du gamla , du fria

[norral]

this is the title of the national anthem of sweden. it means thou ancient thou free. i saw it watching the fifa womens world cup. for some reason to me at least sweden represents a kind of heaven on earth. it seems like the type of society where i would really fit in . now i dont really know anytihing about sweden other than the glimpses i have picked up from transitens and ankhs posts
my friend had an interesting experience over there. he is a field engineer and he was on a trip over there. he was in the sauna i believe and a absolutely beautiful blond came in and said hello boys and took off her towel and sat there in her birthday suit lol. not going to happen in america at least not anywhere i know of. i told him he should move to sweden hes single sounds like a nice place to live lol.
the vibe i get is that they have tried to provide a decent life for the majority of their people much more so than the states

norral

[unity100]

the vibe i get is that they have tried to provide a decent life for the majority of their people much more so than the states

norral

~60 years of predominantly social democrat administration results.

tho the recently elected right leaning parties seem to be working to reverse it.

nothing good is coming out from any party that is friendly with united states unfortunately.

[Ankh]

Well imagine my surprise reading some swedish at this forum

It's more like:
You old, you free, you mountainhigh North,
You quiet, you joyful beauty!
I greet you, the fairest (as in beautiful) land upon the Earth,
Your Sun, Your Heaven and Your Green Meadows.
Your Sun, Your Heaven and Your Green Meadows.

norral: we are still shy. Not everyone have the courage to flash the private parts in front of the strangers =) But I do find that swedes have the open-ness and non-judgement more than anyone else in the world, which I enjoy.

unity100: there is some bad stuff and some good stuff with our new government, as with everything else I guess.

[norral]

hi ankh,
that was for u and transiten ankh, i figured that would catch your attention. how beautiful your national anthem is quite touching the words.
i just get quite a nice vibe from thinking about sweden, all the pictures i see of sweden everything is so clean and orderly. at heart ankh i am a socialist
and not a capitalist. yes im with you i wouldnt be comfortable being naked around a bunch of strangers , but i think in europe the human body and sexuality are viewed quite differently than here in the states. there is something forbidden about the whole topic here and i think europeans are much more comfortable with their bodies and with sexuality than americans are

norral

[unity100]

unity100: there is some bad stuff and some good stuff with our new government, as with everything else I guess.

i remember the right leaning party was reelected ?

[kycahi]

I just finished viewing the Millennium Trilogy movies: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, ...Who Played with Fire and ...Who Kicked the Hornets Nest. The books were Swedish by Steig Larsson. I read the first two books (translated) before seeing the films, and the third one I'm waiting my turn for the ebook from the city library. Sweden can take great pride in those films--the scripts, the performances and the actors, especially Noomi Rapace, who played the "Girl."

They show a Sweden that is very good in many ways, and I would like to visit someday.

[Ankh]

norral – hehe you know how to get my attention anyway It IS very clean here, or anyway more than I've seen in other countries. Regarding Europe – there are lots of different countries here, with various histories and cultures. I think that Victorian era had some impact on Europe regarding the sexuality and the so called "morality". But swedes have always been some kind of rebels. Our kings had huge problems in the past attempting to christianize the country. People just wouldn't leave their pagan traditions and beliefs. Some of these traditions are still alive today. So perhaps the Victorian era didn't have the same impact on our country as it had on the rest of the Europe. But there is also France – oh, France – amour amour and Moulin Rouge! =)
You said that sexuality is viewed quite differently in the States. How is it viewed in the States?

unity100 – yes, it's the first time in Swedish history that the right leaning party has been reelected. They won with narrow majority. I don't know if it has somthing to do with it, but the socialist party changed the prime minister before the election – to a woman! So I guess that swedes are not that open-minded yet. ;-)

kycahi – mi casa es su casa, meaning my home is your home.

[norral]

yes i saw that trilogy too kyachi and i loved it. quite interesting. i find it fascinating to get a glimpse into how people live in other countries versus
here in the u.s. this country has turned me off qutie honestly with its constant wars and greed. if the u.s. was a character from a movie i would make it jabba the hut form the star wars films

norral

[Ankh]

at heart ankh i am a socialist
and not a capitalist.

I never understood much of the politics, brother. To me it all sounds like yaba-daba-doo. People are trying to be wise and clever, and take an advantage of each other. But I've always voted "green", the Environment Party, who cooperates with the socialist party. What is beautiful with them is that they don't have a prime minister/party leader. They have two "speaking channels" as they call themselves. A woman and a man, which makes me think of a girl from a fairyland and an elf with a beard and kind, blue eyes from the woods, every time I see them =)

[3DMonkey]

this is the title of the national anthem of sweden. it means thou ancient thou free. i saw it watching the fifa womens world cup. for some reason to me at least sweden represents a kind of heaven on earth. it seems like the type of society where i would really fit in . now i dont really know anytihing about sweden other than the glimpses i have picked up from transitens and ankhs posts
my friend had an interesting experience over there. he is a field engineer and he was on a trip over there. he was in the sauna i believe and a absolutely beautiful blond came in and said hello boys and took off her towel and sat there in her birthday suit lol. not going to happen in america at least not anywhere i know of. i told him he should move to sweden hes single sounds like a nice place to live lol.
the vibe i get is that they have tried to provide a decent life for the majority of their people much more so than the states

norral

nowhere I know of either, but I'm certain US abounds in such places.

Lol, I worked with some Canadians a few years back. They thought they'd take in some local flavor by going to a strip club. They were very surprised to discover they weren't allowed to touch the dancers. (I don't have a clue about that stuff. I thought it was funny).

(unity100, you are starting to make me nervous with your USA disapproval)

[norral]

ankh
its kind of hard for me to speak for a country about how people view sexuality but i would say here in the states many times sex is pushed at you in various ways as a sales tool in order to get u to buy something that has nothing to do with sex.
there is a whole controversy over here about abortion. many people here dont want women to have the right to an abortion but the interesting thing is that these same people dont want people to have birth control. with the advent of the morning after pill there really is no need for unwanted pregnancies but they happen all the time. if we really educated kids about their birth control options there would be a lot less unwanted pregnancies.
sex is kind of thrown at u all the time in advertising but very little good info about birth control is given to the young as though they wont have sex. hey the young are going to have more sex than anyone else why not educate them on how not to get pregnant and make the birth control available to them.
you will find a lot of religious institutions where sex is abused by the same people who are telling others not to have sex. so there is a very split picture kind of like be a virgin but here come and look at this porn with me but still be a virgin. kind of impossible to fulfill that mission.

---

i wanted to ask u, speaking swedish do u understand german are there strong similarities between the languages.

[Aaron]

ankh
its kind of hard for me to speak for a country about how people view sexuality but i would say here in the states many times sex is pushed at you in various ways as a sales tool in order to get u to buy something that has nothing to do with sex.
there is a whole controversy over here about abortion. many people here dont want women to have the right to an abortion but the interesting thing is that these same people dont want people to have birth control. with the advent of the morning after pill there really is no need for unwanted pregnancies but they happen all the time. if we really educated kids about their birth control options there would be a lot less unwanted pregnancies.
sex is kind of thrown at u all the time in advertising but very little good info about birth control is given to the young as though they wont have sex. hey the young are going to have more sex than anyone else why not educate them on how not to get pregnant and make the birth control available to them.
you will find a lot of religious institutions where sex is abused by the same people who are telling others not to have sex. so there is a very split picture kind of like be a virgin but here come and look at this porn with me but still be a virgin. kind of impossible to fulfill that mission.

---

i wanted to ask u, speaking swedish do u understand german are there strong similarities between the languages.

True that...

We deny it. We deny that it's natural or even a part of ourselves. We try to make it fit into the box it should be in (between happily married couples only!) so it may be fearfully controlled. But amazingly, at the same time, it's glamorized in movies and television shows, and as norral says, advertisements. Education on the subject and how to approach it naturally and responsibly is, as norral says, severely lacking...

[3DMonkey]

Oh c'mon guys!

Education? I was horny when I was four years old for all the aunts and cousins who thought I was so cute. The media improves fantasies that would be in my mind regardless. Education is for nerds, not for kids having sex. What I mean is, educate all you want, they aren't going to listen.
We've been horny for all generations of existence, and it truly centers around what we can hide and get away with. If we don't need to hide from authority to do it, then that is what will cause an openness about it. I'm not giving media that much 'power' in my world.

[Bring4th_Austin]

I have to disagree somewhat 3DM, I think educating children on birth control, and making it openly available, would help drastically in unwanted pregnancies as well as the spread of STDs. You're right about how no amount of education is going to stop anyone from having sex, which is why "abstinence only education" won't work, and which is why we need education on birth control.

We also need less reality shows about teens getting pregnant, making it a glamorous thing...

[3DMonkey]

You can educate all you want, it won't hurt anything. The idea is to bring it out of the closet. The only way that happens is if adults speak in a matter of fact way. "If you two kids want some privacy for intercourse, I could go to the store for a bit. Remember your birth control. Bye" or "Wow, I can tell by the smell what you two have been doing. Do you mind taking a shower before dinner?".

This isn't a reality I want.

I just don't buy the "tv makes me want it" idea. If anything, typical tv blocked me from more intercourse because I falsely believed in romance and chivalry. I knew all about birth control. I wasn't going to use it. My Universe worked itself out just how it wanted it to be.

I read that a teenager in china offered her virginity for an iPhone 4 her father wouldn't buy her. So, I bought two phones today for my baby girls . Whatever it takes, lol

[Meerie]

i wanted to ask u, speaking swedish do u understand german are there strong similarities between the languages.

From what I have seen there are indeed similarities, I would understand a word or two occasionally. Often the words have different meanings - I have borrowed this CD and one of the sentences was "jag riser ensam" which is translated "I travel alone". however "ensam" would be "einsam" in German, which would mean "lonely". I found that quite interesting.
Norral!!! come to Europe. I mean it. Maybe your company could relocate you? It would be awesome to have you around the corner.

---

We deny it. We deny that it's natural or even a part of ourselves. We try to make it fit into the box it should be in (between happily married couples only!) so it may be fearfully controlled. But amazingly, at the same time, it's glamorized in movies and television shows, and as norral says, advertisements. Education on the subject and how to approach it naturally and responsibly is, as norral says, severely lacking...

Do you think that is still a part of the US's puritan heritage?

[Ankh]

In Sweden there is a sexual education in high school. I remember sitting there with *huge* eyes when this old lady looking like a grandma' took out a condom and starting to show us how to put it on properly, using a banana, I think =)) I think it's great that this kind of information exists in schools, because some of the kids don't have the proper teachings in this area at home. We also learned the basic anatomy of female and male bodies (or certain parts of it), and then there was some discussion about porn. I don't remember that discussion in details, but the main point was that it is a skewed picture of the reality, so the girls were taught to say no, and the boys were taught to accept it.

norral – we have the same thing with sex insuination in the commercials over here. I don't think that it's a completely bad thing though. I remember there was one commercial that brought attention and big debates about this whole sex thing in the commercials. There is a company here, called "locum". So one year, they made big posters that were put everywhere, where they exchanged the letter "o" with a heart, and the result was l cum. Do you see it? I thought it was pretty funny though =)

Swedish people are not that religious, which has its cons too, I guess. For instance there is a very little talk about spirituality. So while we are not buying much of this organized/centralized religious stuff, we are not into the spirituality at all!

Most of the swedes learn german in school. I did it too, but my memory is kind of selective, so I hardly remember any of it =) If you don't learn any german, I don't think that you are able to understand it, even though there are many similarities.

Meerie - Learning some swedish aren't we? Don't worry. The majority here speak excellent english, and many speak german too. Do you have sexual education in the schools in Germany?

[Meerie]

In Sweden there is a sexual education in high school. I remember sitting there with *huge* eyes when this old lady looking like a grandma' took out a condom and starting to show us how to put it on properly, using a banana, I think =)) I think it's great that this kind of information exists in schools, because some of the kids don't have the proper teachings in this area at home. We also learned the basic anatomy of female and male bodies (or certain parts of it), and then there was some discussion about porn.
Meerie - Learning some swedish aren't we? Don't worry. The majority here speak excellent english, and many speak german too. Do you have sexual education in the schools in Germany?

We only had the basics, like what you say basic anatomy of the male and female bodies. But then honestly I have forgotten so much about school, I sometimes wonder I was there at all, lol. (It could be there was more sexual education.)
All I remember is that I was very inventive when it came to cheating at exams, and that I had at some point learnt to copy my mums handwriting, so I could excuse myself from class if necessary

[Ankh]

*laughing* yup! I kind of recognize some of what you wrote

[Meerie]

My best "cheat" was : I was sitting in the first row, very close to the teachers desk.
Since I knew that the teacher who was going to supervise the exam never moved from her place I fixed the cheat sheet right on the side of her desk.

Edit: of course cheating is bad. Don't try this at school, kids.

[Ankh]

lol!!

[norral]

ankh
u have just put a picture in my mind forever of old ladies bananas and condoms. i dont know if i should thank u for that or not but that is now a permanent addition to my memory bank . from now on whenever i have to deal with a jerk i am going to have a mental picture of a condom being slipped over their head while they are talking to me lol.

[Ankh]

You're welcome (I think?)

[kycahi]

Do you think that is still a part of the US's puritan heritage?

Yes, absolutely it is! The right-wingers here say that they want to protect all life and that is why they oppose a woman's right to choose to have an abortion. Yet they also oppose any form of birth control, though it would prevent those abortions.

In reality, they just want to keep a woman from having sex at all, using the fear of pregnancy, unless she is married. Despite the obvious, they want all unmarried people and all gay people to avoid having sex, period.

[norral]

u hit the nail so on the head kyachi. sexually repressed people trying to impose their hangups on others.

[Ankh]

Why am I not surprised that Wanderers beginning speaking of beautiful anthems and lovely countries, end up discussing sex?

[native]

I see Ankh has a metaphysical boner again. I don't know about you guys, but I watch CNN with a bottle of astroglide. Man, when they start talking about the debt ceiling.. "Oh yeah? Tell me what you wanna do with the debt ceiling." "..umm, I think we should lower it." "Yeah..mmm, lower it ALL the way. Take it all the way down and touch your toes!"

[Ankh]

I see Ankh has a metaphysical boner again.

*shocking eyes* You are asking for that galactic fight that we talked about, aren't you?

[norral]

ankh
that sentence has so many possibilites to it sister. but i am going to shut my mouth otherwise u might get mad at me.
i was thinking of taking that sentence and adding the words

huge, throbbing and satisfied to it but like i said sister i dont want u to get mad at me

[Meerie]

Do you think that is still a part of the US's puritan heritage?

Yes, absolutely it is! The right-wingers here say that they want to protect all life and that is why they oppose a woman's right to choose to have an abortion. Yet they also oppose any form of birth control, though it would prevent those abortions.

In reality, they just want to keep a woman from having sex at all, using the fear of pregnancy, unless she is married. Despite the obvious, they want all unmarried people and all gay people to avoid having sex, period.

And they probably want the married couples to have sex only if they intend to procreate.
"Puritanism - the haunting fear that someone, somewhere, may be happy". (by Henry Mencken)