I have to side with Matt Yglesias’s claim that Russian women have been beautiful for a long time and that it is not the recent advent of capitalism which elevated their looks. I’ve seen pictures of the younger Natasha, pre-capitalism, and she was beautiful back then too. I know many of her female friends, or have seen early photos of them, and almost all of them are (and were) beautiful. I visited Russia in the early 90s, just as capitalism was taking hold. There was plenty of beauty to go around, although admittedly people dress better now. Countries don’t develop networks of beautiful women overnight. Furthermore, once you get past the point of malnutrition, beauty is not related to per capita income in any simple way. I’ll take Cuba, Croatia, Senegal, and Brazil over Australia and Finland, or to cite a closer comparison Slovakia over Austria. One hypothesis is that inequality of male income and power encourages female beauty for competitive reasons. Admittedly much more research needs to be done on this question.
Addendum: Free Exchange weighs in.
План Путина – победа РоÑÑии, hell yeah.
Years ago, when I was living in Europe on my post-doc (1988-89), I gave the prize for best-dressed female population to Zurich. They made the most out of what they had, elevating their ranking significantly. As for raw material, though, I was most impressed by Hungary. Budapest had a high density of attractive women – combine that with Switzerland’s wealth and you’d really have something to reckon with.
And as for the comment above, I have to admit that most of the women that turned my head in Vienna were either Italian or from the east.
The linked story was really a great example of Anna Appelbaum being a horrible, horrible hack with an obvious ax to grind when it comes to Russia. She’s one of those journalists that it’s really hard to know whether they are stupid or dishonest. A mixture of the two seems likely in her case.
“Admittedly much more research needs to be done on this question.”
Where do I sign up?
When did you start farming out this blog to Hugh Hefner?
Yes, more research needs to be done. Not could be, or even should be. Needs. Like p, I’d be more than happy to help.
“Admittedly much more research needs to be done on this question.”
Somehow, I doubt that.
I had always heard WWII blamed for Russia’s apparently disproportionate number of beautiful women. The argument follows from Russia loosing ~15% of it’s male population during the war and the resulting decrease in competition for beautiful wives.
This is consistent with Russian women being beautiful since the 60′s, and the recent recognition of the fact due to the rise in available cosmetic goods.
“Admittedly much more research needs to be done on this question.” Indeed.
When I was in the DPRK, there were plenty of good looking women, and I think they were near the malnutrition point.
South Korea, though, was much better,
Remember that we Westerners had a lot of anti-Soviet propaganda until the Wall fell. Part of it were images of Russian women = ugly. I was shocked to see that they are so good looking.
Now, why is that? Moscow was the center of an empire for several hundred years. Import beautiful women and get better results. That story (to me) holds for Budapest — also because Hungary was invaded by everyone. It should hold for Istanbul.
And, finally, there is the magnet of wealth. If you are looking for beautiful people, go to NYC, cape cod, Moscow or London. Wanna see ugly russians? Go to Magnetogoisk (sp)
My daughter, after traveling in Russia and Ukraine for several months in 2006 (she was 25 at the time), commented that the Russian girls were all beautiful, but that as they got older (their late 30s) they all seemed to turn into babushkas. She speculated that was because they smoked. ymmv
TCEDG Russian food
Probably Tyler could get Bill Clinton to switch topics also, at least for awhile.
If Feynman were to change, it would probably be to O-rings and how to break into safes.
I am also a fan of Russian women, but do not have an explanation for these national
.
variations. I just accept them and enjoy it,
Cuba over Australia? Higher human capital probably contributes to beauty function of some of us. You have not spent enough time in Australia….
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This is a very interesting post. Thanks for posting this.
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