Governments are usually so boring, right? (At least on the surface.) America is such a bunch of liars. American political PR is all about paving over human weirdnesses with neutered, socially acceptable "types"—Family Mans, Soccer Moms, Joes-the-Plumber—when you know in secret these dudes are pooping in diapers (sexually) and writing fanfic about ABC Fam-Chan originals. Which is why I'm IN LOVE with the Swedish Tourism Board's new PR campaign, in which they let an unfiltered bonkers person take over their Twitter feed for a week. Her name is Sweden Sonja and SHE IS THE BEST.
Sonja Abrahamsson is a 27-year-old mother of two who, according to her bio, "grew up in a little itsy bitsy village called Latikberg...All people there are relatives and they all own tractors. In the autumn we had to pick up potatoes, in the winter we shoveled snow, in the spring we were confused and the summer forced us into growing thick skin and made us the bad motherf*ckers we are." (In the spring we were confused!!!!!) She normally blogs and Tweets in her native Swedish, but for @sweden she's addressing the world in English. Praise Odin.
I've only been paying attention to Sweden Sonja for like one hour and she already told the greatest story I have ever heard:
@sweden / Sonja @sweden
My son is having a kind of a puking-problem. If he sees a "yoghurt mouth" I almost need to call an exorcist on he's behalf.
@sweden / Sonja @sweden
When he and he's sister is eating breakfast we have to build a wall made of serial boxes between them. He shall not se the youghurtmouth
HE SHALL NOT SEE THE YOUGHURTMOUTH, YOU GUYS.
Sweden Sonja has had control of @Sweden since Sunday, and so far she's freaking people the fuck out. Mostly because nothing she says makes any sense ("Today we are having some kind of uterus for dinner. Not sure what kind of uterus. I ordered it from the internet"), but also because of this:
Sonja Abrahamsson's series of tweets on the subject Tuesday began: "Whats the fuzz with jews. You can't even see if a person is a jew, unless you see their penises, and even if you do, you can't be sure!?"
She went on to point out that the Nazis made Jews wear stars so they could tell who was a Jew, mentioned that she grew up in a place with no Jews and concluded: "Im sorry if some of you find the question offensive. Thats was not my purpose. I just don't get why some people hates jews so much."
Okay. Sooooo, I mean, awkward. Problematic. Not great. But at worst, Sweden Sonja sounds like a clueless, well-meaning bumpkin, and at best she's a cheery, state-sanctioned troll. Either way, I don't know how much outrage I can realistically muster. (Plus, I just can't stay mad at this: "Once I made a video of me, folding my breasts. It went very popular. But only because of the great ability. People got impressed. #sweden." SWEDEN, INDEED.)
It's just so refreshing to see an actual human being get to represent their country without all their nutty ideas and idiosyncrasies airbrushed right out. Because we are all weirdos. Kudos to Sweden for just not giving a fuck. Can you imagine some crazy lady Tweeting for @America about breast-feeding, let alone breast-folding? We can't even talk about uterine health without conservative panties bunching up—so forget about eating mail-order mystery uteruses.
And, as a stunt designed to draw attention to Sweden (it's the boiled potato of nations!), Sonja is hugely successful. According to CNN, "The account had about 44,000 followers as of Wednesday afternoon and was adding about 1,000 new followers an hour." Now it's over 55,000. There is zero chance that I would be blogging about Sweden today if it weren't for Sweden Sonja. So good work, Swedes, you beautiful blonde lunatics! Skål!