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riontelНашлось на просторах ЖЖ, and I just couldn't resist the temptation to comment on it:
As a girl growing up in Ukraine, Galit Galak wove macramé and dreamed of wedding dresses, the kind measured in kilometers of satin.
Funny, I dreamed of going to MIT.
Her own occasion to wear such a garment came when she married another Ukrainian, who proposed after an appraisal period of 10 days.
Wow, is that marriage going to last or what!
Among the wave of newcomers to the United States since the late 1960's, Russian-speaking women appear to be the likeliest to marry of all.
Oh, a load off my shoulders.
By the time they turn 40, only 4 percent of women born in Russia or one of the other former Soviet republics have never married, compared with 15 percent for all women in that age group in the United States. Even among other ethnic groups, they stand out, with a rate of never-married women that is less than half that of foreign-born Chinese and a third that of foreign-born Hispanics, according to an analysis of 2000 census data for The New York Times.
By age 40, Russian-speaking women in the United States have higher rates of divorce than all other major groups of female immigrants...
Surprise, surprise!
Russian-speaking women in the United States also seem inclined to marry at a younger age than most. ... Half [of surveyed Russian Jewish women ages 18 to 32] were married by age 22. (National census data for 2003 shows the average age for a woman's first marriage was 25.3)
Although most women who immigrated from the former Soviet Union from the 1970's through 1990's were Jewish, experts in that group's immigration say the pattern of early marriage is attributable to cultural family patterns that transcend religious beliefs, and is thus likely to extend to all Russian-speaking immigrants. They tend to follow the example of their parents, many of whom married in their early 20's.
Ok, I can blame my sad unmarried state on my parents. They were a very bad example for my impressionable young mind.
In contrast to contemporary American culture, where marriage at too young an age is viewed as irresponsible, "marriage in this community is generally considered a good thing, especially if it is to someone seen as a quote-unquote good guy..."
"The community really does promote it," ... "Seventeen would be considered too young, but if you were 26 and not married people would wonder why..."
Good to know there is a "too young" in this community. BTW, Lena, you better hurry up or people will start to 'wonder'. Too late for me, though. Bummer.
At Marie Shall, another wedding dress shop with a largely Russian clientele, the owner, Marina Shalyakhova, said the oldest bride she ever had was 30.
Dare I hope it's because people over 30 have enough brains not to dress in the "wedding dress shops"?
Then we have a very fascinating bit on a new magazine called Russian Bride of New York:
envisioned as "a magazine that would interpret American wedding rituals while at the same time promote the preservation of Russian tastes"
fall issue encourages the purchase of bridal gowns from Russian purveyors... and taking honeymoons in the Seychelles or Fiji
Featured as well is a short instructional explaining just what a cake should look like in the American marriage celebration ... white and pink in color
How cute. I am just about ready to melt into a 'white and pink' puddle.
Although young Russian women living in the United States remain intensely tied to the world of their elders, they are also marrying outside their ethnicity more than young women from any other large immigrant group
Explaining this ... it is often more important for Russian Jews to marry within the Jewish faith than it is within the Russian world.
Will take their word for it.
Others speculate that young Russian women may marry outside their community because they received a poor view of Russian unions as they played out during the Soviet era. "Alcoholism and sexual infidelity were encouraged in the culture of the Soviet Union"
!!??? I'll give them the alcoholism but are we talking about the same Soviet Union where a wife could complain to the party officials about her husband's indiscretions? And "if you could cheat on your wife you would betray your country"? Somehow I don't think infidelity was much of an issue back there.
On the day after Thanksgiving at Galit Couture, Ms. Galak's shop, Monica Polakov, 29, a Ukrainian who grew up in Great Neck, readied herself for her coming wedding to an Englishman. Her mother, Galina, looked on adoringly as she stepped into her corseted gown. Still, Mrs. Polakov said, she wished that her daughter had found cause to wear it a good few years sooner.
I like mother's attitude. Reminds me of my cousin who few years back announced to me that it's now time for me to get married. After noting my more than sceptical look she clarified: "I got married at 24, so I didn't bother you till you turned 24, too. But now it's time." Как говорят у нас в Одессе, щас.
I didn't include all the mentions of cultural reasons for yearly marriage, such as lack of fear of commitment in Russian guys and family support for young couples, but somehow I feel they neglected some vital points that explain such a fondness for marriage in Russian community (family pressure, anybody?).
As a girl growing up in Ukraine, Galit Galak wove macramé and dreamed of wedding dresses, the kind measured in kilometers of satin.
Funny, I dreamed of going to MIT.
Her own occasion to wear such a garment came when she married another Ukrainian, who proposed after an appraisal period of 10 days.
Wow, is that marriage going to last or what!
Among the wave of newcomers to the United States since the late 1960's, Russian-speaking women appear to be the likeliest to marry of all.
Oh, a load off my shoulders.
By the time they turn 40, only 4 percent of women born in Russia or one of the other former Soviet republics have never married, compared with 15 percent for all women in that age group in the United States. Even among other ethnic groups, they stand out, with a rate of never-married women that is less than half that of foreign-born Chinese and a third that of foreign-born Hispanics, according to an analysis of 2000 census data for The New York Times.
By age 40, Russian-speaking women in the United States have higher rates of divorce than all other major groups of female immigrants...
Surprise, surprise!
Russian-speaking women in the United States also seem inclined to marry at a younger age than most. ... Half [of surveyed Russian Jewish women ages 18 to 32] were married by age 22. (National census data for 2003 shows the average age for a woman's first marriage was 25.3)
Although most women who immigrated from the former Soviet Union from the 1970's through 1990's were Jewish, experts in that group's immigration say the pattern of early marriage is attributable to cultural family patterns that transcend religious beliefs, and is thus likely to extend to all Russian-speaking immigrants. They tend to follow the example of their parents, many of whom married in their early 20's.
Ok, I can blame my sad unmarried state on my parents. They were a very bad example for my impressionable young mind.
In contrast to contemporary American culture, where marriage at too young an age is viewed as irresponsible, "marriage in this community is generally considered a good thing, especially if it is to someone seen as a quote-unquote good guy..."
"The community really does promote it," ... "Seventeen would be considered too young, but if you were 26 and not married people would wonder why..."
Good to know there is a "too young" in this community. BTW, Lena, you better hurry up or people will start to 'wonder'. Too late for me, though. Bummer.
At Marie Shall, another wedding dress shop with a largely Russian clientele, the owner, Marina Shalyakhova, said the oldest bride she ever had was 30.
Dare I hope it's because people over 30 have enough brains not to dress in the "wedding dress shops"?
Then we have a very fascinating bit on a new magazine called Russian Bride of New York:
envisioned as "a magazine that would interpret American wedding rituals while at the same time promote the preservation of Russian tastes"
fall issue encourages the purchase of bridal gowns from Russian purveyors... and taking honeymoons in the Seychelles or Fiji
Featured as well is a short instructional explaining just what a cake should look like in the American marriage celebration ... white and pink in color
How cute. I am just about ready to melt into a 'white and pink' puddle.
Although young Russian women living in the United States remain intensely tied to the world of their elders, they are also marrying outside their ethnicity more than young women from any other large immigrant group
Explaining this ... it is often more important for Russian Jews to marry within the Jewish faith than it is within the Russian world.
Will take their word for it.
Others speculate that young Russian women may marry outside their community because they received a poor view of Russian unions as they played out during the Soviet era. "Alcoholism and sexual infidelity were encouraged in the culture of the Soviet Union"
!!??? I'll give them the alcoholism but are we talking about the same Soviet Union where a wife could complain to the party officials about her husband's indiscretions? And "if you could cheat on your wife you would betray your country"? Somehow I don't think infidelity was much of an issue back there.
On the day after Thanksgiving at Galit Couture, Ms. Galak's shop, Monica Polakov, 29, a Ukrainian who grew up in Great Neck, readied herself for her coming wedding to an Englishman. Her mother, Galina, looked on adoringly as she stepped into her corseted gown. Still, Mrs. Polakov said, she wished that her daughter had found cause to wear it a good few years sooner.
I like mother's attitude. Reminds me of my cousin who few years back announced to me that it's now time for me to get married. After noting my more than sceptical look she clarified: "I got married at 24, so I didn't bother you till you turned 24, too. But now it's time." Как говорят у нас в Одессе, щас.
I didn't include all the mentions of cultural reasons for yearly marriage, such as lack of fear of commitment in Russian guys and family support for young couples, but somehow I feel they neglected some vital points that explain such a fondness for marriage in Russian community (family pressure, anybody?).
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Date: 2004-12-17 08:21 pm (UTC)