Italy is telling women to have more babies in this totally sexist ad campaign
The decision to have children is huge, and should always, always be up to the mother. But unfortunately, there are often pressures from society to give birth or expand your family, and women are experiencing it especially hard in one country in particular right now.
According to Cosmo, due to the declining birth rate in Italy, the government has introduced a new #fertilityday ad campaign.
#fertilityday Donna e ovociti:la vita fertile della donna https://t.co/KRLTQHasYT pic.twitter.com/1aCjPicTzI
— Fertility Day (@FertilityDay) August 9, 2016
This translates directly to: “Beauty has no age. But fertility does.”
As you might imagine, this sparked tremendous outrage from women all over the internet. false
From what we’ve seen so far, this campaign is a misguided attempt to create positive change, and the result is totally unacceptable. false
And it gets worse. The country is holding their first actual #FertilityDay on September 22nd, and this bizarre “holiday” will feature a series of events that encourages families to expand.
The website features stories that further encourage procreation, discuss male infertility, and show photos of baby bumps, doctors, and toddler shoes — all designed to play on people’s emotions. And oh-so-ironically, they only have succeeded in driving people further away from the cause.
One Italian website even published an article entitled, “Cheers. Alcohol halves your fertility,” accompanied by a photo of clinking cocktail glasses. SICK BURN! And we kinda love it!
Wake me up when #fertilityday ends
— Il farmacista di Lavagna (@neodie) August 31, 2016
We hope that these ads are reworked into something that uses some actual tact and intelligence, because Italian women (just like women everywhere) deserve to be treated with respect, as does the incredibly personal matter of having kids.
COME ON, ITALY! We’re literally smacking our foreheads right now.
