I leave you this weekend with a little happy news. While the unholy union that took place this weekend might have led you to worry about the state of the world and wonder if it’s not on an express elevator headed straight for the shit pit, this news should give you hope for the future.
In general elections Saturday, Icelandic voters gave the victory to the country’s leftist parties. This is important because it means that Johanna Sigurdardottir (who had been serving as interim Prime Minister) has now been elected to that office– which makes her the world’s first openly gay Prime Minister. It’s refreshing to see that Iceland’s voters concentrated on the politics of the situation, not on what kind of porn the candidates prefer to watch.
Sigurdardottir won’t have any time to celebrate the historic nature of her victory. Iceland was hit very hard by the global economic meltdown and she’s got her work cut out for her. Nevertheless, it is a historic moment, that deserves recognition.
Congrats Iceland! You’ve totally redeemed yourselves from that whole Bjork thing.
yay Iceland!
This is so refreshing to see! Take note, U.S.
Loving this!
Is there something weird with her eyes here?
Or am I just nuts?
I don’t know what it is but its bothering me
I think it’s just an odd angle.
That’s how they look in Iceland.
I doubt that Johanna watches porn, or ever did. One of her long term political project was to wage a war on pornography and exotic dancing in Reykjavik. Reason? Both diminish status of woman, making us into that “sexual other”. I guess the news should state that Johann is not only gay, she and her partner been together for more than 5 years, she is also FEMINIST!!! That I think is important.
P.S: Could anyone please refer me to “that Bjórk thingy”? What did Guðmundsdóttir do?
How would she know whether porn diminishes the status of women if she never even watches it?
Sing with me.
All we are saaaayiiiiing, is give porn a chaaaaaance…..
I consider myself a raging feminist, tampon string dangling and proud, but even I wouldn’t be staunchly anti-porn unless I really knew what I was talking about. It’s not all bad and it’s not all anti-fempower. I mean, from what I’ve…..heard.
So, you know, “Yay, she’s gay!” and all that. But the anti-porn, anti-exotic dancer thing doesn’t necessarily go hand in hand with being a feminist. We come in all shapes and perversions. Discrimination, domination and humiliation (not the sexy kind, the lame kind) exist everywhere. Hilary Clinton has been pretty much publicly ass-raped for years to get where she is today. Point? Let’s end sexism and empower women everywhere, in every field. Some newly-empowered chicks might leave porn. Some might leave advertising. Some might get a divorce. Some might gnaw off their fake fingernails or get their silicone boobballs removed. The choice is up to each woman and no field of chosen work or lifestyle ought to be demonized per se.
You do know that on average female porn stars are paid up to 5x more than males right…
Why would they leave such a high paying job that they obviously like doing, I say that because if it’s so horrible why would you keep doing it even if the pay is good.
I think far too many people think of all the hardcore stuff out there when they think of porn and not the other stuff which is generally not that bad, i.e Pirates, which is just hilarious.
Well she is an old lady, her political carrier lasted about 30 years! She started out as lefty, more lefty than she is now, she still refers to herself and the people she works with-equalitymen. It sounds stupid in English but in Icelandic it is cult/cultural phenomena and used to be a political party. Plus she was rather active in “women’s list”, that is also a former political party and c/c phe. as well. Johanna is no new feministe, she is old school. Like Simon de Beauvoir with her “Le Deuxieme Sexe”, which brings us to porn and strip joints. In her opinion those women are exploited by the men/society – made into sexual other, an object. Sex industry brings bad crowd- narcotics, human trafficking, sexually transmitted diseases etc. Besides we, the Icelanders, think porn and strip clubs are bad, ethically. We know that porn stars get payed handsomely and not all of them are slaves and abused. We know that pornography is the tool for successful masturbation, which is as we know it, is a part of healthy lifestyle. Our children taught about it at schools. It is also true that female porn workers get payed more than male. But! We don’t think of money as measure of success in the matters of ethics. Besides, people, we are small! We don’t have a whole city, somewhere like Nevada desert, where capitalistic Sodom and Gomorrah could be build, out of harms way, to service all of our needy perversions and strengthen state’s economy at the same time :D
Had I not lived in a town with only one strip club, I would totally have done it to put myself through undergrad and save for medical school. College aint cheap! What other job let’s you make bank, have good off time hours to go to class and study, and offers the comfort of knowing that since you’re already out working on the weekends, you don’t have to spend much money? Cmon. It can really be a sweet deal at the right places.
I agree, sex industry could be a sweet deal. But here college is cheap! No bank braking needed. :D
However I know couple of people who came to the country and started out as strippers, since then they done their PhD’s and live comfortably as academics.
Good stuff Iceland!
hey! björk is my homegirl!
WANDERLUST
I thank Iceland for Bjork.
Bjork is one of Iceland’s best exports.
this is pretty old news– like, end of january old news.
She was interim at the end of January. It is now official.
I heart Bjork. She worked with Mark Snow on some of the X-Files tracks.
Lol. Okay, sorry for taking the piss out of Bjork. She’s just such an easy target. :)
Um no, she totally deserved it. Ugh.
Anyway, congrats, Iceland!
ohmy I’m Icelandic and it makes me so proud everytime I read about us in a positive manner, it’s been really depressing the way other countries have been talking about us. This is nice and refreshing and I thank you for featuring this on this site. I love it :D
WOOT WOOT!
That is all.
She kinda looks like Meredith Baxter–you know, Elyse Keaton from Family Ties…
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