Ukrainians in Paris

Netflix's "Emily in Paris" or how Western stereotypes depict Ukrainians (and Russians)

In the second season's fourth episode of Netflix's new series “Emily in Paris” that follows a young American woman that comes to Paris for work, they introduced a new character, girl by the name Petra from Ukraine that Emily meets at the French language classes. Ukrainian girl character is drawn there as someone who speaks with a heavy Eastern European accent, afraid of being deported, has an extravagant (to put it mildly) sense of fashion and does occasional shoplifting where she also gets Emily involved because of misunderstanding coming through language barrier.

When this episode came out, there was an outburst of criticism of Netflix, first in Ukrainian patriotic media and on social networks, but then Ukrainian government got involved and their Culture Minister, Oleksandr Tkavhenko, wrote a letter to the streaming service's management calling the image of a Ukrainian woman drawn by Netflix “insulting”. This public concern expressed by Ukrainian Minister made news in many MSM outlets, including BBC.

Now, how much of what Netflix has shown us is typical and true and what is really out of line with how young Ukrainian women behave in the West? Based strictly on my personal experience I found that some of the stereotypes portrayed in this Netflix series are true, but some are not. Well, it is absolutely true about the accent, Ukrainian and Russians have stronger, easier to detect and identify accent than Poles or Germans, as one example. But it is also true, that Ukrainians abroad are overall very law abiding citizens and shoplifting, like many other petty crimes, is just not their thing. At the same time, girls or young women, especially fresh arrivals from Ukraine, have a certain way to dress, you can call it expressive, others will call it vulgar, and because of that they are getting an undeserved rep of being "prostitutes". While there some of them, like other arrivals from Eastern Europe and Asia, are a part of this one, oldest of professions, but to say that most of Ukrainian girls in the West are prostitutes is blatantly incorrect - they simply are not. The reason I brought this up is because social networks are full of this particular stereotype. This New Year's night I watched fragments of Ukrainian New Year celebration broadcast on TV (have this service available through ETVNET), what caught my eye, especially when compared to Russian New Year celebration shows, was how "over the top" Ukrainian women performers were dressed. Perhaps their Culture Minister, Tkachenko, should look first inside of Ukraine to understand what cultivates the image of a young Ukrainian woman abroad that was depicted by Netflix and he didn't like so much.

At the same time I wonder, what is the prevailing stereotype of a young Russian woman, that came to a Western country to seek a better life? Based again, strictly on my personal experience, and those were business meeting encounters, I found Russian women to be well dressed and taken care of, slightly snobby, business like, very direct. What are your thoughts and experiences, do you see Russian and Ukrainian women abroad as basically the same in their behavior, or different? Please share your opinion in comments section.