Women go geisha to be Russians with love
From Clem Cecil in St Petersburg
“FEEL the power in your uterus, girls,” cried Larisa Bogdanova, twirling to the crashing chords of Phantom of the Opera. Transformed into a whirlwind of female power, Mrs Bogdanova is on a mission to teach novy Ruski wives how to keep their men from straying.
The director of St Petersburg’s first school for geishas flutters her eyelashes and says: “Foreign men love Russian women because they are submissive, but we are teaching them to be strong and then hide that strength.”
Fifty women have passed through the school since it opened last December. Wives concerned about their husband’s fidelity are joined by businesswomen competing in Russia’s new capitalist market who cannot find men, and young women looking for Mr Right. All these women have one thing in common: money. The course costs $400 for nine classes, a small fortune in a city where the average salary is $150 a month.
“The stronger the woman, the weaker she makes her man,” Mrs Bogdanova said. “That is why businesswomen come to us, to revise their feminine side.”
The inspiration for the school is Oleg Frolov, a Muscovite who has come to give Mrs Bogdanova assistance in teaching “intimate muscle control”. Mr Frolov, who believes that “the main female aim is to give love to another” and who is on his third wife, trains women to burn with desire for their men, be strong, unpredictable, self-confident . . . and not too clever.
He says that he has taken the best of geisha knowledge and fused it with other esoteric wisdom. “Everything is erotic in this world if you look at it in the right way,” said Zhenya, the present Mrs Frolov. “Watch me pour this tea.”
Lyuba, 34, a designer in search of a man, and Galina, 45, who has three lovers and a husband but is not satisfied by any of them, watched in fascination as Zhenya’s hands performed a tea-pouring ceremony. After two hours of “charm training” they were gasping for a cup. But they had to wait. In this school, tea is not tea it is man, water is woman and the teapot is the uterus.
When the tea was finally offered in tiny porcelain bowls, the ladies were told to smell their bowls after drinking. “That is your smell, my loves, the fruit that you offer men to taste, and you must love that smell.” The bowls were passed around for group sniffing.
The lights were then dimmed and Zhenya uncoiled a strange contraption — “for the exercise of the intimate muscles”. Originally the invention of a French doctor, it has been adapted by Mr Frolov, an engineer by training, and apparently brings results within two weeks, unlike the five years that geishas traditionally practice. The philosophy behind it is that stronger muscles bring heightened pleasure to the woman in sex and therefore to the man.
Mrs Bogdanova’s role models are Madonna and Lady Thatcher, who have reached levels five and six respectively on her own ratings system of femininity. “Most women are happy to attain levels one and two — how to attract and keep a man. But others want to go farther,” she said. She reckons that she has reached level four, the level of a muse, but would like to reach level six, the ability to preside over space and time.
Each week students gather and dress up in a different style. On a French geisha evening students wore coquettish wigs, deep cleavages and learnt how to dance the can-can. The Slavonic geisha evening goes as follows: fling a mink coat on to the ground and surround it with candles, invite your man to lie down and massage him wearing mink gloves, intermittently feeding him caviar and blini. Mrs Bogdanova’s latest course is called “The Fantasies of Catherine the Great”.
Vodka is strictly out. “It kills desire,” she said. But Russian geishas have a long way to go if they are to persuade their men to foreswear vodka. “If a man’s wife is strong and blooming he will not turn to the bottle,” Mrs Bogdanova says.
Yulia Kulisheva, 44, has been married for 25 years and has been on the course for a week. “I am so happy,” she said. “My husband says that now I pay him more attention he realises that I need him.” She is one of a new generation of elegant women who are entering middle age gracefully. In Soviet times most women ballooned after 30 from a starch-rich diet, and access to pretty clothes was minimal.
Like most Russians, Mrs Bogdanova and her patrons see feminists as frustrated Western women, unable to make their men love them. However, Mariya Arbatova, the country’s leading feminist, was unmoved on hearing about the school. “It’s their free choice,” she said yesterday.
Larisa's law
By changing yourself, you can change the world of men
Be an actress; do not be afraid to play many roles
The most successful role is the role of a weak woman
The stronger a man’s personality, the more he appreciates a woman’s weakness
In order to be loved, you must want to be loved
Be sexy and passionate and passion will enter your life
Learn to smile and transmit your smile to others
Only a woman who feels like a queen allows her man to feel he is king of the world. A queen can sometimes be weak
The best decoration a woman can have is the shining of her eyes and a seductive smile
Exercise your intimate muscles for five minutes every morning and you will obtain the energy of youth
