Budapest, Hungary - Hungarian is a weird language. We simply do not have "she" and "he". My American friends marvel at this fact. They presume that the Hungarian Academy of Sciences has prohibited the anti-feminist pronouns of the Hungarian language. When I inform them that we have never had those, they are disappointed.
I am writing these lines in a country where equal rights for women and men never existed. Men make more in the same position. Well, this is only in theory because women seldom get the same positions as men. What can be said? We are late compared to the developed countries in Europe.
In Hungary, women these days try to do everything men do. Some of them are boxing, for instance. Others create their own companies. There are a few who use four letter words like Iwo Yima veterans when the drive. And they drive like Navies did in Iwo Yima. I do not care about that. What is a really funny is the following: When they invade a territory that has been considered the terrain of men, they are surprised that most men do not mind. On the other hand, when men start treating them as they treat men, the are shocked and they protest against it. For instance, when female writers (writing was also a male profession here and for every fifty writers there was only one woman) do not get extra support and attention, they complain very angrily. But, for God's sake, equality should mean equal treatment, shouldn't it? I think this is not a Hungarian problem. This is the key dilemma of the emancipation, I guess.
I think women are much better off from almost every possible point of view than men are. This is especially true of Hungarian women. The only thing they lack is patience. In a country that sixty years ago was still partially feudalistic, you cannot expect to reach the most elevated Western standards in the field of female rights -- or in any field for that matter.
Of course, I am the first who would give women everything they want. One reason is that some of my characteristics are traditionally considered "womanish." I can cry at the cinema, I am very (too?) emotional, and more suave than my male peers. I pay women generously. As of today, unfortunately, other Hungarian men are a bit more reluctant.
Women should fight for themselves and wait until men change. The only thing men could do is to fight with them and not against them. So, men, let's fight against us. It is quite an experience. Sigmund Freud would appreciate it. It's a new perspective of the human psyche.
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