A woman should be satisfied. If she isn’t, she has to do something about it. That’s what Russian trainer Pavel Rakov tries conveying to Ukrainian women during his self-improvement trainings across the country.
Recent years have seen a flood of women’s trainings that call for an end to the fight for gender equality and independence. Seminars instead suggest that ladies “open their sexuality,” “find their inner woman” or “become their man’s inspiration.” Even though there are many trainings devoted to women in business and career advancement, most of them still answer the basic question of how to seduce a man.
“We were taught how to look, move and even speak to be more attractive to a man,” says unemployed Svitlana Semakova, 24, who recently attended Rakov’s training under the provocative name, “I am actually smart but I live like I’m stupid.”
Organizers claim the program is based on the practical knowledge and experience that Rakov has amassed for several decades. Kyiv trainer and Rakov’s partner Sergei Mytrofanov says he’s been in the business for more than three years and fully trusts Rakov’s methods.
The full three-day course covers such themes as: “being a woman,” “how to make a healthy man impotent and vice versa” or even “how to get rid of the iron balls.”
“I can’t say there was something very new and shocking to me, I just understood that I have to use all I knew before to be happier in life, ” Semakova said.
She recalls being quite surprised to see a man conducting a women’s training, but Rakov appeared to be very charismatic and definitely able to keep the audience in suspense, she said. “At first I was shocked with his methods he could easily tell a woman that she looks ‘like a cow without makeup’ or something to that effect, but then I got used to it and saw that it works,” she explained.
“Why on earth would a woman conduct a women’s training,” says Mytrofanov. “Only a man can know what men need from women,” he says and claims Rakov’s clients don’t have any problems with that.
However, many ladies still prefer to open their innermost secrets to their gender sisters. The Anima festival and school in Kyiv was founded just for women in spring 2010 and immediately became a hit. “Up to 2,500 women and even men come to our festival each year, some even take the broader courses in Anima school then,” says Oksana Pavlychenko, the head of the festival’s organizing committee.
There are seven different courses from business trainings to relationships and sex school. “Of course, the last one remains the most popular,” Pavlychenko laughs.
She says the school was founded to help women find answers to all possible questions. However those answers can appear to be quite pricy at Hr 140 for a festival ticket and Hr 600 or more for a three-hour training at Anima school.
“We aim for middle and higher class women that are ready to pay for their self-improvement and think that the price is affordable for them,” Pavlychenko explains.
Business trainings are less crowded, but provide women multiple business start-up ideas or how to develop career opportunities.
However, even these trainings no longer encourage women to compete with men. They emphasize finding a harmonious balance between running a business and family.
“The difference between men and women in business is huge,” says Alla Yansens, a business trainer from Kyiv. “It’s not a crying need for a woman to earn money and support a family, but for a man it is,” she said and explained that she encourages her students to find harmony in their lives first.
She added that there is a big difference between a men’s and a women’s kind of business. “Women should unite with other women in help and support of men,” Yansens said. “Whether we want this or nor we should remember that our first duty is to inspire men.”
However some trainings have the opposite effect. “The main thing that changed for me after training – I quit my job and now it is my husband who supports the family,” says Rakov’s client Semakova.
Though Mytrofanov ensures they do not call for women to stop working. “We just say that a woman should devote as much of her energy to a man and a family as possible,” he says and explains “there are three main things that a woman should do for her man – first of all inspire him, remain faithful to him and have sex with him.”
Of course this is not all and a man should do a lot for his woman as well, but this is still the main formula.
“Actually we – men, don’t need much in this life, all this clothing and stuff. All we do we do for our women and just want to get a reaction,” Mytrofanov said.
Kyiv Post staff writer Daryna Shevchenko can be reached at [email protected].
