European Parliament passed a law that could actually ban memes. Now, in a further assault on our freedom to meme, Sweden's official Advertising Ombudsman has come out with a vicious attack on one of the best-loved of all the memes, the famous 'Distracted Boyfriend Meme.' We live in an age of creeping totalitarian and slithering censorship. Just a few days ago the. Now, in a further assault on our freedom to meme, Sweden's official Advertising Ombudsman has come out with a vicious attack on one of the best-loved of all the memes, the famous 'Distracted Boyfriend Meme.'





Based on a stock photo of a man turning away from his girlfriend to look at an attractive lady, the meme is used to comment on a wide variety of situations. After Swedish internet service provider Bahnhof used the image in a jobs advert, the Swedish advertising watchdog launched its vitriolic attack and ruled that the ad was "gender-discriminatory."





According to the Stassi-like ad-policing agency, the meme presents women as "interchangeable sex objects" and perpetuates this idea among men.





"It portrays women as interchangeable objects, and that only their appearance is interesting," wrote the ombudsman in a unanimous decision. "According to the committee, the objectification is reinforced by the fact that women are designated as workplace representatives while the man, as the recipient of the advertisement, is being produced as an individual."





Bahnhof attempted to defend its decision to use the meme. A statement from its head of communications Anya Alenberg and CEO Jon Karlung said the company's intent was to "show that Bahnhof is an attractive employer and that those who have a slightly less good employer could be interested in us."





"Everyone who follows the internet and meme culture knows how the meme is used and interpreted. Man, woman or neutral gender is often irrelevant in this context. We are an internet company and are conversant in this, as are those who would look for a job with us, so we turned to that target group. If we should be punished for anything, it's for using an old and tired meme."





FFS, you can see exactly where the feminazis and betacucks who run Sweden ultimately want to go with this one.



