MADS CLAUS RASMUSSEN/Ritzau Scanpix/AFP via Getty Sanna Marin
A new dance craze is sweeping through Finland. Movements vary but the message is clear: people are cutting a rug to show their support for the Prime Minister of Finland Sanna Marin.
Marin, who became her country’s youngest leader when elected in 2019, defended herself against backlash earlier this month after videos released by a tabloid showed her dance and party with friends.
“I spent the evening with friends. I partied, pretty wild, yes. I danced and sang,” said Marin, 36, according to Sky Newswhich quoted the Finnish broadcaster YLE.
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Some critics said Marin’s behavior was inappropriate or unprofessional. Others said she should take a drug test, even though there is no clear evidence in the videos of illicit substances present at the party. (Marin denied using drugs other than alcohol and offered to take a drug test. The BBC reports she did and succeeded.)
Today, most female supporters – and not just in Finland – are turning up the music and going wild in front of the cameras so they can post photos and videos of their dance moves on social media using the hashtag #SolidarityWithSanna.
Check out some videos at ICT Tacon Twitter and on instagram.
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“It seems that some people even today find it difficult to understand the fact that one can be both a young woman… and a competent politician,” said Rikke Dal Stottrup, who works for the popular magazine Danish feminine. Alt for DamerneTold The Washington Post.
Stottrup and his team dug up their own dance videos on their phones and posted them on the official magazine account.
“We wanted to highlight the fact that you can be a great prime minister, CEO, editor, nurse – insert job title – and hit the dance floor on the weekends too,” Stottrup said. “If we want to have more diversity…we have to broaden our view of what a politician can look like. We have to accept the whole package and not just what we have historically been used to.”
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Forbes explored what could be a double standard at play in the reaction to Marin’s dance videos, citing studies that have shown women can be judged more harshly than men when it comes to behaviors like drinking alcohol and showing off your body in revealing clothes or, perhaps in Marin’s case, dancing.
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“A candidate for student senate president at a US university wearing revealing clothing was perceived by 191 students as less honest and trustworthy, eligible and competent than someone wearing conservative clothing,” the authors said. a study cited by Forbes, who notes that dancing likely elicits a similar response. “Revealing the clothes led participants to look at sexualized body parts, which, in turn, led to the candidate being perceived as less honest and trustworthy, which lowered ratings of her competence and ability. eligibility.”
Since videos of Marin dancing at a party emerged, the Prime Minister has insisted she has nothing ‘to hide or hide’ and says she will behave as she has always done since she became the political leader of her country and in a way that is not unusual for people of her age.
“Hopefully in 2022,” she said, according The Guardian“it is admitted that even the decision-makers dance, sing and go to parties.”
