Has Swedish feminism gone too far?
"In the gender equality stakes, Sweden is rated highly. But some Swedes feel it's being taken to extremes. It has the highest proportion of working women in the world and some two-thirds of university degrees are earned by women. New mothers and fathers both get generous parental leave.
Gender role neutrality initiatives, however, some feel are being exaggerated.
There's a politician who proposed that men should be required by law to urinate in a sitting position -- partly because it leaves toilets cleaner and promotes prostate health, partly as an appeal for reason.
That politician, Viggo Hansen, told us: "When my son was in kindergarten, they tried to force him to pee standing up, when we had taught him to pee sitting down. When the school let him sit down to pee, there was no problem. I had read about a school in Norway that officially banned boys' stand-up peeing. Lots of people's reaction was that was taking away boys' right to be boys."
Ann Helena Rudberg joined the feminist movement in the 1970s, to fight for women's rights because she saw her mother suffer violence at home. Today she argues women have equal rights and that feminist political parties are taking things too far.
Rudberg said: "It's a power struggle between men and women. And the effect of that is that on one side we have women and on the other side men. And this is not good for the children or for anyone."
At a school in Stockholm named 'Egalia', teaching gender equality is a priority. Boys and girls are encouraged not to be limited by stereotypical roles or games. And since last year, there is a new word in the Swedish dictionary: "hen", which is a neutral pronoun for "he" or "she". Not everyone agrees about that.
School director Lotta Rajalin said: "They think we are going to change girls to boys and boys to girls and that's of course not what we are doing. We like to give every human being the same rights, the same possibilities, the same responsibilities. And that is a question of democracy."
Some critics say Sweden's government is taking a feminist agenda to an almost radical level. Others who also take International Women's Day seriously say the fight for gender equality is far from over."
Source: euronews
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Both female cops who filled the role normally male. Both were very intelligent, albeit clearly TV productions.
I have become a big fan of Commissario Brunetti. Placed in Venice but produced from Germany, it was written by Donna Leon, a US ex patriot who lives in Venice and placed her series of mysteries there. The East German actor Uwe Kockisch plays Brunetti and is very good. The supporting cast is also quite good. It's a bit jarring to hear German language in the Venetian setting, but elements of the Italian come through in the plots and the actors and the scripts are, as far as I can tell from the subtitles, well done. And Donna Leon collaborates with the series. This really is quite excellent.
Thanks for your reply. I don't know what I'd do without MHz diversions. Plus, I get international news and commentary from all over the world. I desperately miss the Australian Football League, though. MHz! Bring back Footie!
As far as the whole making-guys-piss-sitting-down thing, it seems like one weirdo's idea, and likely to remain so...
Unless he was referring to a peeping tom or something. 
