Girls have always been used in advertising: Mucha's absinthe girl would be banned by the EUEva-Britt Svensson, a Swedish MP, and vice-chairman of the EU Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection, is trying to get the EU to ban advertisements that promote women as sex objects. Worryingly she has already got her report, which wants all gender sterotyping banned, adopted by the European parliament.
Given the huge numbers of advertisements for beauty products, fashion, drinks, cars and just about everything else that rely on scantily clad women this could impact hugely and negatively on our visual experience. Oddly many of the adverts that use these images are aimed at other women and they don't seem too bothered.
Keira would be bannedIn fact the use of these images in the UK is positively restrained compared to places like Italy and Spain where naked women advertise shower gel on daytime TV.
"Stereotyping in advertising is one of several factors that have a big influence on efforts to make society gender equal" says, the far from sex-symbol like, Svensson. In fact, if we were to be cruel we might suggest that Ms Svensson is a touch jealous of women who are sex symbols and cavort around in advertisements.
MEP Svennson. We suspect there is no man in her life. Unlikely to pull Lindsay Lohan even.The fact of the matter is that women are sex symbols to men, always have been and always will be (and men are to women, shock horror!). Furthermore there can't be gender equality because the genders aren't equal! Women have babies. Men don't. Women leave their jobs at crucial times to have babies which is why they don't do so well at the workplace, on the whole. But if they didn't there would be no more people. Except probably Ms Svensson would prefer all that nasty reproduction business was done in a nice clean (possibly Swedish) laboratory.
Good luck Svensson. Personally we would back Hollywood, perfume companies and the fashion world in winning out against you and your nonsensical ideas.
