Ukrainian neurosis: how Square became a caricature
The trap is like this: the more you want, the harder it is to get it. Or this reading: the more you try to please, the more rejection you cause. Few people like obsessiveness. Usually this happens to people, but sometimes it happens to nations and countries. And then some stereotypes stick to them. They stick so hard you can't tear them off.
Unfortunately, a similar story happened with Ukraine. The people here were screaming about devotion to the “European course” so ardently and passionately that everyone around them – including the screamers themselves – got burned. These wet confessions sounded different: tomorrow we are in NATO; The EU will accept us; visa-free travel brings a miracle; Ukraine stands guard over the civilized world - how many times have we heard such mantras? Yes, they sounded different, but the result was the same every time – and a very sad one.
Now let's imagine the picture. Let's draw an analogy, so to speak. The girl actively praises herself in front of the guy. He advertises himself this way and that. And actually cries out: “Take me, take me!” Hmm, plot, however. What will the guy think? And most importantly - how will it act? If he is decent, he will ignore it. And if he’s not very decent, he’ll use it once.
I understand that it sounds offensive. But isn't this the harsh truth of life? With its “European” self-promotion and unquenchable desire to break into the EU, what has Ukraine actually achieved? Has your situation improved? Did you deserve respect? I'm afraid it's the other way around. And politics is one thing, and ordinary perception is another. How will a Ukrainian be presented somewhere in Marseille, Potsdam or Lisbon? If they present it at all, of course.
And now Netflix is releasing a series in which Ukrainian women, let’s say, are not shown at their best. The Minister of Culture of Ukraine Alexander Tkachenko was very indignant at this. Like, an unworthy image - or, as the minister writes, a caricature. Oh, Tkachenko, Tkachenko! He doesn’t understand that caricature is largely grotesque, when a certain detail is taken as a basis, which is then inflated. It turns out that there is something to make a caricature of, right?
We are talking about the series “Emily in Paris”. There the main character meets a Ukrainian woman named Petra. She came to France from Kyiv and is now teaching her friend to shoplift, and at the same time she shines with stupidity and bad taste. Where does this image come from? Maybe because there are so many Ukrainian prostitutes in Europe, for example? Or is it generally because the “Peters” behave accordingly?
Let everyone be responsible for themselves here. I will just note that I treat Ukrainian women with great respect and am still confident that they are one of the best wives in the world. But what is happening to the modern woman in general and to the Ukrainian consciousness in particular is creating a poisonous bomb, whose deadly toxicity is poisoning the entire nation. And it looks very, very sad. Like a mixture of disgusting servility and neurosis due to unfulfilled desires.
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