Sexism: Swedish Style?

Or is it just Aksel Hatfield v. Bjorn McCoy?

Check out this article from a student.

OSLO (March 10) Swedish home furnishings giant IKEA is guilty of sex discrimination by showing only men putting together furniture in its instruction manuals, Norway's prime minister says.


IKEA's response? They're trying not to offend Muslim women.


BioMom and I could have recently been found putting together several IKEA items purchased for a cheap office makover. What we noticed about the manual was not that the non-lingual eunuch character was non-female, but his uncanny ability to communicate through a wide variety of clear expressions!

Esperanto. Swedish-style.

OUCH!

He/she seems to say as the bookshelf, not properly placed on a flat surface, topples over onto him.

All smiles pointing to one regular and one phillips scredriver means:

I'm so happy I have all the right tools needed for this job!

And a squiggle mouth while looking at the directions coupled with a question mark bubble leads the eunuch to a phone connected directly to IKEA for help!

BioMom and I imagined this call.

Um hi. We're having trouble putting together our EFFEKTIV cabinet.

What?

Our EFFEKTIV cabinet. We need some help putting it together. Maybe there are some pieces missing?

Let me transfer you to the exchange department. CLICK!

Swedish music in background.

Woman with Indian accent: Exchanges!

Hi. Um. We're having trouble putting together our EFFECKTIV cupboard.

Do you have your receipt?

No. We don't want to exchange the item. We just want to put it together. We think we've stripped the screws.

Woman to a co-worker: We've got another perve on the line! CLICK!

Redial.

Hello, Welcome to IKEA!

Hi. I just got cut off and am calling to get help putting together one of your furniture items.

Which item?

The EFFEKTIVE cabinet.

We don't stock that anymore.

But I just bought it last week.

I'm sorry, we can't help you. CLICK!

In any case, sexism was not our problem.