Gender bias in IKEA instructions?

[2diagnosis]

Norway's prime minister says company should alter brochures that show only men assembling furniture.
March 10, 2005: 1:46 PM EST

OSLO, Norway (Reuters) - Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA is guilty of sex discrimination by showing only men putting together furniture in its instruction manuals, Norway's prime minister says.

IKEA, which has more than 200 stores in 32 nations, fears it might offend Muslims by depicting women assembling everything from cupboards to beds. Its manuals show only men or cartoon figures whose sex is unclear.
http://money.cnn.com/2005/03/10/news/international/ikea.reut/index.htm?section=cnn_topstories

Verdens Gang quoted an IKEA spokeswoman as saying: "We have to take account of cultural factors. In Muslim countries it's problematic to use women in instruction manuals." ...



Show only sexless figures?

[tritsofme]

1. Methinks PCism

goes too far sometimes.

[JI7]

2. why don't they use different ones for Muslim countries then ?

[trotsky]

7. IKEA is all about keeping the trivial things cheap.

One set of instructions, all cultures, all languages, everywhere. Keeps the price down, which they pass along to us.

[MARALE]

3. Does anyone really care

I know that I put things together in the house, not my husband. I like too, and he doesn't. I don't care if there is a mouse in the picture putting things together, just give me good instructions.

[girl gone mad]

18. hey, that;s a good idea.

Just make it an androgynous cartoon character.

[TwentyFive]

4. Men are easier to draw?

I think an illustrator would have a tougher time drawing a woman.

However, it would be cool to draw her long lushious hair, shapely legs, high heels, and of course....really big boobs. Would certainly get more of us men reading the directions...lol!

[antigone382]

20. I've always found women easier to draw...

..though not necessarily in the way that you describe :P. Men have more angular proportions which I find difficult to keep precise.

I think they should just use an androgynous figure and be done with it.

[Tweed]

5. Who cares?

[Cocoa]

6. they should use Ann Coulter

she looks Nordic and her sex is unclear.

[trotsky]

8. LMFAO

OK, that's the funniest thing I've read all day.

[CO Liberal]

11. Or Michael Jackson

:-)

[merwin]

28. HAHA. That's great :-)

[MADem]

9. It's the little things that mean a lot, maybe????

Of course you could look at it another way, as kind of insulting to males, in that they are assumed to need to rely on the visual pictograms, whilst women are assumed to be the ones able to read the text!!! Women: they don't need no steenking pictures!!!

Hell, they should just find a sexless cartoon figure, like that irritating AOL thing, or a cartoon kitty or something, and have that creature put the stuff together. Actually, they could spin off MEATWAD from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and have MEATWAD putting together the furniture, and at the end have "it" hop into the kettle and be made into a Swedish meatball!

[Bridget Burke]

10. But men don't read the instructions.....

It's like asking for directions. (Sorry, sexist stereotyping here.)

One thing I learned from IKEA: That ridiculous "tool" is worthless. Find an electrical screwdriver/drill with the right sized bit to assemble your cheapo furniture. (If I spent less on books, I could afford better bookcases. But then I wouldn't need the bookcases.)

[Mithras61]

12. You got men in your pictures? I've been gypped!

My latest instructions from IKEA show the pieces assembling themselves with arrows showing the direction of movement! :*

[TygrBright]

13. I just adore the Norskis....

...where else would the Prime Minister worry about something like this?

God bless 'em, they're just so civilized.

appreciatively,
Bright

[Redstone]

14. Oh, Jesus God, spare me this, please

I know there's not a lot going on in Norway at any given time, but doesn't the fucking Prime Minister of the country have anything better to concern himself with?

The Swedes ought to invade Norway over this kind of meddling in their internal affairs.

Redstone

[ElectroPrincess]

25. Yes, I would agree that men are better at that violence stuff ...

Definitely agree: For the male of our species, you could very well be correct that furniture assembly would follow a very distant second to mens' affinity for raids and invasions. <snarf!>

[Career Prole]

15. So why is it they never show women tripping over stuff...

...or walking off cliffs?


It ain't right, I tell ya! Half of these stick figures should have breasts, damn it!

[napi21]

16. Oh for God sake, who cares???

I'm a female, but I have put together more furniture kits than most men. I can't even tell you what gender the damn figures were on the instructions! I can sure tell you which instructions were lousy though!!!

I love Norway, and would love to live there, but this PM is just nuts on this one.

[Frederik]

17. Our prime minister

Kjell Magne is a Christian fundie and member of The Fellowship over there in the US. He's trying to score points with the feminists for the upcoming elections. He represents the Christian People's Party and he's just a horrible person. He allegedly beats his wife. So this is rather hypocritical... :puke: He's the worst sort of political opportunist, you could tell he really wanted to support the war on Iraq but he had to consult the opinion polls first and they were very negative, so he ended up condemning it instead. But after the US election he was suddenly a big fan of Bush again because he had been elected on a "Christian values" base. And now he's trying to steal votes from the Socialist parties with things like this (fat chance)... get the picture? Methinks we'll have a Social Democratic cabinet this fall.

So that's your Norwegian politics for the day!

[Anakin Skywalker]

21. Well Blow Me Away!

I didn't know that even in a supposedly enlightened place like Norway, you have christian fundies? I thought this is a rather American phenomenon but I do know that the American ones try very hard to spread their fundymentalillness abroad. Or is Norwegian religious fundamentalism different from the American kind?

[Frederik]

26. We have a

"counter-culture" in the West and South, going back a couple of hundred years, which is very strictly Lutheran-Evangelical, in more extreme cases outright fundamentalist with excorcism and all that stuff. Sale of alcohol stronger than beer, for example, was not allowed in many communities until recently. In many ways, I think it resembles parts of the American South and Mid-West. This is the base that Kjell Magne hails from, although he has to put on a moderate mask to win elections. Norway has a fragmented party-system, so cabinets nowadays are either right-of-centre coalitions or Labour, and neither can hope for a parliamentary majority. That's how Kjell Magne's Christian People's Party has manoeuvred itself into the position it has, by participating in right-of-centre coalitions and demanding KM for PM in return...

In recent decades there has been some serious networking between our fundies and yours, and American ideas and methods are definetly seeping over here, but mostly with people to the right of KM and in relation to the abortion issue. They're pretty marginal anyway. Norwegians are for the most part very liberal and secular in their outlooks. We just have this dickhead for PM.

[pokercat999]

23. Love to be asking questions in the debates.

Tell us PM Magne, Have you stopped beating your wife, yes or no?

[MasonJar]

19. Then the Muslims need to go back and re-read the Koran. I

understand the Koran does not speak of inequality for women. After all wasn't Mohammhed (sp) able to philosophize because he had a rich wife?

[antigone382]

22. Actually, the pictures themselves are an abomination of Islam.

According to the Quran, humans are not supposed to draw or sculpt anything that imitates life...unless it's so small that it doesn't cast a shadow. That's why you see so many beautiful abstract designs in antique Middle Eastern and Spanish art.

[ElectroPrincess]

24. IKEA is guilty of sex discrimination by showing men ...

As it should be!?! = the men doing the home improvement gig.

Well, no, since I'm married to a city boy and my daddy was a construction contractor ... well guess who's snagged to do the home repairs and assembly of all things? Yep, me.

Sorry, this is NOT a distaff issue I'm willing to get huffy about ... it would be nice if "the men" would serve us so well. <deep sigh> But often times, if you want furniture (or grill) assembly done right (like actually follow along with the written directions), get a woman. :-) <eg>

[Gold Metal Flake]

27. IKEA guilty of torture for that damn S-shaped hex tool!

My fingers still hurt.

Hey, how about a generic vaugely pear-shaped omni-hu(not man) figure. Chosen by testing to cause the greatest confusion amongst the end user. Then maybe folks could move on to justice and peace.

[VegasWolf]

29. If they are going to show a stick figure of a woman, I hope her dress is

raised provacitevly!

[BiggJawn]

30. I am just so fucking HAPPY for the Norwegians...

If THIS is the biggest problem facing their Nation today.

Oh, Horrors! IKEA's instructions only show MEN!!!

They should try to put some of our US made K-D stuff together. They'll kiss IKEA's feet for their instructions.