December 04, 2007
Supreme Court allows women to serve drinks in Delhi
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Women will be allowed to work as bartenders in New Delhi, India's Supreme Court ruled on Thursday, upholding a lower court's decision that an earlier ban was unconstitutional, local TV channels reported.
City authorities had wanted the ban reinstated, arguing that women needed to be protected from the bad behavior of drunken Delhi men.
The Delhi High Court had scrapped the ban in 2006, saying it went against the constitution's principles of equality, the reports said.
Women enjoy equal rights in most professions in India, although women's groups complain of gender discrimination.
The Indian capital is considered unsafe for women and has the highest rate of crime against women in the country. The city is also notorious for drunken brawls and road accidents involving drivers under the influence.
Posted by ronnie at 12:54 PM | Comments (0)
November 15, 2007
Santas warned 'ho ho ho' offensive to women
SYDNEY (AFP) - Santas in Australia's largest city have been told not to use Father Christmas's traditional "ho ho ho" greeting because it may be offensive to women, it was reported Thursday.
Sydney's Santa Clauses have instead been instructed to say "ha ha ha" instead, the Daily Telegraph reported.
One disgruntled Santa told the newspaper a recruitment firm warned him not to use "ho ho ho" because it could frighten children and was too close to "ho", a US slang term for prostitute.
"Gimme a break," said Julie Gale, who runs the campaign against sexualising children called Kids Free 2B Kids.
"We are talking about little kids who do not understand that "ho, ho, ho" has any other connotation and nor should they," she told the Telegraph.
"Leave Santa alone."
A local spokesman for the US-based Westaff recruitment firm said it was "misleading" to say the company had banned Santa's traditional greeting and it was being left up to the discretion of the individual Santa himself.
Posted by ronnie at 07:30 AM | Comments (0)
November 09, 2007
"Ugly" Chavez among Venezuela's sexiest men: poll
CARACAS (Reuters) - Hugo Chavez calls himself ugly and his looks earned him the nickname "Goofy" in the military, but the president's image is changing -- he is now considered one of Venezuela's sexiest men.
A poll said on Thursday the fifth-most desired man is Chavez, whose large nose, protruding lips, forehead mole and gap in his front teeth are easy fodder for caricature artists in a South American nation obsessed with beauty,
The poll was commissioned by Fedecamaras, Venezuela's principal business group that was for years openly hostile to Chavez and even helped install one of its leaders as de facto president during a brief 2002 coup against him.
The poll data came from a broader survey of consumer habits and preferences conducted by Venezuelan research group Keystone that consulted 14,123 people in 3,170 homes and included interviews with businesses and telephone surveys.
Chavez, leader of a self-described socialist revolution, is wildly popular among the nation's majority poor. He is also well known for his sometimes vulgar innuendo and flirtation with female supporters -- on live television.
Venezuelans are highly conscious of their appearance, with nips-and-tucks and breast implants common in a nation of beach goers where the annual beauty pageant traditionally draws more viewers than any other TV event.
Those that beat out Chavez for top stud included entertainer Winston Vallenilla of an opposition TV station that the leftist leader shut down earlier this year.
Posted by ronnie at 05:00 PM | Comments (0)
October 31, 2007
Women-only subway cars in 2008
SEOUL (Reuters) - The subway corporations serving South Korea's capital will introduce women-only cars next year to make rides more comfortable and free of groping male hands, a subway official said on Wednesday.
"Sexual crimes happen frequently when the cars are packed and people are pressed against each other," the subway official said.
Nearly half the crimes reported on the city's eight subway lines are sexual in nature, with many taking place on two lines that serve university and office districts, lawmaker Lee Jai-chang said in parliament on Monday.
The Seoul subway network moves 6.1 million people a day and, as in Tokyo, uniformed attendants are on hand at rush hour pushing passengers into packed carriages.
Several Tokyo train lines have tried women-only carriages to prevent groping.
Posted by ronnie at 01:21 PM | Comments (0)
September 30, 2007
China bans "sexual sounds" on airwaves
BEIJING (Reuters) - China has banned "sexually provocative sounds" on television and pulled the plug on a show reconstructing infamous crimes by women ahead of a major Communist Party meeting next month.
The order, issued by the State Administration of Radio, Film and Television, is the latest in a raft of measures which have included axing reality shows featuring sex changes and plastic surgery and banning talent contests during prime-time.
"Sexually suggestive advertisements and scenes showing how women are influenced into a life of crime are detrimental to society," it said in a statement posted on its Web site on Wednesday, referring to its decision to axe "Red Question Mark," a crime documentary.
"Commercials containing sexually provocative sounds or tantalizing language as well as vulgar advertisements for breast enhancement and female underwear are banned, effective immediately," said the SARFT notice.
The watchdog also ordered an end to programs with titles including the names of "sex-related drugs, products or medical institutions."
A total of 1,466 advertisements worth 2 billion yuan ($246 million) in revenues had been stripped from China's airways since August, SARFT said, citing department statistics.
Since launching a campaign to purify China's state-controlled airways earlier in the year, the media watchdog's edicts have gained fever pitch in recent weeks, ahead of a meeting of the 17th Party congress, a sensitive five-yearly meeting at which key government leaders are appointed and national policy set for the next few years.
It earlier urged the country's increasingly freewheeling broadcasters to forgo vulgarity and bad taste in the pursuit of ratings in favor of providing "inspiring" content for the masses imbued with "socialist" values.
Posted by ronnie at 05:58 AM | Comments (0)
July 20, 2007
Country urged to rein in vulgar, sexist TV ads
BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese television channels should ban sexist and sexually suggestive adverts during the summer vacation to protect children, state broadcaster CCTV said Monday, citing experts and parents.
Explicit commercials that promote breast enlargements, women's corsets and cosmetics and unproven medical treatments are common on local stations.
"Advertisements that contain sexual hints or flirtatious language are easily seen on some local television channels," CCTV said on its Web site (www.cctv.com.cn).
In one breast enlargement commercial, a woman with small breasts walks by while a man is heard saying "too small to be good." Another woman with bigger breasts shows up and the man shouts "bigger is better!."
"These kinds of adverts reflect discrimination and disrespect for women ... which could mislead teenagers," youth expert Zong Chunshan was quoted as saying.
Many parents would rather send their children to summer camp or sports training during the summer holiday than let them stay at home and watch television, CCTV said.
"My daughter told me that she would not eat cakes anymore, because if so she would not have a good body and boys would not like her," a parent was quoted as saying.
China has been trying to clean up commercials on its plethora of local -- albeit state-run -- television stations, especially those advertising miracle cures or ways to attract the opposite sex.
Posted by ronnie at 12:28 PM | Comments (0)
May 22, 2007
Airline cuts ad after sexism complaint
MADRID (Reuters) - Spanish airline Iberia has cut an advertisement showing black Cuban women in bikinis bottle feeding a baby tourist as he sings "feed me mulattas ... come on little mamas, take me to my cot" after complaints it was sexist.
A consumer rights group demanded Iberia, Spain's national flag carrier, pull the ad for online sales as it was offensive to Cuban women and could encourage sex tourism.
The animated cartoon shows young Cuban women driving the baby to the beach, dancing for him and massaging him after he is transported to the Caribbean island via the Iberia Web site.
Spain's Facua consumer rights group said the ad showed Cuban women at the service of tourists 24 hours a day.
"It's sexist, Cubans could find it offensive," said Ruben Sanchez, a spokesman for the Facua consumer rights group.
Foreign tourists have long traveled to Cuba to buy sex and companionship in exchange for hard currency and gifts.
Iberia said it had not meant to offend anyone with the advertisement and removed it on May 16 after the complaint.
"It was completely trivial," said a spokeswoman of the ad.
Posted by ronnie at 02:14 PM | Comments (0)