Finland in "Confessions of A Shopaholic"

"Confessions of a Shopaholic" was released in the US in 2009, was recognizably successful and recieved good ratings. The movie portrays a hopelessly shopping-addicted Rebecca Bloomwood (played by Isla Fisher). This character is exactly what I would think of as a Shopaholic; extremely girly with a love of pink and/or animal printed clothing. Eventually, however, Bloomwood winds up in excessive credit card debt and has to resort to making absurd yet humorous excuses to escape her creditors. As she portrays the classic perky and loveable (but maybe just a tad dim-witted) girly girl, her excuses and avoidance attempts are naturally seen as funny to an American audience.

And what does this have to do with Finland? ...

Throughout the film Bloomwood uses Finland repeatedly as a diversion to throw people off. When one of her friends asks why her excuses usually involve Finland, her response is: "No one ever checks up on Finland" .. which, unfortunately seems to be true for most Americans.

Another point in the movie depicts an encounter between Bloomwood and a Finnish man, who, in Finnish, tells her that it's nice to meet another Finn. Not understanding a word (though claiming to be fluent in Finnish), Bloomwood yells back in English "Men like you are the reason I left Finland!"

This is funny for Americans, I feel, because most of us have HEARD of Finland, know it exists as a country, but know little to nothing about it as a leading nation in modernization and innovation, equal rights, the environment, etc. etc. I feel that the idea that "no one ever checks up on Finland" rings true for most Americans, which is why it is funny to us: a shame that it is so overlooked, but funny still because of its irrelevance to our own culture.

Women's Rights

Another one of the subjects I touched upon briefly in a previous blog is that of Women's Rights/Gender Equality. One of the most admirable things I find about the country of Finland is the fact that women in society are one hundred percent completely equal to men. The nation has always been very liberal with regards to the rights of women, and in 2006 Finland celebrated its Centenarry of full political womens rights. It was the first country in the world to grant universal and equal voting rights to women in 1906 and furthermore, one year later in 1907, nineteen female politicians were elected into Parliament.

The workforce in Finland has always been about half and half, though women recieved about 2/3 the salary that men did for a while. Today however, the workforce is still split evenly as is average annual income between males and females. Half of the nation's doctors are women, and a series of laws passed in the late 70's and 80's provide women with rights that I realize, my own culture (American culture, which prides itself on equality) has never and seemingly will never consider.

In 1972 the Council for Equality was established in order to support women's rights. A series of laws were passed that granted parents equal rights for custody of their children. in 1985 a law was passed that granted citizenship to any child born of a Finnish woman and in '86 another law gave women the ability to choose their children's surnames.

I find that these allowances go further than the american definition of equality. I feel as though in America, if this were the case, it would be seen as an unfair advantage to women to have these liberties.

I read that since the mid 80's the nation has devoted itself to equalizing men and women and has made incredible advances. In '88, the Population Crisis Committee out of Washington deemed Finland one of the best/safest places for a women to live. A very close second to Sweden but beating out the US which came in third.

As mentioned earlier, Finland's current president is a woman, though she is not the first to be in office, and May 8th is celebrated annually as Women's Day in Finland.

America is the land of the free, exhibits democracy and equal rights for all, but is not necessarily a world leader in this department. Finland which has had women holding high-up political titles since 1906 has all the while exhibited more equality and less discrimination, but remains overlooked by Americans. We who do not notice how culturally advanced this nation is remain to think of it (if we ever do think of it) as sparse and far away, with little involvement in world politics and no real credible contributions to the world as a whole.

Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD)

Seasonal Affective Disorder, more commonly known as "Winter Blues" is seen around the world but notably more prevalent in countries that share latitudes close to the Arctic Circle. In Finland, 9.5% of the population suffers from Seasonal Depression, coinciding with other elevated rates of the disorder in Northern Alaska, Sweden, and other Scandinavian nations with the exception of Iceland. Looking into this a bit more I found out that there us evidence of this resistency being a specific genetic trait held by the Icelandic people and not mainland Scandinavians. Hence, the genetic heritability of SAD has caused researchers to study its effects in parts of the world where during the winter months there are very few hours of daylight.

This natural phenomenon makes me question if the prevalence of Seasonal Affective Disorder in Finland and other Scandinavian nations has affected the culture. Going back to the topic of music I wrote about earlier, some claim that the depressive atmosphere of the winter months is what fuels the angsty rock music that has become so popular.

Treatments for the disorder have been/are being developed and are commonly employed in the nations whose people are the most affected. One such development is Light Therapy, where patients are subjected to UV light in order to recieve the Vitamin D essential for healthy brain function.

I even stumbled across a company from Northern Canada specializing in saunas that come equipt with specialized lights in them. The website provides a writeup on the effects of SAD and how it can drastically effect the lives of those who suffer from it.

(http://www.greatsaunas.com/info/sad-seasonal-affective-disorder-and-infrared-saunas.cfm)

Suomirock

In an earlier blog I mentioned the immense popularity of heavy rock/metal in Finland/Scandinavia. Looking into the history of this particular genre as it gained popularity I saw that like the evolution of rock in the US many different types of rock music had come in and out of style since the 50's. From progressive rock to hard rock to the late 70's when punk rock was at its peak in Finland, I can see how today the countries thousands of popular rock bands are inspired by various sounds of the past. Finnish bands of the rock/metal genre categorize themselves as "Suomirock" which factors in nationalism to the modern music culture of Finland's young adult population.

I stumbled upon this website:

http://www.metalfromfinland.com/

It's literally a database of all of today's popular Finnish rock bands. Not only that, the site provides tour dates, biographies, pictures, sound and video clips, information on upcoming concerts/events, an online store, and most interestingly a complete history of Finland as a nation. This page provides information on Finland's rise as it seperated from Russia and declared independence as well the countries involvement in both World Wars. Furthermore it covers geographical features, politics, religions and popular tourist attractions.

This sticks out to me, because it proves that rock music and heavy metal is a noted part of Finland's modern culture. As Finnish metal has been recognized as some of the best in the world it is clear to see that it's millions of avid native listeners take pride in their country because of it.

As I kept trying to find out more about Finnish metal I came across two popular rock festivals that take place annually in Finland: Ruisrock, and Provinssirock. Viewing both of the websites shows how popular these events are. Both employ native Finnish bands every year but invite bands from all over the world to play too. Artists from the US, Austrailia, UK, and Germany (to name a few) are always present. This year, the German rockband Rammstein, which has gained some popularity in the US, is headlining the Provinssirock festival, and Regina Spektor a singer/songwriter who has become well known in the US is playing at Ruisrock.

(http://www.provinssirock.fi/etusivu_en)

(http://www.ruisrock.fi/index.php?browser_id=27&id=10)

Helsingin Sanomat Article

http://www.hs.fi/english/article/Boys+behaving+badly+end+up+being+ostracised+and+marginalised+in+Helsinki/1135256586325

I found this article from the International edition of the Helsingin Sanomat very interesting. Keeping in mind the cultural practices of the Finnish general public, I can see a connection between these ideals and how rule-breaking is handled. Because Finnish culture promotes doing the right thing and following the rules, when somebody knowingly and exceedingly causes trouble it is not handled well. The article mentions that in the 70's and 80's any type of destructive behavior was dealt with, whether it meant that parents of unruly children were notified or a rule-breaking citizen appropriatly punished. Nowadays however, the article emphasizes the complete rejection of rule-breakers (focusing particularly on adolescent boys). This raises the question of whether Finnish culture has evolved even stricter ideals with regards to doing the right thing, or whether citizens have let go of these ideals somewhat, not wanting to deal with social problems unless absolutely necessary.