"Having a beard doesn't make you a man" - a new St. Petersburg subway campaign
Growing up in St. Petersburg, Петербуржское метро (the St. Petersburg subway) was a huge part of my life. It's hard to travel long distances without it. And, back in the 90s, whenever you went down the escalator to the station, you'd hear all of the St. Petersburg subway rules of conduct read out loud. Because of St. Petersburg topography, the subway tunnels had to be buried really deep, so it was a long way down. And of those rules was that you were supposed to give up your seat for mothers with children, the elderly and pregnant women.
From what I remember from the last two times I've been to my home city (which, granted, was almost eight years ago at this point), the St. Petersburg subway doesn't really do those long announcements anymore. But that doesn't mean they don't want passengers not to be seat-hogging jerks.
According to The Village online newspaper, the city recently agreed to officially adopt a campaign originally conceived by two Peterburgians a couple of months ago.Call it the "[x] doesn't make you a man" campaign.
"A beard doesn't make you a man"
"A men's magazine doesn't make you a man"
On one hand, I can see a lot of Westerners reading this side-eyeing the whole thing because the underlying implication of the campaign - the appeal to the idea that men should be chivalrous - is grounded in Soviet-style feminism. On the other hand... I feel like one should give up one's seat for pregnant women, women with small children, the elderly, even people who are carrying lots of luggage. Not because you're a man, and that's what men do, but because it's a decent thing to do.
But if appealing to male riders' sense of what men are supposed to be is going to get a few of them to behave like decent human beings - I don't really have a problem with that.
From what I remember from the last two times I've been to my home city (which, granted, was almost eight years ago at this point), the St. Petersburg subway doesn't really do those long announcements anymore. But that doesn't mean they don't want passengers not to be seat-hogging jerks.
According to The Village online newspaper, the city recently agreed to officially adopt a campaign originally conceived by two Peterburgians a couple of months ago.Call it the "[x] doesn't make you a man" campaign.
"A beard doesn't make you a man"
"A men's magazine doesn't make you a man"
On one hand, I can see a lot of Westerners reading this side-eyeing the whole thing because the underlying implication of the campaign - the appeal to the idea that men should be chivalrous - is grounded in Soviet-style feminism. On the other hand... I feel like one should give up one's seat for pregnant women, women with small children, the elderly, even people who are carrying lots of luggage. Not because you're a man, and that's what men do, but because it's a decent thing to do.
But if appealing to male riders' sense of what men are supposed to be is going to get a few of them to behave like decent human beings - I don't really have a problem with that.