Not Very Hygge

When looking to gain an insight into the way in which people live cross-culturally, we often find ourselves considering the different modes of media that shape a specific country. Television programmes and film target their audience in a way that is specific to the humour, interests and lifestyles of those who are watching. Yet interestingly, when looking at what it was the Scandinavian’s were watching on the box, I was shocked to see that the most popular television dramas and novels are settled well within the crime genre.            
After binge-watching an entire season of The Bridge (2011), I was beginning to struggle to understand that the Denmark that I had been watching was the same country that I had previously been reading about in my hygge books! The ideals that Meik Wiking instil in his book in the cosiness of a fire, a warm drink and spending time with family could not have been more distant from the dysfunctional families in the series and socially-inept main character, Saga Noren.            
This left me, like The Guardian’s Michael Booth, beginning to question the ‘Nordic region’ (Booth, Michael) as a vision of ‘utopia’ (Booth, Michael) for us to try and replicate in our own lives – in a bid for happiness? Booth suggests that whilst the Danes ‘claim to be the happiest people in the world… they are second only to Iceland when it comes to consuming anti-depressants’ (Booth, Michael). How is it possible for a country to sell their success of happiness through a global growing interest in hygge, to rely heavily on drugs to numb them of emotion to cope with their daily lives? It is clear that in the watching of cult television programmes I have uncovered a new understanding of the north that it is not commonly publicised – hygge is not a mentality that is as clear cut and accessible as it is initially portrayed. Happiness cannot be quantified to a nation; happiness relies heavily on individuality that is, arguably, not embraced in notions of hygge.  

Works Cited

“The Bridge – Season 1 Intro”. Online Video Clip. Youtube. SVT1, DR1. 21 Sep. 2011. Web. 21 Mar. 2017. 

Booth, Michael. “Dark lands: the grim truth behind the ‘Scandinavian miracle’” The Guardian. Guardian Media Group, 27 Jan. 2014. Web. 21 Mar. 2017.
Wiking, Meik. The Little Book of Hygge: The Danish Way To Live Well. 1^st ed. Penguin Life, 2016. Print.