German fury over Merkel 'breastfeeding' image

[kskiska]

Source: TimesOnline



A mocking magazine cover supposedly showing Angela Merkel breast-feeding the twin leaders of Poland has enraged Germany and further curdled the relationship between Warsaw and Berlin.

Rarely, since the fall of communism, has so much tension crackled between the two neighbours. The photo-montage in Wprost magazine, under the headline “Stepmother of Europe”, places the head of the German Chancellor on top of the bare-breasted body of a 21 year old woman.

Evidently, the aim was to highlight Polish dependency on Germany and explain what the magazine sees as a climbdown by the twins, President Lech Kaczynski and the Prime Minister Jaroslaw Kaczynski.

(snip)

The editor of Wprost, Stanislaw Janecki, seemed a little baffled yesterday by the force of the German reaction. ”We thought of it as a little joke,“ he said, ”after all stepmothers are often more attractive and friendlier than real mothers.” He could not imagine Ms Merkel taking offence. ”We looked for a model that was not too thin but who had a beautiful body,” said Mr Janecki.

Read more: http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/europe/article1990881.ece

[hlthe2b]

1. Well, certainly lots of people will react differently...

Maybe I will as well after further thought. But at first glance, I thought it was rather amusing--in the tradition of political cartooning and satire. It certainly makes a point.

[saigon68]

33. I like this Float Better

[Radio_Lady]

34. That is hysterical. I'm surprised you didn't get locked.

Americans are very sensitive about body parts, but clearly more sensitive about breasts than butts.

And, here -- I've had quite decorous pictures of barebreasted women bring down a thread in record time.

[JDPriestly]

2. My first reaction was that it is sexist.

On second and perhaps a more rational thought, maybe I was being over politically correct. Still, I can understand that the Polish might feel offended. It makes them look like babies.

[alcibiades_mystery]

5. Trust your first instinct

n/t

[MADem]

19. Sexist, and STUPID.

However, it was the POLES that did this--they gave the offense to Germany's Merkel, who is the sexist object of their foolish joke. Conservative Poles, in a conservative magazine, dreamed this up--in their "Weekly Standard" if you will.

However, aside from the sexism, the picture is just plain DUMB. Unless one's stepmother is also one's wet nurse, the picture makes absolutely no sense--if these conservative Poles wanted a reputation as not being too bright, perhaps not getting the nuances of lactation, they did it to themselves with that one.

Of course, we cannot paint all the Poles with such a cruel broad brush--it's only the conservative ones that apparently have their heads up their asses.

[Redneck Socialist]

3. I find it more insulting to Poland than to Germany

Polish leaders portrayed as babies suckling at Germany's breasts? That's pretty damn condescending. That being said, no one ever said that political satire had to be nice.

[MADem]

20. It was a POLISH conservative magazine cover.... nt

[kskiska]

4. Guardian article: Poland riles Germany with a lewd take on the motherland

A glossy magazine cover depicting a bare-breasted Angela Merkel suckling the nationalist twin rulers of Poland reignited tensions between Berlin and Warsaw days after a bad-tempered European summit nearly collapsed because of Polish resistance to a German blueprint on how to run the EU.

The right-wing Warsaw weekly magazine Wprost, which backs the conservative nationalist regime of the prime minister, Jaroslaw Kaczynski, and his twin brother, the president, Lech Kaczynski, has the cover of its latest issue as a montage showing "a beaming chancellor Merkel as "Europe's stepmother" baring her breasts to nourish the infant Polish twins.

more…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/germany/article/0,,2112342,00.html

[Occulus]

6. I wonder what Merkel's reaction was

She comes across as the sort who would laugh off something like this.

Remember the photo of her talking with * at the recent summit? The one where she's oh-so-very casually holding a glass of wine, with the look on her face of one who is currently feeling no pain at all?

That's what gave me that impression....

[kskiska]

7. Well, Merkel's experienced worse

while changing from her swimsuit.

[IndyOp]

13. Some photographer took that picture of Merkel? Holy Hell.

DO THEY DO THAT TO MEN?

How utterly debasing - to the "photographer" and to the political process.

I am sickened by similar "sneak assault journalism" when it is of Hollywood celebs -- but celebs present themselves as if they are physically perfect, so somehow it is not quite as debasing.

:grr:

[Ian David]

15. Yes, they do that to men, too...

[MADem]

22. That ain't the same at all. Those pictures, the 'afters' anyway, are unretouched

That's not his head on someone else's body, as in the Merkel photo.

He shouldn't go to the beach wearing a half a hanky if he doesn't want his shortcomings photographed. IMO.

[Occulus]

29. Oh dear. n/t

[jmowreader]

9. You'd do it too

I think I'd have to be drunk as shit too if I had to spend any substantive period of time with Fearless Leader.

But they wouldn't catch ME oh-so-very casually holding a glass of wine in my photo with Bush. I would be drinking scotch straight out of the bottle.

[Occulus]

30. lol

Only http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Everclear_(alcohol)">Everclear would help me recover from having a nice drinky sit-down with Fearless Leader.

I say this because it's easy to recover from things you can't remember.

[JVS]

8. ”after all stepmothers are often more attractive and friendlier than real mothers.”

The stepmother imagery is not flattering. Stepmothers have traditionally been seen as some horrid bitch who is going to use all of her feminine wiles on your father in order to get her children the lion's share of your dad's resources and treats you poorly (the whole reason that this magazine calls her a stepmother is they feel that poland is not getting its proper respect from merkel according to another article posted here), not to mention they also are traditionally depicted as poor substitutes for the real mom whose death brought the stepmother into the household.

[IndianaGreen]

10. The Kaczynski brothers are rabid homophobes while Merkel is an insufferable rightwinger

Let's get the popcorn out, boys and girls, and watch the show. Perhaps the Bundeswehr will march into Poland to avenge German honour.

BTW, aren't these the same Europeans that defended the publishing of cartoons offensive to Muslims as an exercise of freedom of the pres? Well, if you can offend one group, you can certainly offend another.

[Endangered Specie]

11. "further curdled the relationship between Warsaw and Berlin."

I wouldn't exactly say they've been two peas in a pod to begin with.

[DFW]

12. I'm sure Merkel laughed it off

First off, she probably looked at the 21 year old model and said, "Wenn nur (if only)!"

The Polish twins are an embarrassment to their country (we should know all about that) with
their hardline nationalism and Catholicism. Many Poles are getting fed up with them--rapidly.

Merkel, on the other hand, is proving far better than expected, and is, of course, anything
but a right-wing hardliner. Even a large segment of SPD and Green voters are giving her grudging
passing marks, which they didn't even give their own last chancellor except for when he kept
Germany out of the Iraq invasion. Considering that over 80% of the Germans were against that,
no party to the left of the "Republikaner" or the NPD would have done differently.

The Polish twins recently argued that Poland should be given more clout and more money in the EU
because if World War II hadn't occurred, there would be more Poles. Besides the fact that if World War II
hadn't occurred, a third of today's Poland would still be part of Germany, some very liberal Dutch
friends commented that if that one gets any traction, that Holland should demand money and land from
Spain for the occupation in the 16th century, from Austria for occupation in the 18th century,
and from France for occupation under Napoleon. They already get about 10% of Germany's money every year
from German vacationers on the Dutch coast, and another 5% from fines from traffic violations by German
drivers who cross the border and still think they're on the Autobahn, so they aren't quite as adamant as
the Poles about Germany.

I meet and know a LOT of Poles, mostly non-government types, but some within the givernment, and NONE of
them, zero, zip, agree with the positions taken by the twins on foreign relations.

[fedsron2us]

26. Angela Merkel gets a bad press on this site

and a lot of its is just a knee jerk reaction to the fact that she is head of the CDU. Personally, I would happily swap her for my current political leadership and I am British.

[LeftishBrit]

32. Good analysis

According to the Germans that I know, Merkel is doing quite a good job, and not far-right, though some of them would have preferred her opponent. At any rate, there is a big difference between her and people like the Kaczynskis. The latter come across as complete nutcases and I am glad to hear that many Poles are fed up with them.

However, I have to take some rueful issue with the remark:

'he (Schroeder) kept Germany out of the Iraq invasion. Considering that over 80% of the Germans were against that, no party to the left of the "Republikaner" or the NPD would have done differently.'

Alas, over 70% of the Brits were against it, and Tony still got us in!

[Ian David]

14. I bet Bush is going to have it framed and placed on his office wall

[endarkenment]

16. Every time I see those pictures I just cringe.

I mean really. I cannot even begin to imagine the context where I would find it appropriate to do that to somebody unasked, somebody who was not a close friend with whom physical contact had already been negotiated as appropriate. It just boggles the mind.

[donsu]

17. Stanislaw doesn't like women

he may fuck them, or not, but he doesn't like them

if Merkel doesn't put him in his place, she's nuts.

[JerseygirlCT]

18. OK, so he insults a huge number of people, then adds:

”after all stepmothers are often more attractive and friendlier than real mothers.”

Idiot.

[truebrit71]

21. Didn't know she had such a nice rack...

I'd have been much more open-minded about her....

:evilgrin: :hide:

[Javaman]

23. I think moron* has that photo on the ceiling in his* bedroom. lol nt

[SheWhoMustBeObeyed]

24. Ack. Didn't need to see that. n/t

[Miss Chybil]

25. Totally inappropriate and very sexist. nt

[Igel]

27. Merkel's response, if Wprost can be trusted was nice.

And while a lot of people here consider it sexist, I'm not at all sure most Poles--even the women--would. Rather different attitude towards breasts over there, so I really don't know how it's perceived. I saw quite a few signs that women simply took for granted, as did the men, that I thought were sexist. I even pointed them out to some women, and they simply looked at me like I was mad. So I just don't know.

However, Wprost put a little article about Merkel's response in front of their irritating subscription screen:

http://www.wprost.pl/ar/?O=109144

" 'We have freedom of the press in Poland and in Germany,' said Merkel ..." and then she goes on to talk about how important German-Polish relations and friendship is and how necessary it is to find paths that allow a joint solution to problems. Very tactful, trying to actually help things than making problems even worse and creating new ones.

However a number of German politicians took issue with the picture, the article says, so there's still the possibility that people will create the ill-will and lack of dialog that so many desire.

[SayWhatYo]

28. I'm not seeing how it's sexist myself...

Whether the image is right or wrong aside, it seems as if it fits into what they are trying to say. It's not an attempt to be sexist at all. Now, I suppose it could be sexist in that it puts a woman in a stereotypical view by having her breast feed, but if that was the case then that would mean that it would be wrong to put a woman(or man) in a situation that is typical their gender... I'm not buying that at all. Although, I may be missing something and hope someone can come make things more clear for me.

[cliss]

31. Sorry, I've been laughing all day over that photo.

It seems that Europe is not taking the image as seriously as we might. Just checking 1 Swedish publication, they are sniffing at it; just mild amusement. No big reactions either way.

[Art_from_Ark]

35. Look at that molehill-- it's really a mountain!

Feh. I've seen lots of National Lampoon covers more derisive of political leaders than this one.

[TankLV]

36. Oh brother...

not what I'd like to see...

Nope - still gay!

And that pic of der Gropenater - MY EYES! MY EYES!

And to think I had my cataracts removed to live to see THAT!...