Italian sex drive fails to satisfy the public
Print Edition
AN Italian government campaign urging young couples to “get on with it” to boost the country’s flagging birthrate has been pulled after a furious backlash on social media.
Health Minister Beatrice Lorenzin yesterday said she had ordered changes to the online campaign after a series of captioned images intended to promote an upcoming Fertility Day were slammed as patronising, sexist and hectoring.
The biggest outcry was over an image of a fraught-looking young woman touching her stomach with one hand and holding an egg-timer in the other, with the sand running away.
“Beauty has no age. But fertility does,” said the caption, widely criticized for implying women delaying pregnancy had only themselves to blame if they ended up childless.
Men were not treated any more sensitively. A picture of rotting banana skin was deployed to make the point that: “Male fertility is much more vulnerable than you might think.”
That was making a similar point to a picture of a man holding a cigarette with the warning: “Don’t let your sperm go up in smoke.”
Another image shows a wading bird on the edge of a nest, imploring surfers to: “Get a move on! Don’t wait for the stork.”
The tweets, released to promote a Fertility Day planned for September 23, quickly went viral — the initial incredulous reaction being amplified by a swell of support for Lorenzin from pro-family groups.
Criticism of the campaign focused on the numerous obstacles to having children in Italy, including high unemployment, low wages, weak maternity rights and inadequate childcare provision.
One of the most popular tweets was a cartoon by Virgilio Natola showing a female hand holding up a pregnancy test kit bearing the result: “Go abroad and find yourself a job.”
Others cited Italy’s falling birthrate as a serious problem.
“The criticisms of #fertilityday are ridiculous,” tweeted Comitato Articolo 26, one of the groups involved in organizing recent “Family Days” in opposition to legislation on gay civil unions.
“In the country of demographic suicide, a lot, lot more should be done.”
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