Those Crafty Swedes!

by hilzoy

Some people are awfully easy to offend (h/t FP Passport):

"Two Danish academics, Klaus Kjöller of the University of Copenhagen and Tröls Mylenberg of the University of Southern Denmark, conducted a thorough analysis of the names used in the IKEA catalog. They concluded that the Swedish names are reserved for the "better" products, and that even Norwegian names manage to make it into the bed department. But the "lesser" products bear Danish names like "Roskilde" and "Köge."

"Doormats and runners, as well as inexpensive wall-to-wall carpeting are third-class, if not seventh-class, items when it comes to home furnishings," Kjöller is quoted as saying in Nyhedsavisen, a Danish free paper. The stuff that goes on the floor, Kjöller said, is about as low as it gets. He accused the home furnishings company of "Swedish imperialism."

With their interpretation, which cast a sinister light on the Swedish company, the two academics actually managed to launch a debate in Denmark. A significant number of Danes believe that Kjöller and Mylenberg were absolutely right to point out what they perceived as IKEA slights. One reader writes that despite the fact that no one has noticed, until now, the brazen insult to the Danish nation, it couldn't be anything but intentional for a gigantic, well-organized company like IKEA to have used Danish names for its doormats. After all, the reader continues, the company has full-time employees whose job is to find names for its products, and these employees analyze all new product names to search for potential negative effects on sales worldwide."

We Swedes are so clever: we practice "Swedish imperialism" and the conquered and occupied country doesn't even notice!

Open thread.

Comments

[femdem]

Huh. I wonder if they can come up with a name for Hillary....

[Batocchio]

Well, that's why the Norwegians handle the Nobel Peace Prize. You Swedes are too war-like. ;-)

[ithaqua]

Well, to be fair, if some American company gave its highest-quality products names like 'Molly', 'Amy' or 'Claire', while shoddy, low-quality products were called 'Ebony', 'Shanice', or 'Aaliyah', there would be a certain amount of justified complaining going on :P

(Source here)

[Mike Schilling]

In the US, we're self-haters. Danish pastry and German chocolate cake are delectable sweets, French onion soup and Italian sausage are full of flavor, but the stuff that tastes like earwax is called American cheese.

[joejoejoe]

My Mom makes something called American chop-suey which is basically elbow macaroni, ground beef, plus tomatoes, peppers and onions. God Bless America!

[joejoejoe]

The Danes are threatening to name a Carlsberg Light Beer after something Swedish because the Swedes hate light beer. I'm trying to figure out how a can of Budweiser expresses our attitude towards České Budĕjovice in the Czech Republic. Do we love the people of Budweis or equate them with watery piss?

[Bill]

I believe that deep down, somewhere in the recesses of their DNA, Swedish women enjoy the inference and would even like to see modern Swedish men stand up when they pee. Although they’d never admit it.

Thank God for ocean liners.

[felix culpa]

Now we know. Shakespeare was writing for the Swedes. Covered it up by making Fortinbras Norwegian. So the Swedes could keep their boots clean.
All part of the imperial plan.
Down n’ dirty Danes.

[Mike Schilling]

The ambrosia which is sold as "Budweiser" in the Czech Republic is to its American namesake as filet mignon is to cow pies.

[Jesurgislac]

IKEA is actually the instigator of same-sex marriage.

I had this inspiration when, a few years ago, I bought several bookcases from IKEA, with the help of a friend to get them out of the warehouse and home.

You cannot negotiate an IKEA warehouse without two people.

Most IKEA products are difficult to put together alone. (Time and again I kept encountering points where the bookcase designer had assumed you would be able to ask someone else to hold that or steady it there.)

IKEA assumes couple-dom. Wherever IKEA has gone, a movement for the right to same-sex marriage has sprung up. Scandinavia was the first set of countries to provide legal same-sex civil union and to recognise this internationally. Coincidence?!?! I think not.

[Limagolf]

It's not as if this has been much debated here in Denmark. I saw it bottom of page 10 of a newspaper a couple of weeks ago.

We will launch the planned invasion anyway...

/Limagolf

[Hartmut]

Well observed, Jes! But Germans have suspected a conspiracy long ago when IKEA named a bed for children in a way that (in German) sounds like "good f#ck" and a table that sounds like "lick f#ck" :-)

[novakant]

Tesco invades Denmark!

[crimelord]

Mike,
Why in the world did you ever taste earwax?

[Mike Schilling]

Why in the world did you ever taste earwax?

To get the taste of a "Kraft single" out of my mouth.

[femdem]

This is why I come here- the edifying conversation :-)

[nene]

Well, they have to be careful about offending the Norwegians because there are so many Swedish "guest workers" in wealthy Norway now.

[Chuchundra]

Mike, good American cheese comes from the deli counter, not from pre-packaged, individually-wrapped slices you find between the butter and the yogurt. Proper American has a texture similar to good Swiss and a bite somewhat like a moderate cheddar.

Really good American food is named after the locality it hails from, not the country as a whole. I'm thinking of delicacies like Buffalo Wings, Kansas City Ribs and New York or Chicago-style pizzas.

[von]

We Swedes are so clever: we practice "Swedish imperialism" and the conquered and occupied country doesn't even notice!

That's what makes you Swedish types so dangerous. You're like the Illuminati, but with safer cars.

My Mom makes something called American chop-suey which is basically elbow macaroni, ground beef, plus tomatoes, peppers and onions. God Bless America!

Educated guess: your mom is from New England.

[md 20/400]

Danes are outraged over this?! Yet they (OK, some) fiercely defend the Mohamed cartoons as being non-outrageous. I guess, as always, it all depends on whose oxen are gored.

[Free Lunch]

I agree, md, as someone of Danish and Swedish heritage that Danes should feel pleased that their siblings are merely calling them doormats and that they are being foolish to be thin skinned over trifles after being sensible about meaningful thing, but, when it comes to families, we all know that the nastiest quarrels can arise over the smallest problems. Now, we have to decide whether to ignore it or hit the wasps' nest extra hard.

[joejoejoe]

von - Born and raised in Queens, NY but she told me she started making the dish when she moved to Connecticut as a young mom in the 1950s.

[JP]

Alas, the story is not what it seems to be, as a bit of responsible journalism can uncover.

http://commentisfree.guardian.co.uk/jakob_illeborg/2008/03/danish_doormats.html

[von]

von - Born and raised in Queens, NY but she told me she started making the dish when she moved to Connecticut as a young mom in the 1950s.

Makes sense. I remember trying to explain "American Chop Suey" to folks in the midwest. They thought that I was insane.

[Harald K]

Since this is an open thread: Have you noticed the credit card abuse / campaing finance accusations a Clinton finance committe member has been making?

They're on a Blue Jersey journal.

What's interesting is that it's actually possibly to check the campaign contribution records, and yes, she appears to be telling the truth.

[Chilly]

This reminds me of a character in Lars von Trier's The Kingdom. There's a Swedish doctor working in the hospital in Copenhagen, who's constantly looking down his nose at the "Dansk scum" he has to work with, and who comforts himself by going up to the roof and looking at Sweden through a telescope. I'd never realized this was a cultural dynamic before that....

[Eric Martin]

That's what makes you Swedish types so dangerous. You're like the Illuminati, but with safer cars.

Good stuff Von.

And as a 1/4 Swede myself, I say: Be afraid. Be very afraid. And don't be fooled by the sizable crumple zones.

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