Russian posters:
Speaking from a cultural perspective, why does it seem like Eteri has more success with girls than boys? Are boys raised to be more rebellious/independent and girls are raised to be more obedient? (This definitely used to be the case in the US, but I think it has really changed over the past few decades. I just wonder if differing socialization of the genders plays a role in how well Eteri's methods work. I'd specifically be fascinated by comparisons/contrasts between her and Mishin, considering Mishin's legacy of success with very headstrong-seeming male skaters.)
Well, from my experience, there is some difference indeed.
Some of it comes from WW2 - during the war, many men died, so USSR ended up with a huge gender imbalance. So men were spoiled, and thus boys were spoiled too, because they would see their mothers spoil their fathers. Because well, since there were noticeable less adult males than females, you either spoil the guy or he finds someone who will spoil him better.
This tendency remained, specially due to bad habits such as drinking. Many men die young, and many other are just not really good prizes.
This picture explains it all: http://languagesoftheworld.info/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/Russia-Sex-Ratio-Map.jpg
Russia has a male to female ration (for ages 15 to 64) of 0.92. Out of every 25 women, 2 will not be able to find a partner.
For comparison, in USA, this ratio is 1.07.
So men are a sort of a valuable commodity. And this, then, applies to boys also.
This is why its pretty common to see russian women to marry some really crappy guys "to have a pair of pants at home". Women who work hard all their lives while their husbands are unemployed half of the time and just spend their time drinking and hanging out with friends. To stick to a totally failed marriage because chances are she wont find a better one. The kids look and learn.
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