Janteloven

I was talking to a Norwegian friend, and she said that she hates it when people ask her what she does for a living. She is embarrassed to say that she isn't employed. (The vast majority of Norwegian households are dual income--housewives and stay at home moms are pretty rare here.) I was taken aback, because my friend does work. She rents a studio which she goes to every day and she paints. Her paintings are really beautiful! When I asked her why she doesn't just tell people who ask about her vocation that she is an artist, she said, "Oh, no, I couldn't, they would think that I think that I'm something!" Um, what? Aah, janteloven raises its ugly head. In the very flat, egalitarian Scandinavian society, individual acheivement and expression aren't necessarily admired. It's a difficult concept to explain, but a couple of the basic tenets are: "Don't think that you are special," and "Don't think that you are good at anything." You can read more about janteloven here:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jante_Law
Anyway, I expressed surprise that the simple statement, "I am an artist" would cause any ill will. My friend explained that because she hasn't gone to an accredited art school, people would scoff at her assertion of being an artist. Hmm, first of all, who asks an artist for their CV before deciding whether or not their art is any good? Second, when we were in Amsterdam, we visited the Van Gogh Museum. His work is incredible, and I don't think anyone out there would question his reputation as an artist, but he didn't go to art school, he was self taught. Third, the "if it looks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it's a duck" argument. If someone rents a studio, paints all day, and creates beautiful paintings that others are willing to buy, then isn't that person an artist? (I guess there is some flaw to that logic. A person who spends his days slicing people open is only a surgeon if he has completed medical school. Otherwise, he's just a sociopath with a knife! But I think art is a bit more subjective than medicine!)
I don't think that all Norwegians agree with janteloven, but unfortunately for my friend, many still do. Luckily, her husband isn't one of them. When she said that she couldn't tell people that she was an artist because they would think that she thought that she was something, her wonderful husband replied, "But you ARE something!"