually just want to go home.
Now, I'm going to Iceland, by choice.
The Icelanders are very cagey. If you fly Iceland Air, chances are you'll be stuck in Iceland over night because of "weather conditions." It happens with such regularity that Iceland Air has a shuttle bus which shuttles you to their corporate headquarters near Reykjavik which just happens to have a hotel with a restaurant, where they put you up overnight, at their own expense.
Then, the next morning you wake up and you see Reykjavik out your window and you wander over there, because your flight doesn't take off until later that day, and as soon as you wander through Reykjavik's streets and talk to the people--most of whom speak English at least a little--and see the women in the coffee shops chatting amiably, and wander through the sweater knitting shops and the wonderful, minimalistic church, you are completely hooked.
Ninety-nine out of 100 Americans waylaid in Rekjavik say, "I gotta come back here." It's like welcome to Shangri-La. Iceland is so cool.
Apparently, it's been discovered. It's only 4 1/2 hours from Boston. People go there for weekend debauchery, I'm told. Sex is a big thing in Iceland, which at my age is less of a draw, but for the thirty something crowd, it's a big draw.
In preparation I watched the TV series "Trapped," which is how, as I said, most people discover Iceland.
Apparently, women in this country which provides health care and child care, are free to live their lives without worrying about financial support from men. So they have their kids, 67% of the time without being married, and they don't need men to help raise them, because they have the village for that.
Women are living the feminist dream in Iceland, according to the New Yorker and the Atlantic.
These articles do note that women living as single mothers in Iceland are not living in the same material abundance and luxury as women in America. The message here may be: You can go it alone, but you will live richer if you have another income supporting you and your kids, which figures.
American women already know this. This is a choice, I presume, a lot of American women make daily: Do I stay with this bozo and drive a better car, live in a better house, have an undisrupted family with dinners at home, or do I live less comfortably, but free?
I'm eager to hear from actual Icelanders what they think about the lives of women in this island society.
From what I read, this place is about as far away from Jane Austen's world as one can get--women are not just hovering around the dance floor hoping to be chosen; they are living their lives, having their kids and if men want a part in that, and if they want men to be present, so be it.
Recent articles about women in the former Soviet Union have said much the same: freed from dependency on men, women are happier. One sixty something woman, who had grown up in Soviet East Germany, said she looks at her daughter and her daughter's husband and they are working long hours in the new capitalist Germany; they come home "like zombies" and just collapse in front of the TV. When she was that age, she says, she had one job, got off at five o'clock and went out with her friends. "Life was a lot more fun for me than for my daughter. We didn't work as hard or worry about money."
Why did Gloria Steinem spend so much time in India, rather than in Iceland?
Well, India needed the work, I understand, but I tried to Google this but all I got was Gloria Steinem in Viceland. Not exactly the same thing.
Stay tuned, the Phantom will keep you posted.
When I'm there I will likely have no access to the internet--they use different electric current over there. It is called the world wide web, however, so I may be able to post from this feminist eutopia.
If Anne Tyler had met me she could have taken notes for "The Accidental Tourist."
I do not like travel. I hate waiting on lines. I hate airports--although the Iceland airport is actually gorgeous. I am acutely uncomfortable among people who do not speak English. I usually just want to go home.
Now, I'm going to Iceland, by choice.
 |
| Photo by Annie Ling |
The Icelanders are very cagey. If you fly Iceland Air, chances are you'll be stuck in Iceland over night because of "weather conditions." It happens with such regularity that Iceland Air has a shuttle bus which shuttles you to their corporate headquarters near Reykjavik which just happens to have a hotel with a restaurant, where they put you up overnight, at their own expense.
Then, the next morning you wake up and you see Reykjavik out your window and you wander over there, because your flight doesn't take off until later that day, and as soon as you wander through Reykjavik's streets and talk to the people--most of whom speak English at least a little--and see the women in the coffee shops chatting amiably, and wander through the sweater knitting shops and the wonderful, minimalistic church, you are completely hooked.
 |
| Photo by Annie Ling |
Ninety-nine out of 100 Americans waylaid in Rekjavik say, "I gotta come back here." It's like welcome to Shangri-La. Iceland is so cool.
Apparently, it's been discovered. It's only 4 1/2 hours from Boston. People go there for weekend debauchery, I'm told. Sex is a big thing in Iceland, which at my age is less of a draw, but for the thirty something crowd, it's a big draw.
 |
| Photo by Annie Ling |
In preparation I watched the TV series "Trapped," which is how, as I said, most people discover Iceland.
Apparently, women in this country which provides health care and child care, are free to live their lives without worrying about financial support from men. So they have their kids, 67% of the time without being married, and they don't need men to help raise them, because they have the village for that.
Women are living the feminist dream in Iceland, according to the New Yorker and the Atlantic.
These articles do note that women living as single mothers in Iceland are not living in the same material abundance and luxury as women in America. The message here may be: You can go it alone, but you will live richer if you have another income supporting you and your kids, which figures.
American women already know this. This is a choice, I presume, a lot of American women make daily: Do I stay with this bozo and drive a better car, live in a better house, have an undisrupted family with dinners at home, or do I live less comfortably, but free?
I'm eager to hear from actual Icelanders what they think about the lives of women in this island society.
From what I read, this place is about as far away from Jane Austen's world as one can get--women are not just hovering around the dance floor hoping to be chosen; they are living their lives, having their kids and if men want a part in that, and if they want men to be present, so be it.
Recent articles about women in the former Soviet Union have said much the same: freed from dependency on men, women are happier. One sixty something woman, who had grown up in Soviet East Germany, said she looks at her daughter and her daughter's husband and they are working long hours in the new capitalist Germany; they come home "like zombies" and just collapse in front of the TV. When she was that age, she says, she had one job, got off at five o'clock and went out with her friends. "Life was a lot more fun for me than for my daughter. We didn't work as hard or worry about money."
Why did Gloria Steinem spend so much time in India, rather than in Iceland?
Well, India needed the work, I understand, but I tried to Google this but all I got was Gloria Steinem in Viceland. Not exactly the same thing.
Stay tuned, the Phantom will keep you posted.
When I'm there I will likely have no access to the internet--they use different electric current over there. It is called the world wide web, however, so I may be able to post from this feminist eutopia.
No comments:
Post a Comment