Controversy has erupted over next Tuesday's European Parliament resolution "on eliminating gender stereotypes in the EU", meant to mark international women's day, after libertarian Swedish MEPs from the Pirate Party spotted the call for a ban in the small print.
While not legally binding, the vote could be the first step towards European legislation as the EU's assembly increasingly flexes its political muscle within Europe's institutions.
The proposal "calls on the EU and its member states to take concrete action on discrimination against women in advertising... [with] a ban on all forms of pornography in the media".
Kartika Liotard, a Dutch left-wing feminist MEP, is seeking "statutory measures to prevent any form of pornography in the media and in advertising and for a ban on advertising for pornographic products and sex tourism", including measures in the "digital field".
The MEPs are also demanding the establishment of state sex censors with "a mandate to impose effective sanctions on companies and individuals promoting the sexualisation of girls".

Given the stuff I've seen on open public sale around mainland Europe, I think maybe the general population don't agree with this position. And in any case you can't ban porn any more than you can ban prostitution or alcohol or drugs. It's been tried, it doesn't work. If there is enough demand for something somebody will supply it and the law be damned.

Jon

"We're royally f***ing up the EU economy. We need a diversion. Find an Aunt Sally we can beat the sh!t out of!"

I don't read it as a proposal to ban all pornography, full stop.

Read the excerpt again.

As a woman of the female persuasion, I'd be only too happy to see a ban on semi-naked women being used to advertise stuff. If your product isn't able to sell itself on its own merits, why do you think it'll sell better if you drape a blonde over it?

Well it cuts both ways. No more diet coke ads with women drooling over a man or where they make the man look stupid, as they would also demean them.

I don't read it as a proposal to ban all pornography, full stop.

Read the excerpt again.

So we'll just be left with adverts using dancing ponys then?

It's a clumsy bit of political grandstanding, based around the ludicrously simplistic idea that all pornography is women being exploited by men.

As a woman of the female persuasion, I'd be only too happy to see a ban on semi-naked women being used to advertise stuff. If your product isn't able to sell itself on its own merits, why do you think it'll sell better if you drape a blonde over it?