A girl worried about getting fat and a boy anxious to grow up. You will no longer see this photo on the Bouches-du-Rhône health records. What was wrong with this visual? Posted on social media by a newspaper headline illustrator, the cover was deemed unwelcome and in bad taste. According to detractors, the photo reproduced gender stereotypes, namely girls obsessed with fear of gaining weight and boys strive to grow taller at all costs.
Released repeatedly on Twitter and deemed sexist by parents and feminist associations, the controversy ended up reaching the ears of the Bouches-du-Rhône Departmental Council. While the previous majority had decided on the edition of the notebook, returned to the maternity hospitals of the department, the new management preferred to appease the controversy by announcing their withdrawal and a more politically correct reissue.
To explain this replacement, the Departmental Council invoked a visual “inappropriate in view of the challenges of public health, in particular related to the fight againstanorexia for young girlsThis outcry over a “sexist” visual indeed arose shortly after the creation ofan offense of incitement to anorexiawhich now punishes one year in prison and a fine of 10,000 euros for incitement to excessive thinness.
This reversal will have a cost for the community: 33,000 euros to change the coverage of some 33,000 health cards distributed each year.
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