Sunday, October 7, 2012

IKEA Magazine Makes Mistake

After IKEA created a magazine for the Swedish issue which featured an Arabic family in the bathroom (father, son, and mother), IKEA air-brushed the woman out of the photo for the copies that went out to Saudi Arabia. However, this photo was not the only one which air-brushed females from the magazine but was a common theme throughout the whole magazine. Women in Sweden became outraged by the fact that these magazines reflected the inequality between men and women within Saudi Arabia and felt IKEA went too far. Though they felt  they were just being sensitive to the beliefs reflected in Saudi Arabia, it ended up just leading to hurt feelings and a magazine other countries found to be highly sexist. Soon after this backlash of angered civilians, IKEA came out and apologized for the confusion and took full blame for making a mistake. This argument of the magazine has a positive side as well. Due to this magazine being released and causing much animosity, it helped the push for women in Saudi Arabia to fight for equality as well as join the work force.

http://www.cnn.com/2012/10/02/world/meast/saudi-ikea-women/index.html?hpt=wo_mid

-Christina Drozek

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