on-ice gender dynamics.

this past saturday night, I co-emceed the annual women's soiree, which showcases the amazing talents of the better-looking 35% of the mcmurdo population. tons of volunteers (men and women) put on a great event, including a pre-event wine social (where servers dressed as greek goddesses circulated with trays of cheese and biscotti) and the raffling off of more than $1800 worth of donated goods and services (everything from bottles of bailey's to handmade knitted items and jewelry to gift certificates for massages and restaurants in CHCH). the raffle raised over $3000 for the canterbury breast-cancer society in new zealand, which was chosen as this year's charity in honor of a nancy farrell, an old-time Ice gal who was diagnosed with cancer and was unable to come to antarctica this year. because our shuttles boss, samantha, is so involved in the soiree, she asked three of her employees -- me, kris, and amanda (see above) -- if we would like to co-MC. I was really nervous about it, all the way up till it actually started, but then somehow powered through on straight bravada, and everyone said it went really well. I only included one deliberate joke -- a cargo gal was going to play the bassoon, so I said she was going to play a baboon. seemed to go over because people laughed. if you're going to tell a joke, anything involving a primate is usually a good bet, because monkeys are inherently funny. so are those big plastic cone-shaped collars that dogs wear when they come back from the vet, but I couldn't figure out a way to gracefully incorporate one into my script.

the talent on this station is amazing! there were three belly-dancing acts (including a solo performance by shuttle sam), tap-dancing, the aforementioned bassoon, guitar playing, a homemade video about ice fishing, storytelling, and poetry. it was really cool to see people out of their dirty carhartts and dressed up for the occasion. I sometimes get embarrassed when someone says hello to me in the dining hall or computer lab and I don't recognize them, but it's because they're not wearing their work clothes. you get really used to seeing air national guardsmen in green coveralls and carpenters in bibs and firefighters in...uh...firefighting garb.

as part of the belly-dancing intro, I taught the audience some traditional means of encouraging the dancers:

1. the zaghareet. if you've seen any movies taking place in the middle east or north africa, there is probably a scene where all the women make a high-pitched lalalalalalala sound all together (there's a good example of this in Three Kings, where Spike Jonze does the lalala and is ridiculed because only women are supposed to do it). this can be used in any place where you would normally clap or cheer.
2. hissing. if you see something slow and sensuous during the bellydance, you let out a long hissssss. kind of like the air brakes on the terra bus.
3. ya habibi and yalla. these are endearments to be shouted whenever you see something you like. ya habibi is roughly translated as 'you're fabulous, darling!' and yalla as 'you go, girl!'

there's a strange kind of gender dynamic on station. it's almost like being in mongolia. mongolian men and women are pretty much on equal footing and have near-equal social standing, and it has to do with the fact that mongolia is such a survival culture that everyone has to work together at everything, or you'd freeze and starve and die. it's kind of the same here. everyone works at the same jobs -- there are women cargo handlers / firefighters / load planners / skier (c130) maintenance / utility technicians / chefs / carpenters / plumbers / painters / fuelies / wasties / drillers / heavy equipment operators / janitors / couriers and more. women pretty much do everything that men do. and they look damn good and kick ass while they're doing it. (see my fuelie friends wendy and jodi, right.)

so, that made me wonder about good old-fashioned chivalry. I noticed that it doesn't really exist in the workplace; my workplace, anyway. the men don't jump up and offer to check the fluids on the womens' vehicles on cold days, or drag their ECW gear up the ladders on the deltas for them (and a number of our lady drivers are well over 60 years old!). and I've heard from other women on station that their work responsibilities are always evenly distributed, with no consideration or concern that some jobs are gender-specific. which is just as it should be. but outside the workplace, there seems to be a bit more of the door-opening, drink-buying type of behavior, which is kind of nice.

the other strange aspect of being a woman here is that there are relatively few of them, and each woman is thus subjected to more than her normal share of male attention. (one woman reportedly compared being female at mcmurdo to like 'being a bone in a pack of dogs.') some women kind of go a little nuts from the constant stream of pickup lines and end up being really, uh, friendly with the guys. others choose the 'if you fear me, maybe you'll respect me' route and just act aloof and distant. as for myself, I've learned that if I'm friendly to the air national guardsmen, they'll give me the snickers bars from their flight lunches. (I have also suggested that they start referring to me as code name OFA: Operation Fat Ass.)

ya habibi!