Kultur 5 - Isaac - The importance of being German

In my opinion Germans do not have a monopoly on a lack of platitudes. I wonder if "the way Germans act" according to this author is more the result of life in a city rather than German demeanor. My recollections of walking through New York is internal voice screaming "GO" - no one says your sorry and almost every native of the city is movin' - in fact, after a day there I start to get annoyed by tourists Gawking at buildings. And I think its the same in Chicago, Phylidelphia, Orlando, LA. A similar argument can be made for the sex shops and big cities. If the article is accurate, however, I conciede that Germans may be more comfortable with the outright presence of these stores; but something in my gut tells me that little old German Woman are just as uncomfortable as American ones.
When I went to German that they had a coin operated toilette, as well a Klofrau - so its true. Klofrauen remind me a bit of the people who do this job at the county fair. Depressing.
AS for flirting, this just sounds like the old-fashioned way of doing things, the way us more chivalrous types still do. I said it before, sounds like Germany is the place for me.
As for the issue of gender equality, while it appears the Germans are in some ways more progressive than Americans with regard to women (ie. benefits and healthcare) in many ways they are fallen behind. The issue of unequal pay for equal work and salary variance seems to me a problem that has largely been handled in American. I am not naive enough to believe that these sorts of injustices don't still occur, but I do think that unions, woman's rights groups, government policy, and the presence of a gottcha media have kept these disparages to a minimum. I also don't fully agree with their policy on prostitution. If it is legal, then yes, guarantee these people rights and protection, BUT as long as it is legal than a dimension of society exists that objectify women and treats them as a commodity whose value as a human, intrinsically less socially, is variable to other people in her profession. This does not promote equality.