Ryanair’s Calendar Girls cause Spanish outrage
Ryanair has outraged Spanish housewives who claim the airline's 2012 charity calendar, which features scantily-clad members of its cabin crew, is exploiting female workers.
The Provincial Association of Housewives and Consumers of Valencia (TYRIUS) has issued a formal complaint to the airline and reported it to the Non-Sexist Advertising Observatory of Valencia as it "uses the female body" in the form of advertising.
Even though the calendar will raise money to send 50 British families with children who suffer from a fragile skin condition on holiday to Spain, TYRIUS said had called for it to be taken off sale.
The housewives say that the airline is profiting by using the publicity whipped up by the calendar to sell its low-cost flights.
TRRIUS says the airline, which has published its Cabin Crew charity calendar every year since 2008, is preying on the dignity of women workers and its cabin crew.
Ryanair has already sold 9,000 of the 10,000 2012 calendars, raising €100,000 for the charity, DEBRA. It said men in other professions, including firemen, also posed semi-naked to raise money for good causes.
* Is the Ryanair calendar sexist, a bit of fun, a cheeky publicity stunt or a good deed? If your boss asked you to pose in your undies to raise money for charity would you, or is this beyond the call of duty? Have your say by clicking on the 'Post Your Comment' button below
Linsey McNeill
Editor Linsey McNeill has been writing about travel for more than three decades. Bylines include The Times, Telegraph, Observer, Guardian and Which? plus the South China Morning Post. She also shares insider tips on thetraveljournalist.co.uk
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