Boycotting Borshch!

“Don’t bother me, I’m settling into my role,” Tetiana said in answer to her husband Dmytro’s request to fix him a meal, and went back to reading her book.

This was the routine in the Lisevych family in the district center of Tulchyn, in Vinnytsia oblast, while the mistress of the house was prepping for a Ukrainian-style contest organized by local producer Mykola Dzhyha. Tetiana wanted to become the Genteel Lady of her little town, that is, to win the contest, and so she did, but she was the only one who believed in her victory. Everyone else, including her mother-in-law and especially her husband, looked forward to the day of the contest with fearful anticipation.

“I told her not to go onstage and bring shame upon my family,” Dmytro now recalls with a smile. One week before the contest he wouldn’t even speak to Tetiana. It’s easy to understand him. He’s a local, and all his kith and kin live in Tulchyn. Had his Tetiana lost, he would have been a laughing stock. Still, in his heart he hoped that his wife knew what she was doing. After all, he loved Tetiana for her purposefulness and perseverance. She knows what she wants and is marching confidently toward her goal. Dmytro met his wife when they were students, both of them studying to become veterinarians. Tetiana hails from Kaniv rayon, Cherkasy oblast. They have lived in Tulchyn for fifteen years, ever since they got married. Together they are raising a fourteen-year-old son named Valentyn. The head of the family runs his own business, while Tetiana chairs the educational department at the Tulchyn Veterinary Vocational School. She was named Teacher of the Year and drives her husband’s Toyota. At their cozy home you can feel Tetiana’s touch: she always achieves what she wants. However, on the final day before the contest Tetiana began to have doubts that she could win.

“Some of my rivals were employees of the culture department, teachers, and cultural workers, and I’m a vet, but we had to sing and act out a role,” Tetiana recalls.

Tetiana chose a serious role — Princess Olha. “I like her character,” she explained, adding, “She was a strong-willed woman.” This was the role that Tetiana was getting into while she was leafing through “Sviatoslav” and “Princess Olha” instead of cooking borshch. Playing the part of a famous Ukrainian woman was one of the tasks assigned to contestants by Mykola Dzhyha, the contest’s creator and producer, who teaches courses in directing at the local college of culture. The contestants acted out literary, comic, and historical personages of their choice. They competed at offering the best recipe for national dishes, which they cooked themselves, and went onstage with household items to sell in a mock auction. The jury members selected the Genteel Lady with the help of their fellow townsmen. Eleven Tulchyn residents went onstage to compete for the title of a Genteel Lady. Members of the audience claim that it was a sight to see. Not a single contestant left without titles, all of which were also essentially Ukrainian, such as Fair Lady, Sincere Lady, or Glorious Lady, with the grand title of Genteel Lady reserved for the best of all.

“Genteel means courtly, tactful, cultivated, discreet, tolerant, and moderate in everything: at work with colleagues and at home with the husband and children. This is what we were looking for in women and what we meant by this title,” said Mykola Dzhyha, explaining his concept and adding, “I tried to write the script in such a way as to help our women rise above household chores and elevate them to the level of a berehynia. That’s why I called the beauty pageant ‘Ukrainian Berehynia — Genteel Lady.’ We didn’t eliminate a single contestant. They were the first eleven women who decided to enter the contest after reading about it in the rayon newspaper.”

Mykola Dzhyha was certain that the contest would be popular in the rayon, but didn’t expect that it would be used as a model for next year’s contest that will be held at the oblast level. The producer of the new contest is one of his colleagues, who will refresh the script and develop a new approach or vision of Dzhyha’s idea. Dzhyha toyed with the idea for his contest for two years before he was able to organize it, not until Vasyl Podolian, a people’s deputy at the Vinnytsia oblast council, accidentally found out about the idea and decided to bankroll it. Mr. Podolian bought a television set for the winner. Other sponsors came on board, including the Family and Youth Department at the Tulchyn Rayon State Administration, whose representatives decided that they needed such a contest after all.

Tetiana Lisevych is certain that this contest is building the image of a real woman, a role model for girls. In the day-to-day rush we have neglected our femininity and motherhood, forgotten how important these things are for husbands and children, who need them and expect them of us, believes the Genteel Lady of Tulchyn.