& now all this really big stuff has been sorted...
Today, my heart is uplifted & I am consumed with joy. Regular readers will know that this is in marked contrast to my normal jaundiced & cynical disposition. However over the weekend things have changed – events of global proportions that impact upon the world’s future have taken place. Yes, sometime over the last 48 hours, tectonic plates stopped moving, all third world poverty ceased, global financial institutions were miraculously recapitalised & little fluffy baby poplar bears stopped drowning. The planets are now all in alignment & the birds are all signing in the trees … but not too loudly mind you because they mustn’t incur the wrath of local council noise monitoring officers.
But Tweety Pie aside, now that the world has under gone the incredible metamorphosis while your humble correspondent was in the pub, our EU masters now have time to turn their attentions to fine tuning their EU-topia because all the big stuff has been sorted out. Consequently, they can now turn their attentions to these no less important issues…
MEPs want TV regulators in the EU to set guidelines which would see the end of anything deemed to portray women as sex objects or reinforce gender stereotypes. This could potentially mean an end to attractive women advertising perfume, housewives in the kitchen or men doing DIY.
Such classic adverts as the Diet Coke commercial featuring the bare-chested builder, or Wonderbra's "Hello Boys" featuring model Eva Herzigova would have been banned. The new rules come in a report by the EU's women's rights committee.
Swedish MEP Eva-Britt Svensson urged Britain and other members to use existing equality, sexism and discrimination laws to control advertising. She wants regulatory bodies set up to monitor ads and introduce a "zero-tolerance" policy against "sexist insults or degrading images".
Ms Svensson said: "Gender stereotyping in advertising straitjackets women, men, girls and boys by restricting individuals to predetermined and artificial roles that are often degrading, humiliating and dumbed down for both sexes."
Miz Svensson & wow, isnt she just an oil painting
while on the British taxpayers nickle, clearly has the sort of sense of perspective that will be essential to achieving a federal harmonised & fair Europe Union.
Of course given my way, Miz Svensson & all of her ilk would be beaten to death in the streets for talking such utter utter bollocks - however the Westminster Village knows better & seems only too ready to impliement the increasingly absurd imperial edicts that are issued from Brussels & Strasbourg, forgetting that not so long ago, a more sensible generation of stout bulldogs invented such things as the 12,000 lb blast bomb precisly for this very reason – to halt any further attempts a European intergration
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"not so long ago, a more sensible generation of stout bulldogs invented such things as the 12,000 lb blast bomb precisly for this very reason – to halt any further attempts a European intergration"
Fortunately the RAF still has one Lancaster to make a delivery to Brussels with.
Posted by: Walt | September 8, 2008 5:59 AM
No showing women as sex-objects? Whatever will happen to Der German Olympic Sex-Plonken TV? All that gymnastical and robotic huffing and puffing.
Posted by: DirtCrashr | September 8, 2008 7:18 PM
In the name of gender neutrality, I'm looking forward to adverts showing buff women stripped to the waist working on a construction site while yelling suggestive remarks to City gents passing by on their way to the tube station."Guinness is good for you!"
Posted by: Bomber Harris | September 10, 2008 4:50 PM
No hot-looking bare-chested, ripped six-pack abs
DIY guys doing Naked House makeovers?
*thud*
Posted by: Cricket | September 10, 2008 5:17 PM
Yeah, Cricket, but now WE can enjoy adverts featuring buff women construction workers stripped to the waist and glistening with honest perspiration whistling at the City gents passing their work site on the way to the tube station. "Guinness is good for you!"
Posted by: Bomber Harris | September 10, 2008 5:33 PM
Bwahahahaha! However, I see a Huge Flaw in your earnest desires for Gender Equality in the building trade: It would be sexist for the ladies to strip to the waist, unless you can get some feminazis to say it is truly liberating and not belittling of them.
'Twas ever the double standard.
Posted by: Cricket | September 12, 2008 12:53 AM