men and women

Albert the Carpenter

Albert's family. the women of his family, make a lot more money than he does so that he becomes the superfluous man, tolerated for his few limited skills. The family's property is divided up to the benefit of the wife and daughters and Albert hangs on the fringes praying that they won't dispense with him entirely and so leave him rootless and lost, put him on the slide that ends in Homeless world: a spare prick at a wedding.

 His days are spent amongst those who are even weaker than he, the babushkas who cannot afford to pay a professional when something needs fixing. To them Albert and his Zheks colleagues seem to be representatives of the very power that they lack. They are the authorities and to keep these babushkas waiting or to hear their effusive thanks is to deny, briefly, the futility that characterises their existence. A glimpse of power is to be savoured and utilised to the full as a fragile bulwark against the unbearable reality.

 To cover this uselessness he boasts, and when he meets a pretty woman such as Katya, who has too much courtesy, or too much faith in other people to mock him, he boasts even more and even goes as far as to put her down that he might mask his weakness and feel just for a few moments what it must be like to be one of the real men, the winners.

A Russian man of his generation grows up with an old fashioned notion of masculinity and, as in so much American pornography; a humiliated woman is the sign of male power

I also found a new pair of private students; an architect and his commercial director. The architect, a bearded and pony tailed middle aged guy, seemed reluctant about the whole idea of learning English, so much so that I wondered if he knew he needed to get the language, but just couldn't face the thought of putting himself in the position of student, the one who knows less, the one who is not dominant.

The other, a woman in her 30s was much more positive and I sensed the whole idea was hers, particularly when she put her arm round her colleague and explained how wonderful he was.

 This is quite a common thing in Russian, a talented man who has women around him massaging his ego; one sees it often. I see how the women I live with are ready to play this role, but to me it looks like a particularly insincere form of flattery as it is not accompanied by any willingness to limit their own right to decision making. In reality, I wouldn't want them to, but if I am to be lord, then I would be lord, if not then let us not pretend that it is so; one or the other.

My unwillingness to play the desired role in an unnerving factor for the older women; Katya is bright enough and young enough to adapt to whatever power structures emerge, I hope, but when their flattery fails to placate me Sveta and Bab are left in an unfamiliar landscape and have no idea how to defend themselves, not knowing that they don't need to do so at all.

Feminism didn’t happen here, and once you get past the obvious benefits this brings to the selfish male, it’s a troubling thing.