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Blue bloc slammed for sexist rhetoric

TheCopenhagenPost
June 8th, 2015


This article is more than 9 years old.

Botox comment and reference to an old advert have many questioning what century some blue politicos think they are in

That forehead does look pretty smooth (Photo: Jakob Horn)

“There is so much women do not understand” is a well-known advertising slogan from an advert in which a blonde woman seems confused over how men view football.

But when Venstre party head Lars Lokke Rasmussen used a version of the slogan during last night’s debate with PM Helle Thorning-Schmidt, the reaction to what many saw as a gender-based attack was fast and mostly furious.

Rasmussen’s comment to Thorning-Schmidt during a foreign policy dust-up that “there are many things you do not understand” echoed the sexist advert, and the Twittersphere was immediately filled with tweets condemning Rasmussen’s sexism.

“Venstre has sunk to a new low,” tweeted MP Astrid Krag.

Botox blowup
Along with her outrage at Rasmussen’s apparent sexist slight of the PM, Krag joined others in condemning Venstre MP Thomas Danielsen for a tweet that seemed to focus on Thorning-Schmidt’s appearance.

“Sorry, HTS. The frown-lines of Danes can’t be removed by Botox,” he tweeted during the debate.

Other politicians were quick to distance themselves from Danielsen’s comment. Liberal Alliance head Anders Samuelsen tweeted that he wanted to distance himself “100 percent” from Danielsen’s comment.

“Let’s stick to politics,” he wrote.

Morten Bødskov, the former justice minister, called Rasmussen’s comments “grotesque”.

Know your place, woman!
Not to be outdone in the blue bloc sexism sweepstakes, Venstre’s Søren Pind, commenting on the number of times the PM interrupted Rasmussen’s rhetoric last night, mused via Twitter: “Why is it okay for women to interrupt men?”

According to Pind, the PM interrupted Rasmussen 28 times, while he only interrupted her 13 times. He asked: “Is that what feminism is about?”


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A survey carried out by Megafon for TV2 has found that 71 percent of parents have handed over children to daycare in spite of them being sick.

Moreover, 21 percent of those surveyed admitted to medicating their kids with paracetamol, such as Panodil, before sending them to school.

The FOLA parents’ organisation is shocked by the findings.

“I think it is absolutely crazy. It simply cannot be that a child goes to school sick and plays with lots of other children. Then we are faced with the fact that they will infect the whole institution,” said FOLA chair Signe Nielsen.

Pill pushers
At the Børnehuset daycare institution in Silkeborg a meeting was called where parents were implored not to bring their sick children to school.

At Børnehuset there are fears that parents prefer to pack their kids off with a pill without informing teachers.

“We occasionally have children who that they have had a pill for breakfast,” said headteacher Susanne Bødker. “You might think that it is a Panodil more than a vitamin pill, if it is a child who has just been sick, for example.”

Parents sick and tired
Parents, when confronted, often cite pressure at work as a reason for not being able to stay at home with their children.

Many declare that they simply cannot take another day off, as they are afraid of being fired.

Allan Randrup Thomsen, a professor of virology at KU, has heavily criticised the parents’ actions, describing the current situation as a “vicious circle”.

“It promotes the spread of viruses, and it adds momentum to a cycle where parents are pressured by high levels of sick-leave. If they then choose to send the children to daycare while they are still recovering, they keep the epidemic going in daycares, and this in turn puts a greater burden on the parents.”