The Danes, they are a coming
Want a fling? Visit Denmark. A three-minute long ad showed a young, blonde woman cradling a dark-skinned infant called August and saying he is the result of a brief tryst with a foreign tourist.
There are several questions here:
This was on Danish TV and apparently staged, so what prompted it? Is there a belief that people will throng to the country to have flings?
Is there a problem with the child being dark-skinned, although in the image here it does not appear so? Why are such values being promoted?
VisitDenmark manager Dorte Kiilerich explained that the intent was to tell a nice and sweet story about a grown-up woman who lives in a free society and accepts the consequences of her actions.
I understand free societies. But, do only women in such societies have to grow up? And what does ‘accept the consequences of their actions’ mean? Isn’t a woman in a free society intelligent enough to protect herself against pregnancy? What is so nice and sweet to be left alone with a baby? Do free societies have a carte blanche emotional security policy that makes its women believe that it is nice and sweet to consolidate this image of independence even if it means that they have to fend for themselves?
It is indeed sick to even imagine how any nation can let itself be bartered for such an image.
She writes with anguish and pessimism, a journey into hearts of darkness with no light at the end of that distorted prism, mainly because as she astutely observes, “every few years Pakistan writes a new fiction” to keep the embers alive. ”
—India Today
About Farzana
To be categorised is near-death. It would be nice to say that one is a literary vagabond, but it just does not convey fully the sense of rootlessness and ruthlessness one strives for constantly.
Have written opinion pieces, feature articles and interviews for...
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Farzana’s Favorite Books
Every writer, besides the ones I have listed, who has had something to convey that leaves me with the taste of bitter chocolate...that I like.
Not all of us Danes are like
Not all of us Danes are like that. We saved our energy for pillaging and plundering Northern England. :)
Eric (A legitimate Viking)
Of course, Prince of Denmark
Of course, Prince of Denmark :)
~F
Beware the Dane bearing
Beware the Dane bearing geld.
...or the geld baring
...or the geld baring Dane...
~F
So it's a pro-life campaign
So it's a pro-life campaign of sorts. They got into tons of trouble in this country because they were only giving one ''option'' and that was to have the baby..................thankfully it was spotted and they have been heavily penalised. I still don't get the idea of a fling, it must be anti-abortion right?
I did not think of it in
I did not think of it in this manner, Mary. If it were anti-abortion (unlikely) then there are better ways to promote that. I believe in one video clip she says she is looking for the child's father.
A sociologist said the ad suggested that "you can lure fast, blonde Danish women home without a condom".
~F
God, I still see it as that.
God, I still see it as that. How odd. To know that she is looking for the father increases my suspicion...........as if its a cuddly hollywood moment. I can't see the tourism in it at all. It must be like looking at a Rorschach or something to that effect. Help, I must be going CRAZY!
I assume you are seeing it
I assume you are seeing it differently because you want to, it revolts you as it does many of us. For this ad really happened, it was by the tourist dept. There has been an uproar. It is not about abortion. You are not crazy, but someone got the bright idea of promoting Denmark as just what has been posted.
~F
Those disastrous tourism
Those disastrous tourism campaigns. Every country has had one. As for my country, really, I´m fed up with those images of semi-naked women at Carnival.
A colleague of mine has a very interesting study on discourse analysis. She analysed the text of tourism campaigns and how little by little people start believing in those images of themselves artificially created for marketing purposes. Very interesting.
Most interesting, Luciana.
Most interesting, Luciana. Marketing agencies are always looking out for such niches that they believe will bring in tourists, and it works on auto-suggestion.
One is not denying the existence of sex tourism, but to promote the country as that is ridiculous. So, I can imagine how you feel about the carnival images.
~F
What a shame
Hello Farzana,
You make excellent points about this shameful ad campaign. The issues that are being joked about aren't funny and send completely the wrong message. I hope that public pressure has knocked some sense into Mr. Kiilerich.
Abraham Mertens, redroom.com
Thank you, Abraham. You are
Thank you, Abraham. You are right, this isn't funny and public pressure has had the desired effect after 800,000 hits...it is clear that the ad is in a devious fashion promoting the idea of women as objects, although the mother says she is not a bimbo and goes into a description of what happened and why she is looking for the man. These are actors performing and it has nothing to do with a nation and tourism. How twisted can people get?
~F
General note
As a matter of self-censorship I do not put up such videos because if I am disgusted, I have no business to promote the same thing. I did not do so with the Taliban flogging the girl or of Nida being killed by Iranian 'revolutionaries'.
The ad is around on the Net, though. For this I respect that YouTube removed it, but some liberal media groups have been using it.
~F