Susan's Place Transgender Resources

Lesbian love ad banned by Swedish newspapers
Ice News
06 February, 2010


http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/02/06/lesbian-love-ad-banned-by-swedish-newspapers/ (http://www.icenews.is/index.php/2010/02/06/lesbian-love-ad-banned-by-swedish-newspapers/)


Two Swedish newspapers have deemed that an advertisement which features a trio of half-naked women is inappropriate for publication, much to the surprise of the ad's creators at a sexual health organisation.

"We are really surprised because we don't think it's controversial," claimed Mikael Andersson who represents the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights at its Skane base.

it's Sweden.. what do you expect?

Maybe it is controversial. I personally do not like sexuality shoved in people's faces. The key phrase that caught my attention was "half-naked women." Why can't an ad discussing serious sexuality topics focus on the topics without having to put soft porn in it? In the U.S., it is common to see half-naked women in every type of advertisement imaginable. Suppose in the future, it is now half-naked transwomen or half-naked gay men. Is that the kind of equality we want? Personally I'd like to see it all gone. A newspaper is a form of print media where people generally read to learn something about current issues. I don't understand why many pictures are needed in the first place since most of the material is gathered through reading.

I think sometimes we as GLBT people focus on the wrong type of equality. I want lesbians, TGs, etc. to be seen as equal on the basis of merits not on the same superficial cultural destructive crap already seen everywhere. They can show well-dressed (and attractive) GLBT people in relevant ads and discuss those topics in an intelligent manner. I want to see ourselves as equal in the sense of positions held in society whether as elected officials, celebrities, respected workers and managers, etc. This is more important equality to me than making sure we are equally represented in the porn industry and equally made sex objects in ads.

I honestly don't see what's so wrong with nudity. The human body is a beautiful and natural thing. We shouldn't be teaching people that their body is something to be ashamed of anyway so why teach 'em to hide it?

Why Sweden? I always thought they had rather ... shall we say ... progressive attitudes toward sexuality. Am I mistaken? I've only been there briefly, but they seemed rather like the rest of Europe.

Not a chance this would fly in America. It wouldn't even be controversial that it was nixed.

In Sweden, you can be whatever sexuality/gender you want, as long as it's not flaunted, put on display, or really even visible.
Cause being "visibly" gay is "impolite".

At least, that's the impression I got from living there for 4 years.

I think the body is a beautiful thing as well and I don't think people should be ashamed of it. What I am getting at is what I call "in your face" advertisement. I don't think it is necessary to constantly portray sexualized people in virtually every advertisement possible. Now maybe in this case, the images were more relevant to the content than similar pictures to sell aspirin. Overall, I still think this is unhealthy. When people are seeing half-nude and sexualized images of people literally everywhere it contributes to a dumbing down of a culture. The more extreme the images are that accompany anything when not really relevant or required, the harder it is for me to take them seriously. Suppose Susans.org decided to have as a background image MTF transsexuals wearing Victoria's Secret bras and panties in the background posing like they are ready to have sex? It may be catchy but the credibility of the place would instantly go to zero. It's getting to the point where you can't read an article about science without a woman in her underwear appearing in the backround.

The human body is beautiful. I support nude art and sexuality with taste and quality. There is a difference between portraying nudity and sexuality in a high-quality artistic and meaningful manner and shoving sexualized images at warp speed in every direction. The former is culture, the latter is cultural pollution.

One mans trash is anouthers treasure.
I so nothing inherently wrong with blatant and in your face sexuality. ONLY humans get hung up over sex. There is literaly nothing to get upset over. We all have bodies and many people like to see other bodies. Sex sells and there is NOT ONE THING wrong with that. Morals surounding sex and sexuality are artificial and serve no purpose other than to alienate.
When someone indicates moral displeasure at something they are trying to artificialy impose a value system on all of us so that they can claim moral supieriority.

If humans weren't so hung up about sex, it wouldn't be portrayed everywhere in the first place. The fact that it is shoved at people in every direction is proof of society's obsession with it. I have nothing against sex, sexuality, or nudity. The number of sex partners I've had (which I will not go into) pretty much proves I'm not against sexuality.

I don't have an issue with sex, sexuality, or nudity. My issue is with the way these topics are generally portrayed as well as the volume of the portrayal. I feel the same way about food and money. Food and money are normal topics just like sex but like sex they are also topics that society is obsessed with. You hear about these things constantly like sex. Moderation is the key in all things. I think nude art, sex, and sexuality portrayed in a high quality fashion is very nice. I think discussing the topics in an intelligent manner is very good. I think if people want to look sexy that is fine. If people want to even engage in the sex trade, I think it should be legal. I just see a difference between openness and obsession. When the amount of images of sexed-up people far outweights the amount of images of average-looking people, something is wrong. To think this has no effect on a culture is ridiculous. It contributes to a dumbing down of society and trivializes the human being. I love sex and I love seeing attractive people but there is far more to a human being than just that.

This also applies very closely to transgendered people. I assume most of us want to be seen as normal healthy human beings who have jobs, businesses, religions, political beliefs, and morals just like any other member of society. Most of us don't want to be seen by the public as nothing more than sex objects to sell something.