Reykjavík Grapevine - 13.07.2012, Blaðsíða 8

8
The Reykjavík Grapevine
Issue 10 — 2012
SIF ARNARSDÓTTIR
marathon runner
I think I'd have to say Sushi Samba
since I´m planning to go there in few
days. But Tapashúsið, Sjávarkjallarinn,
Fiskifélagið, Grillmarkaðurinn are obvi-
ously all good. What I quite like about
Sushi Samba is that you can go for
few bites of sushi if you don't want to
spend much, but you can also go for a
big meal.
Things They Like
About Reykjavík
Special | The Locals Speak
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1 hour buggy tour ride along
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We are located only ve minutes from the
Blue Lagoon.
Pick-up is 3.500 extra per person.
i
n
1
Many generations ago the popu-
lation was struck by a plague that
afflicted males solely, wiping them
out and leaving only women. To
avoid extinction, women developed
parthenogenesis techniques, cul-
minating in the ability to merge two
eggs to form a foetus, ensuring the
continuing existence of humanity.
WHAT, ICELAND IS A
COUNTRY OF ONLY WOMEN?
Sorry, I thought you were asking about
Whileaway, the feminist utopia cre-
ated by science fiction writer Joanna
Russ. Iceland may rank high on vari-
ous measures of gender equality, but it
is far from being a feminist Eden. For
instance, the wage gap between men
and women has proven very difficult to
eradicate entirely. In a survey published
last September by three major labour
unions (VR, St.Rv. and SFR, if you must
know), women made on average 24%
less in wages than men. While some of
that is explained by seniority, education
and other factors, which lead to higher
pay, that only lowers the gender gap
percentage to 13%.
WHAT? BUT YOU HAVE A FEMALE
PRIME MINISTER!
It is true that Iceland has made great
progress towards equality in the last
few decades. Current Prime Minister
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir is a perfect ex-
ample. She was only the tenth woman
ever to be elected to the Icelandic
parliament. In 1978, when she gained
her seat, there were only two others, a
measly 5% of all MPs. But in the current
parliament women make up about 40%
of the total (the number has fluctuated
depending on resignations and tempo-
rary absences).
SO WOMEN ARE TAKING OVER?
ABOUT TIME TOO.
That is not really on the horizon. While
the newly elected bishop of the state
church of Iceland is indeed a woman,
and a woman candidate came second
in this summer's election for the office
of the Presidency (which has once pre-
viously been held by a woman, Vigdís
Finnbogadóttir, from 1980 to 1996), this
may be a high-point. The leaders of the
three major political parties other than
Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir's Social Demo-
cratic Alliance are all male and the cur-
rent president has retained his office.
The present level of female political
power may end up being a historical
anomaly.
HISTORICAL ANOMALY? BUT
WHAT ABOUT ALL THE STRONG
VIKING WOMEN OF THE PAST?
Even though the "Queen of Iceland" is
a character in many works of medieval
literature, notably the ‘Niebelungen-
lied,’ women have not historically had
much power in Iceland. Men have gov-
erned single-handedly. By which I mean
they ran the nation with one hand. The
other being around their penis. To be
fair, sometimes they took their non-
governing hand off their penis to grope
passing women. Which is to say that in
Iceland women had it just as shitty as
anywhere else throughout history.
SO EVERYTHING IS JUST AS AW-
FUL IN ICELAND AS ANYWHERE
ELSE?
No, not really. The various gender
equality rankings, such as the World
Economic Forum and the United Na-
tions Development Programme, which
Iceland scores so well on, do measure
something real. Women in Iceland do
have a better quality of life than women
in most other countries in the world.
Here is one example: In most societies,
single mothers tend to have the hardest
lives, and that is true of Iceland as well.
However, being a single mother in Ice-
land brings very low social stigma, and
there are sensible programmes in place
to make single motherhood manage-
able. In fact, the first Icelandic female
president was a single mother when
elected. Good luck running for even a
minor public office in the US as a single
mother.
SHE WOULDN'T EVEN GET
ELECTED TO THE LOCAL SCHOOL
BOARD. GO ICELAND!
However, part of the relatively good
quality of life for single mothers in
Iceland is due to how close extended
families tend to be, both in social and
geographic terms. Most single mothers
have parents, aunts, uncles and sib-
lings take care of their kids, be it after
school or for a week so they can go on a
work trip. Single mothers without family
connections, usually immigrant women,
have it much worse. Other examples
tell a similar story, but the gender wage
gap shows no signs of disappearing
and Iceland is still a while away from
being Whileaway.
MAN, WHY DO YOU HAVE TO BE
SUCH A DOWNER. JUST TELL ME
MORE ABOUT WHILEAWAY.
Sure! Whileaway has a number of
similarities with Iceland, actually. For
instance women are named for their
mothers in a matronymic system, like
people in Iceland are named for their
fathers. Electricity is normally generat-
ed with steam turbines and hydroelec-
tric dams and there is only one major
urban centre. That is about it, however,
for similarities. Whileaway women fight
each other in duels for love, and have
the technology to travel to other worlds.
Oh, and Iceland is not a feminist uto-
pia.
Idiot's Guide To | Feminism in Iceland
So What's This Feminist Utopia I Keep Hearing About?
“Iceland may rank
high on various mea-
sures of gender equal-
ity, but it is far from
being a feminist Eden.”
Opinion | Sarah Pepin
Mirror Mirror On The
Wall, Who’s The Most
Tanned Of Them All…
I walk to the swimming pool.
It’s cold and the wind blows
colour into my cheeks. My
blood vessels slowly dilate.
As I step into the collective
shower room, all I can think of is how
Snow White (the Disney version based
on an Icelandic woman) never went to
the tanning studio.
A lot of fair skinned people around
me seem to spend their precious
krónur on airbrush tanning booths.
News f lash: UV rays are… wait for it...
BAD for you! They increase the risk of
skin cancer, you know. So, is it a con-
scious decision to forego the sun and
smear yourself orange instead? Do the
Oompaloompa’s of Charlie’s Choco-
late Factory have a cult following that I
don’t know about?
Okay, I get it… there’s not much sun
here, and you want to look nice. Well,
you know what, you do! You really do.
Freckles are beautiful. No freckles
are beautiful too. And so is pale skin.
Much nicer than when you can see the
tanning line between your neck and
your face. That makes you look like and
old worn-out shoe. An ugly shoe, that
is. And it adds about 25 years to your
age. Speaking of age, around two years
ago, Alþingi banned under 18-year-
olds from frequenting tanning booths.
That’s nice. Still, word has it they’re
not that strict, and for such a small city
Reykjavík has its fair share of tanning
booths.
Naked communal showering at lo-
cal swimming pools equals a positive
body image, right? So I thought, until
I realised how much people are spend-
ing to get tangoed. At Laugar Spa, for
instance, an airbrush tanning with a
scrub costs 5,900 ISK! What! Think
of how obese you could be with all the
lovely chocolate you could buy with that
money!
KáRI TULINIUS
LÓA HJáLMTýSDÓTTIR