French women don't get fat, Japanese women don't get old or fat and Dutch women don't get depressed

[JODO 2]

Why Dutch women don't get depressed

By Caroline Brothers

Wednesday, June 6, 2007

AMSTERDAM:

French women, says a recent bestseller, don't get fat. Japanese women, says another, don't get old or fat. But their sisters in the Netherlands may have one up on both of them.

That is because Dutch women, according to a book just released in the Netherlands, don't get depressed.

After scores of interviews with historians, psychologists, fashion designers, image-profilers, personal shoppers, magazine editors and ordinary Dutch women, Ellen de Bruin, a Dutch psychologist and journalist, throws down the gauntlet. In a title billed as the Dutch woman's answer to the French and Japanese, she argues that women in the Netherlands are a whole lot happier than their counterparts in most parts of the world.

"It has to do with personal freedom," said de Bruin, whose work, sure enough, is titled "Dutch Women Don't Get Depressed." "Personal choice is key: in the Netherlands people are free to choose their life partners, their religion, their sexuality, we are free to use soft drugs here, we can pretty much say anything we like. The Netherlands is a very free country."

While the book clearly parodies its French and Japanese rivals, it is underpinned by serious research. And its author does seem to have a point. While Dutch women do sometimes get depressed, just as French women do sometimes get fat, the Dutch as a nation emerge close to the top of the world happiness rankings established by Ruut Veenhoven, professor of social conditions for human happiness at Erasmus University in Rotterdam. On a scale of 1 to 10, where 10 signals greatest life satisfaction, the Dutch score 7.5 - beating 6.5 for the French and 6.2 for the Japanese. They also defeat Americans with 6.4, the British with 7.1, and the Italians and Spanish who each total 6.9.

Part of the reason lies in the social organization of the Netherlands, which offers women greater control over their lives than that of France or Japan.

"Japan is a very collectivistic culture with very little personal freedom when it comes to the choice of a job, a partner, a religion, the major things in life," de Bruin said in an interview. A high degree of centralization, meanwhile, seems to reduce life satisfaction in France. "We have a built-in distrust of central governments and a very high need for, and rates of, personal freedom in every aspect of our lives."

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/06/06/news/happy.php

Edited June 17, 2007 by JODO

[Hilarious Clinton 452]

The dutch got it going on.....

[Ta Ta 1]

mmmhh do I rather be fat, old or depressed ?

[Lance27 20]

Ahh the Dutch

[pedroh 21]

the dutch are wise... must be in the fritjes met fritesaus and the beer..

[jundp 191]

the dutch are wise... must be in the fritjes met fritesaus and the beer..

Mmmmmm.....fritjes.

My one and only dutch friend is very happy.

[ChristinaM 0]

I think there's a lot to be said for personal image in ones happiness, and perhaps that Dutch simply have a more accepting culture of each other. You can be gay or straight, have brown hair or blue, be fat or skinny, and dress however you choose - and you're still OK kinda thing.

Or maybe it's the prolific use of soft drugs

[~PalmTreeGurl~ 154]

im moving to japan i dont want to be old or fat

[pedroh 21]

I think there's a lot to be said for personal image in ones happiness, and perhaps that Dutch simply have a more accepting culture of each other. You can be gay or straight, have brown hair or blue, be fat or skinny, and dress however you choose - and you're still OK kinda thing.

Or maybe it's the prolific use of soft drugs

or not wear clothes at all.. u see a lot of naked rollerskaters in amsterdam..

when I was there, the dutch didn't use drugs as much as the tourists...

it must be the chocomel too, or the campina

Edited June 17, 2007 by pedroh