UN
Keeps "Watchful Eye" on Contested Soft Porn In Its Lobby, UN Gender
Advisor Called It Appalling
Byline:
Matthew Russell Lee of Inner City Press at the UN: News Analysis
UNITED NATIONS, February 27 -- As the UN
Commission on the Status of Women
continues with meetings and speeches in the basement of the UN, upstairs
in the lobby soft porn magazines remain for sale and on display, under
what the UN calls its watchful eye. "It is very difficult to define a
culturally uniform standard of what is offensive," the office of Ban Ki-moon's
spokesperson has said in a response to Inner City Press.
The UN's
Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the
Advancement of Women, Assistant Secretary-General Rachel N. Mayanja,
asked
Monday by Inner City Press about the magazines, with such titles as
Smooth and Curve, King, Black Book and Dirty South, said "I am very
appalled. I had already raised it to the Department of Management and
had been assured they were going to ask them to take it down." Inner
City Press asked how long ago the request had been made to the
Department of Management, headed by Under Secretary General Alicia
Barcena. "At least six months ago," Ms. Mayanja said. "I am going to go
back to them. It should be removed."
Wednesday, Inner City Press was
told that "the newsstand in the Secretariat Lobby is managed by Hudson
News, through a contract with the United Nations Secretariat. The
Contractor, as a matter of policy, does not display or sell...
Penthouse, Playboy, or Hustler." Smooth, King and Black Book, however,
are apparently deemed acceptable under this UN policy.
"The general guideline," the UN's response specifies, "is to try to
avoid any kind of material that displays nude shots or similar
material." If a letter of the title is placed in front of the model's
genitals, does that remove it from the UN's definition of similarity to
a nude shot? And, as another reporter has mused, mentioning if not
promoting a publication called Honcho, or perhaps Haucho, what is the
UN's policy on other sexual orientations?
UN newsstand on Feb. 26,
2008, Smooth, King and Black Book, Dirty South not shown. Photo by Luiz
Rampelotto
Less pronunciation- and
publication-specific, the UN's cultural relativism even in the face of
Gender Advisor Mayanja's position calls into question the same
Department of Management's unequivocal
denunciation
of other recent
photographs,
of a type routine and accepted in some parts of the world.
Seemingly in direct response to
Inner City Press' question about Ms. Mayanja saying she complained to
the Department of Management six months ago and never heard back, the
Office of the Spokesperson's response concludes that "the Department of
Management has been in contact with Hudson News and reinforced the
importance of keeping a watchful eye on this." As opposed to Monday, a
visit on Tuesday the title "Dirty South" gone. Some have speculated on
what the title means. By deadline, UN Gender Advisor Mayanja had not
made her views known. A formal request remains pending. Watch this site.
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