The Local’s article, an attempt to debunk a myth about a female-only city in northern Sweden published and spread throughout China, has given life to a new myth in the West that Chinese men are swamping Swedish tourism bodies to book their trips to Sweden in a spurt of bizarre sex tourism.
And if you’ve gotten a bright idea to try to capitalize on it, you’re slow out of the blocks. The .com, .se, .org, and .net domains for chakopaul are already snapped up. (Though as of this publishing the .co.uk and .eu were still available and if you throw in a hyphen only the .com has been spoken for –act quick!.) Heck, merchandise (a very cheesy t-shirt and cap) is already for sale for the low, low price of $29.95 plus shipping for this limited edition (that was hard to write with a straight face.)
I think The Local’s journalist, David Landes, said it best when interviewed on P3 radio about the Swedish mythical women-only city, Chako Paul,
“Anytime you’re talking about lesbians running around in the Swedish woods, it’s going to raise some eyebrows, true or not true…” Sveriges Radio P3, Oct. 18, 2009 -download the program here -it starts at minute 39 but most of it is in Swedish.
I wrote about this in Blond babes, bikes and Blatte when it first came out. No surprises here that the world goes gaga when you start talking about Swedish women especially when you tie in the tag lesbians.
Now we just need to come up with some Swedish-influenced souvenirs to sell. Wouldn’t that be a twist to find a DalaLesbian in China marked, “Made in Sweden.”
I was thinking of a sculpture where the woman is painted in the darlacarlian tradition, but this will have to do to spark your imagination
There is a factual basis for the Chako Paul phenomenon, Blatte.
In the early and middle part of the last century, there were women-only retreats in the central and north-central parts of Sweden that had as their goals self-improvement and social networking. There was a strong Isle of Lesbos cultural component to these retreats. Friskis & Svettis in togas and so forth.
I think that the only responsible thing for you to do at this point, as an investigative reporter, is to rent a mobile camper, and travel around the woods of Sweden investigating the girl-on-girl action. Make sure to keep us abreast of the situation.
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If there was, who would really care?
If some lesbians want to run around in woods, that is there business. It is autumn and will soon be winter. I hope they have warm clothing.
What idiot starts these rumours and who is so stupid that they believe them?
Lesbian cities, what next? Maybe a city of Anna Anka’s, although that would be a thing of nightmares.
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Really, ladies and friends, you don’t think we ladies have a place of our own. Why not? We have been doing it for centuries, and I know you have noticed. But you are in denial. Serious denial. Come visit. You’ll be welcome.
Chako Paul
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@Chako Paul. Well, lookie here, we have Chako Paul in person. I’m flattered that you’ve read the blog. Tell us more.
@Gustav. Maybe a road trip is in order.
@Andrea. Pretty much any straight man would care if it were true. Who is so stupid to believe? That’s an excellent question. Sadly (or happily if you’ve registered a chakapaul website with merchandise) quite a few fools.
BB
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Chako Paul, Send in your address, will sure come to visit you.
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