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	Create New Topic   My Posts   My forum buddies   Invite friends   Private messages Russian brides > Main Forum > Russian women pay to re-learn how to use their feminine wiles Author Post To Moscow! Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/4/2007 9:13:12 PM   http://www.baltimoresun.com/news/opinion/ideas/bal-id.manipulate04feb04,0,271492 3.story?coll=bal-ideas-headlines To Moscow! Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/4/2007 9:13:44 PM   By Erika Niedowski sun staff Originally published February 4, 2007 MOSCOW // Vladimir Rakovsky glides around dressed in black with the air of a guru -- albeit a self-appointed one -- as he holds forth before a group of admiring students on the virtues of womanly wiles. This softly lit room on the second floor of a Moscow theater is as appropriate a place as any to stage a master class for women on how to act -- literally -- to get men, and what they want from men. This, according to the name of Rakovsky's class, is known as stervologiya, or the art of being a sterva,which in Russian means, literally, "bitch." But wait: This is not a bad thing. At least this is what he says, and this is what the scores of young Russian women who have paid nearly $200 to listen to him during his six-week course must believe. A sterva, Rakovsky explains, is not someone who is aggressive or mean, but an adept manipulator. "A bitchy woman, it's not something derogatory," he says. "It's a skill to be bitchy. It's a weapon you can use." To Moscow! Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/4/2007 9:14:33 PM   That such a class exists offers a window into the mind of many a young woman, or dyevushka, in Russia today. Numerous sterva schools have opened in recent years, and some women -- obsessed with beauty and status in a society where 12 percent of a their paychecks, a recent study showed, is spent on makeup -- have flocked to them in hopes of snagging the kind of stable, desirable man in short supply here. If being a sterva doesn't work, there are other possibilities. Both Moscow and Saint Petersburg have geisha schools, teaching students about "erotic" cuisine, among other topics. And, in the same theater where Rakovsky, 42, divulges the secrets of stervologiya, his 23-year-old wife runs a school where women learn something that for centuries required no training at all: how to seduce men. Perhaps not surprisingly, these students of stervologiya and seduction generally shun the word feminism -- which is regularly confused in Russia with lesbianism -- the same way Western women shun the word "bitch." But, in a way that pushes the boundaries of reason, these classes are very much about feminism, though of a different -- and, some would say, offensive and demeaning -- ilk. In this world, feminism is above all about being feminine, using that femininity to one's advantage and through that advantage gaining power. "Stervologiya -- it's a science about women and for women," reads a hot-pink brochure advertising Rakovsky's classes. "It's a science for those who need confidence in tomorrow. For those who are tired of being 'ordinary women,' playthings in the hands of cruel fate. If you feel that the time has come to be a first-class bitch, you are most welcome! If you want to achieve success, this training program is for you!" On any given night when Rakovsky is teaching, his classroom contains an abundance of high-heeled boots, dyed hair, fashion sense, girlish giggles and expectations that whatever is being said will somehow lead to a better, more fulfilling life. Lika has come because her marriage to a man she knew a month before exchanging vows isn't going as well as expected -- her husband has become noncommunicative -- and she wants to demand more of him. "It was mostly my fault," she says sweetly, saying she needs to stop being the "good girl." "I was too nice. I think I should be more powerful, I guess." To Moscow! Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/4/2007 9:15:07 PM   Natalya wants to expand her arsenal of womanly behaviors, something she describes as being "different -- not like a tank moving in one direction." Another student, who is wearing a name tag on which is written not her name but a moniker that translates as "cunning one," says she is trying to find out how to get from a man the three things that matter in relationships: "good sex," "money" and "emotions." Rakovsky, who calls being a sterva a "state of mind and a way of life," holds a master's degree in psychology from Moscow State University, and has worked as a rescuer for the federal Emergency Situations Ministry. He plans to take his show on the road to Kiev, Ukraine. In class, he holds court before the students, who are in their 20s and 30s and seated in a long row against a wall hung with a blue curtain. He paces slowly, seemingly saying whatever comes to mind. All Russian women are lonely, he declares. And then: The more a man boasts, the more he should be praised. And then: Women have lost their femininity during decades of pursuing careers. Some women take notes -- paper and pens are provided -- or nod their heads in silent assent. One evening, everyone gathers around a TV set to watch the George Michael video "Father Figure," which features a sexy catwalk model, intimate love scenes and, presumably, some kind of life lessons. During the master class -- some of these women have already attended Rakovsky's basic courses -- he calls upon one for a role-playing exercise, and she joins him at the front of the room. She is to find out what qualities a man likes in a woman. Her tactic is to ask outright. "No, this is too aggressive," Rakovsky scolds. "A woman should be soft." How am I scaring him?" she asks. "You are too assertive. You are too confident," he replies. "Is that bad?" To Moscow! Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/4/2007 9:15:49 PM   If the brochure is to be believed, stervologiya teaches a woman to be free and independent, to lose her complexes and to love and respect herself. But the crucial skill is manipulation. For a woman to get her way, Rakovsky favors the technique of behaving like a little girl -- or, as his wife, Yevgeniya Steshova, puts it, like Vladimir Nabokov's Lolita. "All great women were manipulators," Rakovsky says, referring to Catherine the Great, whose reign, while great indeed, was made possible only by her overthrowing her husband, Peter III, with the help of a lover. Steshova, a model since the age of 13 who teaches strip dancing to the music of Beyonce as part of her seduction school, has mastered this and is proud of it, though in a sweet, modest way. She describes the ideal woman as beautiful, stylish and adaptable as an actor. "She must know how to play roles -- the sweet baby, the young girl," she says, demonstrating by sidling up to the nearest man's shoulder, batting her eyelashes and saying, "Pleeeaase give me," a method she has found unfailingly effective. "It's easier for a woman to get what she wants by using her female charm." Steshova recounts the case of a former student -- 27 years old and, she adds, a virgin. "She didn't know how to take care of her appearance. She looked more like a man," Steshova says. "When I looked at her for the first time, I thought it was a hopeless case. But she tried very hard. "She visited a stylist, she changed her hairdo, learned how to put on makeup and walk in a beautiful manner. She learned to dance at the disco." Now, according to Steshova, she has lots of male admirers, including one who asked her to live with him. Day one of a recent seduction class brought lessons on how to walk sexily, sit sexily and accidentally drop something on the floor and pick it up sexily; others include how to do a striptease. The homework was twofold: Return with the business cards of three new men, and make a concerted effort to "look beautiful." Seductive skills can be useful, apparently, in every situation. Irina Ivanova, a seductress-in-training, said after the inaugural lesson that, while she planned to use some of what she learned on her husband of 12 years, the knowledge would be even more applicable in her job at a Moscow cargo company. "Female charm always works," she said. "Maybe it's unethical to use female charms to attain professional goals, but it's not illegal." Adman Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/10/2007 4:20:12 PM   Moscow I think these lessons should be compulsory for all women and taught in all schools from an early age. Who would rather have an in your face demanding shrew ? It is refreshing to see that Russin women are buying into this. I think there would be more than a few vacant seats if the program was started in my country. Bagira Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/11/2007 9:53:35 PM   To Moscow I think that to be “sterva” sometimes is the only way to survive in relationships. Being “sterva” means not to allow to undermine yourself – sometimes you need to say – ‘shut up”. I think that not being “steva” sometimes is the main cultural difference between young American and Russian Ladies. May be I failed in relationship with American man whom I loved because not being “sterva” enough. I mean that then you are really open is relationship you do expect the same from your man. It is unrealistic expectation in the beginning of relationships. I was shocked then he said that he often dated women, met them with kids and then he tied of them - he just break up with words – My kids… bla bla bla. I think that this way he did terrible things for his kids. A row of women in their lives is not good for them. If I was a little “sterva” that time then my eyes would be open and I wound never had fallen in love with that wrong person. Masha28 Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/13/2007 2:11:36 AM   Bagira, "If I was a little “sterva” that time then my eyes would be open and I wound never had fallen in love with that wrong person." -- but you WOULD date him, nevertheless. Because that's what stervas do--they get into relationships with men they don't have any passion for. Being clear of love and emotions makes a girl able to become cold-hearted, insincere and manipulative towards another human being--her boyfriend. Which in it's turn enables her to take advantage of him. Unfortunately, that is the thing that turns some men on. And it goes the same way for ladies as well. Have you heard about women, who like being treted like crap? They are willing to be humiliated over and over as long as "he" is young, hunky, gorgeous-looking, popular and independent. Do you remember the lines from Eugene Onegin:"Chem men'she devushku my lyubim, tem bol'she nravimsya my ey" That's when the guy is a sterva, or a stervets, as we say in Russian. But everything's quite different when you fall in love with a person. You simply CANNOT be a sterva to him. I think that's what happened in your case with the "American man" of yours. There is no way you could become a sterva just then, and keep from falling in love "with a wrong person" Masha28 Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/13/2007 2:39:04 AM   Hello To Moscow, hello Adman, A class on style and social graces is only the top layer in Stervology. The main goal of all those classes is to program the women on being dishonest, selfish manipulators. Thank God we don't have such classes in KZ yet, but even if we did, I wouldn't pay a dime just to be officially called "a bitch". ANY girl can put on makeup, get her hair and nails done and concentrate on looking beautiful. It comes naturally to all the girls as young as in junior high, but it doesn't make us all bithches. Bringing on the feminine side is totally different from acting bitchy. All the women can be bitches whenever they like and to whoever they like, they don't need to be taught that. So please, To Moscow, don't pay so much attention to the existence of such classes--it's just a pastime activity for bored, lonely Russian women. And a way for people like Steshova and Rakovsky to make some good money. JohannesZ Member send PM   block PM add to buddies Send: 2/14/2007 7:04:45 AM   Hello to all :) I can imagine, if my information about Russian men is accurate why some women would go to these classes. Many in the west would too I think. Men are taught to be the way men are "supposed" to be men! They get this from their fathers and their male peers, most men do not know how to love women because they simply don't feel a need to! their main desire is for sex! and most take for granted just what women mean for him as a man, some don't even have a criteria for acceptability and will "do" any female just for the sake of it. From what I can tell most women pick men for the precisely the wrong reasons, they want a man that is assertive, one that shows confidence in almost all circumstances, one that is successful, one that makes all the women giggle and laugh, often the ones you are most fascinated by are the ones that "do" all the girls. Ask your self if a man has all these attributes and gets as much sex as he could handle, thinks most women are sluts because he has a glut of them, and for whom women's main purpose is for his sexual gratification, how can this man ever be a husband and decent father? These days women do not seem to "hook up" with a guy for his better values, morals or principles and the main theme seems to be to have tried everything, have a wild crazy time, as much good and varied sex as possible, and above all to have fun at any cost, Oh and of cause to become rich. I know this is not very flattering, and I don't mean to be offensive but I am quite disillusioned with it all, after having held [and still do] women in such high regard all my life. I guess that's why I became interested in Russian etc. women because the culture and expectations of women there does seem more old fashioned...I guess:)) There is a huge difference between what western women say they want and what they pursue, at least until they loose their best looks or become overweight or old, then they seem to want to settle down and have the life they dreamt of before 16yrs. old. Your Reply: Your name:   New Registration Password:   Forgot password?   refresh Code:   Russian brides > Main Forum > Russian women pay to re-learn how to use their feminine wiles
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