Russia exacerbates my drinking problem

Let me quickly recap the types of opportunities/perks women in Russia have:

1. Free tertiary education. This applies to men as well, of course. It’s not Harvard, but it’s something.
2. Free health”care” (I added quotes to denote that it’s sometimes more likely to kill you, but as it stands, it’s free), including maternity “care”. If given the choice between a free maternity ward in Russia and the slums of Nairobi, I’d still probably pick the latter, but nevertheless, it’s free.
3. Some kind of ridiculous maternity leave system in which they get 3 years off with a state-backed job guarantee at the end and a “stimulus payment” for each child following their first, which currently clocks in at a respectable $12,000-ish. I’m not a taxpayer in Russia, though, so I can’t very well question why state funds are being channeled into promoting an inability to use contraception in a country that can’t even provide for the citizens it already has. Oh wait, I just did. Oh well.
4. Formally equal access to employment opportunities (with the exception of military service and becoming a subway driver; the reasons for the latter remain shrouded in mystery).
5. A well-documented system of getting things for being pretty/having tits. This includes grades, jobs, promotions, etc.

So, given the above, why is it that I’m still reading conversations containing the following quotes on Russian Facebook?

Of course, ideally all women would like to stay home and be housewives, but, sadly, in our day and age, this isn’t always possible…

My wife is a speech therapist and earns a decent salary for a woman…

So women should probably find some kind of female job where they won’t have to work all day, but where they also won’t be making pennies…

[As a housewife] you can prepare a nice meal for your husband, set the table nicely so that it’s pleasant for him to sit down for dinner…

I had to actually step away from the computer at this point because I was developing an increasingly noticeable eye twitch coupled with an unbearable desire to shoot tequila. And I no longer shoot tequila. Ever. There was this one time in Greece and… yeah. Anyway.

Few things anger me more than comments such as the above, and I’m sitting here trying to figure out why. They clash with my entire belief system, everything I stand for, on an absolutely fundamental level, but it can’t just be that. Deconstructing my rage, it may have something to do with the fact that they presume that I’m somehow less woman/human because sentiments such as these make my skin crawl. Maybe it’s that I recognize that my career track will always be questioned, as it is already. “Don’t you just want to find a nice man to settle down with like everyone else?” “That biological clock of yours will keep ticking, you know…” “But don’t you want a man to help you out?” Whether or not I get married, there will always be people who will either speculate as to the fundamental flaws that make me a frigid spinster or, alternatively, question why I couldn’t have found a “rich enough” man to “support” me. “So unfortunate that she still has to work…” Whether or not I have children, I will be criticized either for neglecting my children or for neglecting some presupposed biological need to have them in the first place. Then again, why do I care whether these people question my life choices? Their position in life clearly invalidates their opinion for me, rendering the entire thing moot.

Why am I angry? I don’t know. Reading this shit, however, does appear to be affecting me in unexpected ways – while rationally understanding that any hope I have of skating tomorrow morning depends entirely on me going to bed before 2 am, I am now all of a sudden tempted to finish my satellite imagery analysis of my refugee camps – what with it being 1:49 am and all, which is the perfect time to do this – because that will somehow make me feel accomplished, professional, smart, and capable.

That said, my need to reach through the screen and poke these people in the eyes with sharp pointy objects has not yet diminished.