Re: The World Goes Sodom
In Europe, creating a post-gender world one small rule at a time
By Anthony Faiola June 12
Is it my imagination or is this what countries tend to do as they become more communistic? Of course, it is more than that as we head toward Sodom and Gomorrah?
In Europe, creating a post-gender world one small rule at a time
By Anthony Faiola June 12
BERLIN — Caitlyn Jenner may have given Americans a crash course in transgender acceptance. But progressive pockets of Europe are moving toward an even higher plane — embracing what advocates describe as a post-gender world that critics say is leaving no room for women to be women and men to be men.
In Berlin, for instance, fresh rules for billboard ads in a district of the liberal German capital read like a new constitution for a land without gender identity. Girls in pink “with dolls” are basically out, as are boys in blue playing “with technical toys.” In ads showing both adult women and men, females cannot be depicted as “hysterical,” “stupid” or “naive” alongside men presented as “technically skilled,” “strong” or “business savvy.”
Adult women — featured alone or otherwise — must not be shown “occupied in the household with pleasure.” And in one stipulation pounced upon by critics, the equal-opportunity board of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg — home to Checkpoint Charlie and remnants of the Berlin Wall — no longer wants to see images of women “smiling for no reason.”
In Berlin, for instance, fresh rules for billboard ads in a district of the liberal German capital read like a new constitution for a land without gender identity. Girls in pink “with dolls” are basically out, as are boys in blue playing “with technical toys.” In ads showing both adult women and men, females cannot be depicted as “hysterical,” “stupid” or “naive” alongside men presented as “technically skilled,” “strong” or “business savvy.”
Adult women — featured alone or otherwise — must not be shown “occupied in the household with pleasure.” And in one stipulation pounced upon by critics, the equal-opportunity board of Friedrichshain-Kreuzberg — home to Checkpoint Charlie and remnants of the Berlin Wall — no longer wants to see images of women “smiling for no reason.”
Sweden this year added the gender-neutral pronoun “hen” to official dictionaries. The word caught on several years ago when Egalia, a preschool in Stockholm, began using it as a substitute for “boys” or “girls” to avoid referencing gender roles in children.
Some changes take more getting used to than others. Over the past two years, at least six unisex toilets — most with multiple stalls and some fitted with urinals — have opened in Berlin city administration buildings and theaters. The city is now conducting reviews of public buildings with the aim of establishing dozens more such bathrooms in coming years.
The hope is to create even more spaces where men, women and anyone else can heed the call of nature side by side, doing away with prudish notions of sexual differences.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...entrandom_1_na
The hope is to create even more spaces where men, women and anyone else can heed the call of nature side by side, doing away with prudish notions of sexual differences.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/world/...entrandom_1_na
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