The first paragraph amuses me, because of the implication that I am at the top of *my* dating game. (Dig the MP3 link too!)
Brazilian women
Seth Kugel: “For Brazilian women, who come from a place where public displays of affection are a way of life and men rarely lack for amorous gusto, the task is particularly confounding. Ask Brazilian women what they think about American men, and most respond precisely the same way: with gales of laughter. Then they tell disturbingly similar tales of men who fear making advances lest they be accused of date rape and who coldly calculate how many days they need to wait between meeting a woman and asking her to dinner.”
The article goes on to interview three Brazilian women in New York City, all of which would much prefer dating Brazilian men over Americans, since the latter do not call the next day, do not approach them in bars, do not affectionately or flirtatiously touch or even kiss them when men first meet them at a club or a party. A little bit paradoxically, though: “American men are less reserved once they learn that a woman is from Brazil. Some politely ask about Brazilian culture; others just start talking about Carnaval and string bikinis. In nearly every case, their faces light up immediately. And that offends the women.” I've heard stories of female Brazilian international students going to a club and instead of walking to the dance floor will go off to the side, sit down, and expect men to approach them, as this was what they are used to in Brazil. No idea if that's true, but a Brazilian music fan (who is not Brazilian herself) is wondering whether such stories are true.
A note about the link: the article in question is now behind a subscription wall. I tried using both persistent-link generators (one at blogspace.com, another at windbag.org) and none had the article in their database. I saved a copy of the article to my computer, but would rather visitors to my weblog would be able to visit the original article, so I'm willing to pay $10 USD via PayPal for anyone who has a persistent link that does not require registration. The title of the article, if it helps, is "The Girls From Ipanema Are Not Impressed".
Which is where I found the article in the first place.
They expect men to affectionately or flirtatiously touch her upon first meeting her. (I will happily pay someone $5USD for a persistent link to this article.)
Woman with Brazil flag dressed up at the very end of the holding area of the Chinese New Year Parade
Looks like the Brazillians are taking over non-online forums as well. She posed with a lot of people who wanted their picture taken with her.
