A Danish chat show where women silently undréss as the male host and a guest critique their bodies has been branded humiliating and séxist by viewers.
The women walk on in a bath robe and then stand in front of the two men who are seated on an empty set with one harsh light.
Each model then removés her robé as host Thomas Blachman, who also created the concept, and his guest appraise their figures.
Some
of the most puerile moments have included comments such as 'How's that
p****' working out for you?' and 'Very animated nipplés.'
Blachman,
who is a Danish X-Factor judge, today defended his idea insisting he
was actually doing women a favour as the 'female body thirsts for the
words of a man'.
He
also said his show - which has the éponymous title Blachman - was the
work of a genius and had a higher objective of 'discussing the
aésthetics of a female body without allowing the conversation to become
pórnographic or politically correct'.
He
said: 'I told them the entire idea of the show is to let men talk about
the bodies of nakéd women while the woman is standing right in front of
them.
'The female body thirsts for words. The words of a man. And they went for it.'
He added that he wanted to 'revise women's views of men's views of women.'
Critics rubbished his claims highlighting an example on one show in which he said: 'I've always been an a** man.
Even
before Blachman aired, it received massive media attention and has been
widely criticised as being both séxist and humiliating for women.
Author Knud Romer said: 'The programs so-called intention of breaking down taboos or challenging stereotypes is rubbish.
'It's more like a claustrophobic stríp club which only serves to cement classic concepts of male domínance.
'Basically, things like this should have been able consigned to the scrap heap of history years ago.'
One
of the country's top bloggers and opinion-makers, Lotte Hansen, was
also scathing, describing the show as 'an unsuccessful attempt to
intellectualize the Roskilde County Show – the only difference being
that the young fillies on view in Roskilde have been replaced by nakéd
women.'
Hansen has started a campaign demanding DR cancel the show 'before this goes any further'.
Martin
Lyngbo of the Mungo Park Theater said Blachman’s show
'institutionalizes already run-of-the-mill malechauvinistic thinking.'
An
unrepentant Blachman, who has since retreated to his home in New York
in the face of all the controversy, said: 'Ungratefulness is the only
thing that can really wear down the few geniuses who reside in our
country.
'Remember, I am giving you something that you have never seen before. Don't bite the hand that feeds you.'
DR
producer Sofia Fromberg, who defended the project, said the show must
go on and does not think that the TV critics should have the final say
about what is good for men and women.
She added: 'We have a program that reveals what men think about the female body. Quite honestly, what is wrong with that?'
The programme is aired on public service channel DR2.
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