World Nutter News

Swedish protestors smashed windows of the fashion store, American Apparel.

The protests were sparked by a blog post pointing out that American Apparel model male clothes using very staid poses, but use sexy pictures for women's wear.

The Local, a Swedish news site in English, spoke to blogger Emelie Eriksson about a post she wrote comparing the marketing for American Apparel's unisex items. When a male model is used, the garment is styled innocently, she argues, while the female models in the very same piece are made to look like they've just had sex. She said:

I think it's totally sickening how American Apparel markets its clothes. It shows they have a very degrading view toward women and I'm surprised they've been able to do this without facing any strong criticism.

American Apparel said:

As a company, American Apparel is very sensitive to gender and sexual issues, just as we have been to issues like immigration and gay marriage. In this case, the actual product model photo for this unisex item is fully clothed for women, just as it is for men. Unfortunately, some bloggers have confused an artistic photoshoot which accompany the pages with a product shot and a controversy erupted as a result.

Update: Ifs and Butts

18th May 2013. See article from thelocal.se

The man who founded a Swedish online fashion retailer has posed part-naked to help market the firm's clothes in protest at US retailer American Apparel using sexy images of partly-naked women to sell its wares.

Michaela Forni, a Swedish fashion blogger who manages the product range for online retailer byPM.se, told The Local:

We thought it was sick that American Apparel time and again gets away with such sexist advertising,

We wanted to do the exact same thing they did, but with the opposite gender. On our site, it's the man who has his bare ass in the air and is seen in a sexually seductive pose.

People say, 'Ew, you can't have those images.' But when women are portrayed similarly, no one reacts.

The man featured in the byPM.se images is the company's founder and part owner, Petter Lindqvist.

A FEMEN sekstremist has burned a Barbie-idol at the opening of Barbie Dream House in Berlin. Femen explain in somewhat clumsy English:

Ritual Barbiecue with fried meat of the plastic idol was made to demonstrate the true meaning of the history of commercial monster Mattel. They have turned a piece of plastic into a god for millions of girls from all over the world who now seek only to imitate plastic shapes and stupidity and absurdity of conduct.

The nazi ideology of Mattel purposefully creates the image of a female doll, dictating not only the appearance of new generations, and that the worst social role of reckless beauty finding a reason to exist in the continuous care of their appearance and the house.

FEMEN urges mercilessly burning of idols! A woman is not a Barbie! A woman is a revolution!

The Barbie Dreamhouse Experience allows paying visitors to try on Barbie's clothes, play in her kitchen and have a go on her pink piano. The exhibition will be open until August 25. (Voltairestraße 2a / Dircksenstraße, train and underground stations Alexanderplatz and Jannowitzbrücke)

The head of Saudi Arabia's religious police has warned citizens against using Twitter, which is rising in popularity among Saudis.

Sheikh Abdul Latif Abdul Aziz al-Sheikh made up a few nonsense claims and pronounced that anyone using social media sites - and especially Twitter - has lost this world and his afterlife .

The sheikh's comments echo those of the imam of the Grand Mosque in Mecca in April who used his sermon - seen by millions on TV - to warn that Twitter was a threat to national unity, a BBC correspondent said.

Earlier, Saudi Arabia's grand mufti, the kingdom's most senior Muslim cleric, had unimaginatively dismissed Twitter users as fools .

Saudi authorities have mooted moves that could inhibit Twitter users by linking their online accounts to their Saudi ID numbers.

A charities board says it made a decision to remove Family First New Zealand from the national Charities Register because it no longer meets the requirements of a charity.

It seems that the issue is the campaigners' obsessive rant against anything to do with gay marriage. The general manager of Charities Services, Brendon Ward said that at a recent meeting of the board:

The members determined that Family First's purpose did not meet the charitable purpose recognised in New Zealand law and set out in the Charities Act 2005.

The Board's position is that Family First's main purpose is to promote particular points of view about family life. Under the Act promotion of a controversial point of view is a political purpose.

Family First does not advance religion or education, nor promote a benefit to all New Zealanders as determined by the Act.

Family First maintains that it is beneficial to the public that it promotes debate and discussion of different points of view on family life. However, the current legal position is that promoting debate on particular points of view is not a charitable purpose.

Family First now has 20 working days to appeal the board's decision to the High Court.

A modern production of Richard Wagner's opera Tannhauser is causing a stir in Germany because of Nazi-themed scenes showing people dying in gas chambers and members of a family having their heads shaved before being executed.

The opera had performers inside glass chambers, falling to the floor as white fog billowed. After a half hour, the music stopped and a family stepped on stage. The parents and their children were having their hair shaved off and then they are shot dead.

Monika Doll, a spokeswoman for the Dusseldorf opera house said that members of the audience booed and were shocked by the opening performance. She said Deutsche Oper am Rhein is debating whether to censor the provocative parts, added to the original by producer Burkhard Kosminski.

Michael Szentei-Heise of the city's Jewish community told The Associated Press that the adaptation at the city's Deutsche Oper am Rhein was tasteless and not legitimate.

The director, Christoph Meyer, said: This is not about mocking the victims, but mourning them.

The original Tannhauser opera is set in the Middle Ages.

Update: Censored

10th May 2013. See article from guardian.co.uk

The production, by director Burkhard Kosminski has now been unceremoniously pulled, with the theatre admitting it had been too much of a psychological and physical strain for many opera goers. For artistic reasons , Kosminski steadfastly refused to change the most offensive scenes after an initial barrage of complaints following the opening night on Saturday.

Afgahanistan's President Hamid Karzai has ordered further censorship of supposedly un-Islamic and obscene televisions shows in response to lobbying by the country's religious council.

Karzai told the culture ministry to block programs which are vulgar, un-Islamic, obscene and violate social morality, and Islamic morality , according to a statement from his Council of Ministers.

It said the move follows a request from the religious council to ban televised drama seen as promoting vice and prostitution.

There doesn't seem to be any details of the type of programmes which might be banned as a result of the order.

A giant pink Barbie Dreamhouse is under construction near Berlin's Alexanderplatz, where you'll be able to cook cupcakes in the kitchen and explore the endless Barbie dream closet .

Christopher Rahofer, the man behind the enterprise, says the tourist attraction is just about having fun.

But Franziska Sedlak, a member of the youth wing of the German Left Party thinks otherwise and claims: The Barbie Dreamhouse is a symptom of women's oppression .

The Campaign against the Dreamhouse particularly whinges about the problems with Barbie as an impossible physical ideal for young girls. Sedlak spouts:

Barbie produces a completely unnatural beauty image. The figure would break in the middle if she were a real woman... Why do women learn that they have to be pretty all the time?

Femen write:

On the day of the legalization of gay marriage in France, Brussels branch of sextremists FEMEN atracked one of the main European preachers of homophobia. Archbishop Leonard was attacked during a session of public advocacy of hatred and religious fanaticism in one of the main educational institutions of Belgium ULB. Suddenly rushed into the Hall of sextremists, disrupted religious coven over water paralyzed by fear the sanctimonious person.

FEMEN consistently opposes the religious propaganda of violence, homophobia and attempts to recover religious disintegrating effect on women and society as a whole.