Your Ukrainian Brides

Earlier in the month when I wrote about a dating service aimed at hooking eligible bachelors up with marriage-minded Russian women, I gestured at the “risks of stereotype we incur” whenever we attempt to describe the traits on an entire nationality of women. Nations and cultures and peoples do have common traits, which dating sites aimed at facilitating international marriages are quite direct in discussing. But when Your Ukrainian Wives talks not only about the merits of Ukrainian women in general but specifically about how they are “way better and prettier” than Russian women, that’s a degree of intra-Slavic competition that quite goes over my head. Like most American men, I couldn’t pick the Ukrainian girl out of a lineup of Russian women if my life (or my new relationship) depended on it. However, you are wecome to try, if you think your Slavic woman-identification skills are up to the job:

If you want to woo a Ukrainian woman, though, don’t be an ugly American. If you don’t know what it means to be Ukrainian, keep a firm grip on your tongue until you have found out. And for damn sure, don’t make the mistake of calling her a Russian:

People from the Western World are somewhat assured that all Slavic countries have a lot in common and can barely be distinguished. We do not know what exactly raises such a thought in people’s minds — whether it is a negative effect of Soviet Union’s policy of “international equality” or the plain absence of interest. Nonetheless, we have to admit that Russians and Ukrainians are completely different nationalities with dissimilar mentalities and attitudes. That is why a Ukrainian girl would be offended and distressed if you said you do not know the concrete difference between her native culture and the culture of Russia.

As I wrote before, The Nymph knows my proclivities, so I do not join sites like this out of respect for her. She emphatically does not want me flirting with distant Slavic women! Thus, I can’t speak in detail about the site’s offerings and amenities. If you need such a dating site, I’m sure you’ll enjoy figuring out this one’s particularities.