Last night I went to a sittning with my choir and the others that sang with us for Lucia. Although Sweden is a very politically and socially liberal country, I think it is very interesting that so many events here at the university are very heteronormative. Despite how pretentious and tired with overuse this term was back at my very-politically-correct university in the US, it strikes me that for more formal occasions here in Sweden (eg. sittnings, balls, etc.), the woman always wear feminine dresses and the guys always look very gentlemanly in their suits. In the sittning last night the girls were given bits of lyrics from a song and had to search for their male partner who had the artist’s name and then were seated next to them the whole night. Is it to help the shy Swedes to meet new people? to meet a future spouse?? I don’t know whether anyone else thinks about it, but I think all of the heternormative activities are strange…
