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‘Wanted: Busty women’: Job ad sparks storm

The organizers of a major comic fair in Barcelona are fuming after a recruitment firm placed a job ad on their website for hostesses with a minimum bust measurement of 95 centimetres (37 inches).

Published: 11 April 2014 10:55 CEST
'Wanted: Busty women': Job ad sparks storm
File photo: Thom Chandler

Wanted: "brunettes, taller than 170 centimetres (5 feet 7 inches), minimum bust size 95cm".

That's the job advertisement which has caused headaches for FICOMIC, the organizers of Barcelona's major annual International Comic Fair, coming up in May.

Spain's general union, the CCOO, slammed the job post placed by the events staff recruitment firm NSH, national paper 20 minutos reported on Friday.

"To use a woman's body as a billboard, or for the success of an event" is not part of life in a "civilized and advanced society", said the union in a statement. 

Advertisements like the one posted by NSH were also a roadblock to equal access to the job market, the union added.

The organizers of the firm say they are not impressed either, laying at the blame of NSH, the agency they outsourced to hire event staff.

The job post was withdrawn on Thursday and FICOMIC director Carlos Santamaría has asked party planners NSH to make a public statement saying the comic fair's organizers did not endorse the ad.

This year sees Barcelona staging its 32nd comic fair. Last year's edition received 106,000 visitors.

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SPORT

Norwegians give short shrift to fine for women’s handball team

Norwegian officials reacted sharply on Tuesday after the country's women's beach handball team was fined for wearing shorts instead of bikini bottoms in competition.

Published: 20 July 2021 16:39 CEST
Norwegians give short shrift to fine for women's handball team
Norway's Stine Ruscetta Skogrand (L) vies with Montenegro's Vukcevic Nikolina (C) and Ema Ramusovic (R) during the 2020 Tokyo Olympics women's qualifying handball match between Montenegro and Norway in Podgorica on March 19, 2021. (Photo by SAVO PRELEVIC / AFP)

The Disciplinary Committee of the European Handball Federation (EHF) on Monday fined the Norway 1,500 euros ($1,768), or 150 euros per player, after they wore shorts in their bronze-medal match loss to Spain at the European Beach Handball Championship in Varna, Bulgaria, on Sunday.

“In 2021, it shouldn’t even be an issue,” the president of the Norwegian Volleyball Federation, Eirik Sordahl, told national news agency NTB.

Clothing has long been an issue in beach sports, with some women players finding bikinis degrading or impractical.

While bikinis have not been compulsory for beach volleyball players since 2012, International Handball Federation (IHF) rules state “female athletes must wear bikini bottoms” and that these must have “a close fit”, be “cut on an upward angle toward the top of the leg” and a side depth of no more than 10 centimetres.

Male players wear shorts.

READ MORE: Norwegian female beach handballers scrap bikini in spite of rules

“It’s completely ridiculous,” Norway’s Minister for Culture and Sports, Abid Raja, tweeted after Monday’s ruling. “What a change of attitude is needed in the macho and conservative international world of sport.”

Ahead of the tournament, Norway asked the EHF for permission to play in shorts, but were told that breaches of the rules were punishable by fines.

They complied, until their last match.

“The EHF is committed to bring this topic forward in the interest of its member federations, however it must also be said that a change of the rules can only happen at IHF level,” EHF spokesman Andrew Barringer said in an email.

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