I know this isn't the season for this at all, but while I was in Sweden for NärCon I learned about the Påskkärring, who was explained to me as an easter witch who isn't really a witch but kinda is anyway.
Children dress up as her and go ask for sweets. Boys can dress up as her too, but have the option of dressing as an old man if they want. From what I was told the witch costume is still the most popular for all genders though because it's more traditional.
Never underestimate what a child will do when candy is at stake. Dress like a old man when dressing like a cute witch will get me more candy? I think not! Also, smaller the child, the less they care about gender roles. Gender roles are taught not something kids are born with. My 2 year old loves dinosaurs, trucks and monsters but will also cry if you take away his barbie doll.
@Mojo Gender roles are not just taught, for most kids they are an innate, biological factor.
As a kid I had every opportunity to play with girls, yet hardly ever did. I could've asked for dolls, animal figures, cutlery, stick horses etc., but always wanted, and played with, army men, airplanes, spacecraft, vehicles, toy guns, action figures and City Legos.
... this is also one of the reasons why its harder for Sweden to adopt Halloween. We already have a traditional candy giving holiday. The other reason that we already celebrate All Hallows Eve, and it has no similarities to Halloween, well, apart from death.
@minimilk Other way around mate. This is why there are less mysogonistic bastards in Scandinavia than in the rest of the world. We actually like and value women.
'@Lavrentivs' rest of the world? Did you just call all those People of Color (tm) who make up more than half of world's population, and I quote, "mysogonistic bastards" who, apparently, don't like and value women? RACIST!
Remember, confession reduces sentence, you still have time to turn yourself in. Though with PC police you can never be sure.
@comrade_Comrade your making a mistake. He said, and I quote: "less mysogonistic bastards", which means that there are misogynistic bastards in Sweden, but less than in the rest of the world, which doesn't mean that the rest of the world are all misogynistic bastards. Just that there are relatively more. It's not absolute.
As a woman myself, I simply don't give a crap about misogynistic people. Their own loss, not mine. Regarding sexism and feminism, let's just stop with both of them, and the only reasonable outcome is equality. Fairly simple with a happy ending, I should say.
'@aRacNL' hey, there can be no mistakes if I'm offended on someone's behalf. Plus, implying that there are more "mysogonistic bastards" in certain populations can still be considered racist.
I just like poking fun at "-ism is prejudice + power".
@Lavrentivs If that is true then explain Anders Borg, and explain why you have one of the highest rape rates in the world? That doesn't fit with "respect for women". Also where is respect for men?
@minimilk If you don't know the reason for the rape rates, I suggest you read the multiple -serious- accounts on that matter. At which point I would belive you have a credible explanation as to why the incredible difference in reported cases between 2005 and 2006. Or why the crime rate in general is pretty average for a European country.
As for the strawman that is Anders Borg's drunken outburst of whatever that was supposed to be. Rest assured that such things happen multiple times on a weekend basis in every country of the world where alcohol is ingested. That he is a high profile guy in Swedish society and not some random jack only means that the platform he stood on was located way higher up than random jack's and thus his fall will be heavier in the order of magnitude. These things can very well happen when you shave off your ponytail.
"Also where is respect for men?"
A topic not really relevant to any prior discussions as far as I can see. But rest assured it's there.
@Zervo Over the last 40 years violent crime in Sweden has increased with 300%, in the same 40 years the rape rate has increased by more than 1400%. These are official stats by the Swedish government.
Yes There has been an increase in violence and rape in other european countries as well, however, the swedish rape rate is 3 times as high as in your naighbours Norway and Sweden. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rape_rate_per_100,000_-_country_comparison_-_United_Nations_2012.png
According to Brottsförebyggande rådet, 80% of the swedish cases never gets reported.
Repect for men, is just as important as repect for women, otherwise you cannot have gender equality.
@Zervo Since the discussion sort of is "And this somehow explains why feminazis and effemintated males are all over Sweden today" Respect for men is much more on topic than general crime rates.
But how exactly was it related to respect for men?
Because we have "Feminazis" and "effemintated males" "all over the place" according to your probably not so accurate "survey", you meant to imply that the respect for men are gone/threatened or whatever?
And for measure, you brought up crime rates (reminds me, I'm awaiting that explanation), which is the point where I entered the discussion to claim your points being entirely moot, then you brought up respect for men being important, which still sounds pretty much... well moot.
@minimilk I'm not going to sit through that video for a host of reasons.
Mind telling me what exactly is the issue that you found so incredibly disturbing that you actually belive that people should sit in a looney bin based on their opinions?
@minimilk I'd say their rape rates are so high simply because people in Sweden actually report rapes instead of staying quiet about it. in America most women don't report being raped because of shame, because they don't realize they've been raped, or because of threats of violence from their rapist. Almost all male victims remain silent, which is understandable.
@smexyfish45 Nonsense. The RAINN (Rape, Abuse & Incest National Network) organization of the USA estimates about 2 out of 3 cases goes unreported. Where as BRÅ (Brottsförebyggande rådet - Swedish National Council for Crime Prevention) estimates as much as 4 out of 5 cases go unreported. No matter how you juggle those numbers Sweden still have a rape rate way higher than any other country in the western world.
@minimilk The main difference, apart from a much higher report rate, is the definition of rape in swedish law and how we count rapes. Many countries see one rapist raping a woman 10 times as one (1) rape case, while in Sweden, that's counted as 10 individual cases.
Besides, if you only go by numbers alone, it cannot possibly be muslims, as countries with large muslim populations, such as Indonesia has close to no rapes at all.
So either you stubbornly ignore all the circumstances behind the statistics and accept that muslim immigrants are innocent of the rapes, or you accept that there are many circumstances which has an effect on the outcome of statistics.
@minimilk i like how instead of typing in disagreement a bunch of butt hurt people just swarmed and disliked the comment. they found a way to be aggressive yet still be a pansy on the internet.
@SirKibbz Hmm, if only there was a way to express my disagreement... I wish there was a convenient red button to show that I dislike this statement without wasting my time arguing with somebody on the internet.
@Muffinmurdurer alright cool, but what's the point with just saying "i don't like this" in the form of a button, he is not gonna care nor is anyone, without stating your reasoning it just seems like passive aggressive whining over an online media. you'd be better off just rolling your eyes irl and just scroll past thinking the dude is an idiot but instead wasted the time to click the button to show disagreement, so is it really an oddball idea to think others are being a tad bit of a wuss for not putting a good two minuets to explain their disagreement? or that it shows they do not have a clever remark to counter?
@SirKibbz Please remove your national identification from your account. America has enough tragic humiliation with its so-called 'President' and golf-clothes Nazis, it doesn't need you adding to it in your own petty way.
@Corgi me showing that i'm american isn't petty >_> while i could go into further on how i believe you are wrong. i can just deduce that i disagree with you, believe your comment to be stupid, and not really worth the energy to respond. i'm typing because i disliked your statement and have the decency of explaining why instead of just leaving it as a silent thumbs down :\
@minimilk
Makes conquering so much easier when there's nobody left to defend it eh? Although with all the feminized men and masculine women, you can guarantee that your population won't exactly be increasing, and so any force could easily take over a nation by out breeding the indigenous population
@minimilk
Werll, if there's hope, it lies in Eastern Europe. They've recently come out from under the totalitarian rule of the Soviet Union, and before that, how many nations were conquered by empires? Do you really think they would fancy living under a caliphate? Poland especially is standing up to the EU and refusing to admit the quotas of invaders demanded of them. Hungary also built a small wall along it's southern border with Serbia, and it proved effective in stemming the flow of aliens . The Czech Republic has gun rights similar to Americans, and stand a better chance armed, and well, other nations in the region are opposed to it. Western Europe on the other hand, is rapidly approaching critical mass, where the only options would be either to submit and lose their unique heritage, culture, people, and language cultivated over hundreds,even thousands of years to a belligerent, barbaric peoples who interpret the tolerance and acceptance so graciously offered by the bountiful West as weakness, brute force the only way to truly stop them, or to wake up, refuse to be politically correct, and fight to retake your fatherland. You can't deny that the amounts of violent crimes, such as murder and rape has skyrocketed in countries that accepted copious amounts of migrants, or that once bustling, splendid cities are practically warzones that no indigenous European step foot in lest they lose their life. Even if you try to hide the truth, nothing stays lost on the internet forever. Which will you chose?
I don't care if I get banned for this or about how many people attack me for this or vote down on it, someone has to speak the truth.
@DarkMage7280
Thank you so much!
More and more people are waking up and acknowledging the dangers of cultural Marxism and political correctness, and it's only a matter of time before all Hell breaks loose.
@chaosgirl13
(I know there is no real point in doing that since you people don't usually listen, but I have time to kill...)
Are you serious, there ? "once bustling, splendid cities are practically warzones that no indigenous European step foot in lest they lose their life." That's the biggest crap I've ever heard. Come and see for yourself, instead of believing everything you read on the internet. Very few splendid cities have lost their splendour in Europe, and those that did did so because most of their splendour had been wiped out during WW2's bombings (sometimes by the Allies, actually). The only real dangers for your life in european cities are cars and buses (and usually, accident happen because of the pedestrian's lack of attention), just like in most US cities.
Now, this whole "invasion" business... Will you stop with that, one day, you fearmongers ? There is NO invasion. And you should be very careful when talking about invasions to Europeans, because you know what ? We know them slightly better than the US, a country that was never truly invaded. Except if you consider migrants as an invasion, but in that case, the USA are the most invaded country of all times ! Now, about the current migrant crisis, you should acknowledge that most of those migrants are war refugees, so neither economic migrants (the kind of migrants the US built itself with, by the way) nor terrorists. The quotas from the EU are a political issue deserving intelligent debating, but I favour them in the name of European Solidarity : we are 28 (for now) countries united together, and that's for better or worse.
Finally, something linked to the "invasion" idea, there's this whole business about political correctness and values. You say we should "refuse to be politically correct", but what you call "political correctness" is usually the truth, and actual PC is not as large and present as you might think (because saying the truth is not being PC). Now, about the whole "values" thing... According to you, we are loosing our values, our unique history, our languages, to a barbaric people. First : migrants are not "a people", and there are in fact many different cultures and peoples coming with immigration. There is no "united front" trying to invade our culture, because migrants form a mosaic of differences (even with religion). Second, when we "loose" our languages, it's usually english "invading" us (and yet, not that much in France), or Russian for the east, but certainly not Arabic. And nobody looses their languages, you know, and as a bilingual man, I assure you the world would be better if everybody could speak several languages, because it's incredibly useful for reflection. Third, we are not loosing our core values. Especially not in France where our LaÏcité stops any religious feeling of any kind to have too much influence in the public life. The last real event that had an impact on french values was something we call "May 68", in 1968, and that was the frenchiest thing you could imagine (and it started with french students). I'm not saying all the changes from May 68 have been good, but you can't have something more national than that. So, "indigenous" are the only one able to really change their core values, and the rest of our values are quite individual, and no immigrant could change that.
"You say we should "refuse to be politically correct", but what you call "political correctness" is usually the truth, and actual PC is not as large and present as you might think (because saying the truth is not being PC)"
Oh really? Then "Google manifesto" (search for those words if you don't know what it is) should be met with overwhelming support... Isn't it?
@chaosgirl13 'Belligerent, barbaric peoples' are also responsible for English being spoken in England instead of Norman French; they in turn kept Britain from speaking Brythonic or Gaelic Celtic. Meanwhile, who might you possibly thank for non-Roman numerals and advanced maths like algebra?
'I don't care of I get banned for this' - oh, isn't your little show of twisted rightist defiance adorable.
@chaosgirl13 Sweden's stood for a thousand years, surviving plagues, famines and countless wars. We do not fear refugees fleeing war, are confident enough in ourselves, our society and our culture that we can take care of them and integrate them in our society. That we value the female half of our society equally does not make us weaker, it can only make us stronger and it is an integral part of our culture, laws and tradition, pre-dating christianity.
It's really pathetic how many people (e.g. @minimilk) felt compelled to denigrate another nation and pick gender fights in this comment thread with the rest of the world (with some misogyny and racism thrown in for good measure) -- just because in Sweden, for a special occasion boys are okay with dressing up as the Påskkärring.
@minimilk Sorry, but kärring here stands for "gumma" meaning "old woman". Its a costume for children loosing their milkteeths, giving the glap-toothed look of old age.
The freckles are liver-spots and the dress is traditional 19th century.
I dont recall any candy or old men invovled, it was just a dress-up game.
And to kids that young its more important to play the role then gender identity.
In Finland children also dress up as witches on Easter. However for us originally it was because the witches were supposed to fend away bad spirits. The children make decorative sticks out of willow branches and they wave them at people and chant a "song" (not really a proper tune or anything) that is supposed to keep people healthy.
Nowadays of course it is not about bad spirits but just candy... And we do not have a different option for boys, so if you want candy, you have to be a witch. It isn't so bad though, because in Lapland at least witches were traditionally men.
@Concorde No more bad spirits? Hah, apparently Finland killed them off. Or chased them away at least. Even bad spirits run from Finland when he's coming for them with a branch.
En Påskkärring is a witch, and the candy they collect is for their long journey by broom to blåkulla (the blue hill) where they will party.
Oroginally, witches were thought to kidnap children and bring the with them to the Blue hill, where they feast and dance woth the devil. Today tho, they are just cute and beg for candy so they can last until Halloween
The witches' party on the blåkulla sounds very similar to the witches' sabbath on bald mountain in the game the Witcher 3. I wonder if the author of the books that it was based on drew from Swedish legends? Or perhaps the Polish have a similar legend/tradition?
@star3catcher The freckles are part of the Easter Witch costume, so it's makeup. You can also see that Sweden get freckles when he puts on the costume.
@star3catcher Now, now, we use the term "a woman liberated from the oppressive sexual norms imposed upon her by the patriarchal society" here in Europe, not "whore".
@DarkMage7280 Careful not to shatter your spine with that self back-patting there, it'd be a shame if you were paralyzed. You also might want to have a talk with humon about how her European status has apparently been revoked since she also had Sister Sweden being called a whore in the very first comic she appeared in and has casually thrown around "whore" numerous other times in the comic as well - to the sound of, I presume, very little patronizing whining from your end.
But considering she's rather hard to get a hold of, you'd probably have better luck with getting off your "Ooohoohoo, look at the silly unenlightened non-European!" high horse and finding a better avenue to channel your inner smarmy prig other than tsking at strangers on the internet using tongue-in-cheek invocations of common, everyday, naughty words as if doing so reveals anything about their actual views on sexuality or society. There's not always going to be a convenient American around for you to nitpick and exaggerate every time you want to pretend you're exceptional, after all.
You are never better than the people you have sex with; if she's a "whore", so are you. Unless she wouldn't sleep with you, in which case, you are worse than a "whore".
@star3catcher
Don´t you that know it yet? Here in Europe you loose a freckle for everytime not giving a fuck.
oh, and it´s M-O-O-N! so watch out what you´re burning, ban or eat!
@CorruptUser actually, Namitsu is one of the more well-known on the forums. She's really kind and caring, and wouldn't insult people. You have no evidence of her insulting people, do you?