The noble (and tough) sport of wife-carrying

She Ain't Heavy, She's My Wife
And I don't want her to get off my back!
BY WILLIAM R. MATTOX JR.

My kids want me to stay home tonight so that they can play Hop on Pop. But I'm hoping that my wife and I will somehow manage to hop on a plane to Finland instead.

Finland, you see, plays host to the 11th annual World Championship of Wife-Carrying, a bizarre sports festival held in a country that loves peculiar competitions. (The Finns also hold annual contests in mosquito-killing, sand-skiing, beer-barrel rolling, and "air guitar" playing.)

In the wife-carrying competition, men physically transport their spouses over a grueling 831-foot obstacle course that includes log hurdles, hairpin curves, changing terrain, and a four-foot-deep pool of cold water. Husbands can haul their brides any way they wish--piggyback, fireman's carry, over-the-transom style--but they are severely penalized if they drop their wives at any point.

After everyone has finished the course, the husband with the fastest time wins an array of prizes, including--get this--the equivalent of his wife's weight in beer!

Now, the World Championship of Wife-Carrying certainly confirms the old adage that real life is often stranger than fiction. But it also confirms my growing suspicion that frivolous play frequently deserves some fairly serious attention and contemplation.

For leisure pursuits--the games we play, the music we listen to, the films we watch--often reveal a great deal about what captures our imagination and brings us joy in life. About what enlivens the true spirit of our "authentic self."

The folks who work in Hollywood's dream factories understand this. So too do the philosophers, playwrights and poets who have long maintained that our modes of music and dance often bring into public view the barbarous condition of our souls.

What, then, are we to make of the World Championship of Wife-Carrying? Why exactly do thousands of people traipse to a remote village in Finland to participate in this bizarre festival every year?

The short answer, of course, is that these people enjoy taking part in a lighthearted competition inspired by a centuries-old Finnish legend about Ronkainen the Robber (who required potential accomplices to complete an obstacle course carrying heavy sacks on their backs).

But I think there may be more to this than just a bunch of oafs trying to get in touch with their Inner Caveman by competing to win their wife's weight in beer.

Indeed, I find it curious that a He-Man event of this kind is held every year in the most androgynous region of the world. And I find it even more curious that the Finns--who determinedly promote gender equality in all of their "official" decrees--just as determinedly promote gender-specific roles in the World Championship of Wife-Carrying.

In fact, several years ago, four couples were disqualified for violating the rules that pointedly prohibit wives from carrying husbands. And one of the event's vocal defenders, a feminist Finn leader named Pirjo Ala-Kapee, says she considers the event "uplifting" and "authentic" rather than demeaning to women.

Still, it is important to note that the World Championship of Wife-Carrying doesn't fit very neatly into the Western world's official framework for gender relations.

Over the past half-century, our official gender debate has often forced people to choose between gender equality and gender-specific roles. You could be against misogyny. Or against androgyny. But you couldn't be against both. At least not in the official debate.

But in our private lives--especially in those leisure pursuits that often (unconsciously) reveal our deepest hopes and aspirations--I get the impression that most couples somewhat paradoxically want both gender equality and gender-specific roles.

Perhaps this is why a high-powered lawyer friend of mine insists that her husband do the often-grimy "blue" jobs around the house (like grilling burgers on the Fourth of July) while she opts for the traditional "pink" household chores. Or why a recent University of Virginia study of more than 5,000 couples found that the happiest wives are those whose husbands earn at least two-thirds of the household income.

"Women today expect more help around the home and more emotional engagement from their husbands," observes W. Bradford Wilcox, one of the study's authors. "But they still want their husbands to be providers who give them financial security and freedom."

In fact, curiously, this preference for husbands to carry the primary responsibility for providing household income could be found even among the most feminist-minded wives, according to the University of Virginia study.

Now, I realize that it is foolish to treat a wife-carrying competition with a great deal of seriousness. And I recognize that over-analyzing frivolous diversion can potentially threaten the carefree spirit that makes leisure play so enjoyable in the first place.

Nevertheless, I think the couples who annually gather in officially androgynous Finland for the World Championship of Wife-Carrying may be unintentionally making an important statement.

They may be expressing--in an admittedly peculiar manner--that they want to live in a world where husbands and wives are equals, but their roles aren't completely interchangeable.

(Mr. Mattox is a member of USA Today's Board of Contributors)