by the commentator on 21 May 2014 17:25

Sweden's Leftist opposition has pledged to ban women's bottoms from advertisements when it next gets into power, the country's English language news outlet The Local reported on Wednesday, basing the story on Sweden's top selling newspaper Aftonbladet.

Sweden occasioned international hilarity, and not a little criticism, in December 2013, after the deputy speaker of Sweden's parliament, Susanne Eberstein, also a prominent Social Democrat, helped force from the parliament's dining room a nude painting named Juno, which was painted by baroque artist G E Schröder for allegedly offending feminists and Muslim guests.

"It's tiresome (looking at) a bare-breasted woman when I sit at public dinners with foreign guests," she said at the time.

On Wednesday fellow Social Democrat MP Veronica Palm was quoted as saying: "This is a public health problem that we politicians have to take responsibility for... You don't need to show bottoms to sell cars."

She said it was an election promise that the Social Democrats would address "sexist and gender stereotypical advertising."

Ms Palm "has herself reported a toy-store catalogue that played on gender stereotypes," The Local said.

Swedish political correctness sometimes takes some extraordinary turns. Recently it was reported that a black trainee school teacher had been asked to leave a "black film class" for fear of prejudicing discussion about a film with black actors in it. The classroom was mainly filled with white students and it was held that she might "inhibit the debate".