Viennese men will no longer dominate street signage, say Viennese officials who’ve unveiled new bigendered the city’s public space.
In switching genders, so to speak, they hope to help change popular misconceptions of gender roles. Of the semiotic shift, City Councillor for Women’s Affairs, Sonja Wehsely notes:
Language and picture language says a lot about social roles. We are used to seeing pictograms of men for everything, and only pictograms of women when it is to do with children. That’s not reality.
Gone are the exclusively women-centric signs, replaced by some more modern images depicting daddies on doo-doo duty.
Though the move garnered considerable praise, not everyone’s so pleased. One woman thinks the government should worry about more pressing issues, The Advocate reports:
How about we take this to the next level?
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I’m a woman but I couldn’t care less if there’s a woman or a man on the sign. I’d prefer it if I got the same salary as my male colleagues.
Pish-posh. A picture of a man changing a diaper’s way more important than your stupid salary, lady. Sheesh, stop being so selfish.
(A note on the image: officials created dozens of mock-up signs, many of which don’t comply with EU laws of conformity, like the one you see above. We have to say, it’s a shame. Look at that shit, it’s superb! That tag-line should read, “I don’t care if you’re wearing heels, there’s a fire! Run, girl, run!”)
Bryan
i personally find it a little ridiculous. this also makes the assumption that women wear high heeled boots, skirts, and have long hair- clearly a little bit of a stereotype in itself. i do think the new signs are cute though. Wish that girl had some hands.
a hundred years from now do you think someone might find this sign and interpret it as “women’s exit” and see another one and see “men’s exit”?