WTF? French offended by bikini photos?

Yep, that’s what it says.

Okay, I’m seriously out of the loop here. Now, I am not saying that I thought the French are so oversexed that they would need to see a female politician in a bikini in order to decide whether to vote for her. What I did think, though, was that they didn’t have the prudery and hangups about the human body that Americans do, and that they wouldn’t see these photos as anything other than a woman frolicking in the surf who happened to be wearing a bikini.

Granted, I may be biased, being from California, where, as another poster’s sig line says, “I’ve seen my governor naked”, but I really didn’t see the scandal until I read the line about “France’s traditionally sober political coverage”. Learn something new every day, I guess.

From the same article

It’s not the bikini that’s bothering some people. It’s the change in the natrure of reporting about politicians.

Traditionally the French have had a strict demarcation between what was and was not acceptable in reporting on politicians. Basically private life is just that. For example, President Mitterand had a daughter with his mistress, but the first time most French people had heard about them was when they attended his funeral. Cue raising of Gallic eyebrows, but not that much it being France and all.

Ah. Well, okay then.

No, your gripe is legit, politicians or not.

People that have the need to judge whether something is acceptable or not, have some serious issues. Get a life!

I wasn’t griping; I was just confused. I think I got whooshed by CNN. This is not the first time they’ve phrased a headline for maximum :confused: :eek: or :smack: appeal. The French invented the bikini, if I’m not mistaken, so to state that they’re offended by photos of a woman wearing one gets the attention of a reader who otherwise might skip the link.

Yeah - the French have some pretty ferocious privacy laws. The reports I have skimmed about this incident gave me the impression that Royal could scalp the photographer and magazine involved if she felt like it, but has decided to let it slide.

In much of Europe, it’s not that uncommon to see topless advertising posters and magazine covers - in France trying to stop women going topless can be controversial. A fifty-year woman old in a bikini is not going to get people excited.