'Babes' calendar not Irish enough
Howard Lake | 11 November 2008 | News
A charity calendar in aid of a homelessness organisation has run into controversy not because it features bikini clad women but because it contains no Irish women. Just four of the 700 applicants for the ‘Girls of Ryanair’ calendar were Irish — despite the proceeds going to an Irish charity.
The 2009 edition, launched in Dublin yesterday, is once again filled with female Ryanair cabin crew from all over Europe but no Irish women featured in the latest calendar after just four applied. Suggestions of prejudice against Irish girls were flatly denied by Ryanair.
The calendars are priced at €10 each and the airline is hoping to raise €100,000 for the Simon Community which cares for the homeless.
Top model Rosanna Davidson, speaking to the Irish Independent, said she believed more of an effort should have been made to involve Irish women in the fundraising project. “If I was organising it, I would have made sure that Irish women were involved because it’s an Irish charity and Irish fundraising. Any person from any part of Europe would say that Irish women are gorgeous.”
Simon’s Dublin CEO, Sam McGuinness, defended the airline’s decision to feature bikini-clad women. “Ryanair have shown a genuine interest in helping and we have taken it at that level,” he said.
Last year’s calendar sparked a backlash from women’s rights groups, including Spanish organisation FACUA, which accused Ryanair of presenting female flight attendants as “sexual objects”.
And in a tongue-in-cheek move that is now typical of the Ryanair PR machine, a free copy of the new calendar is to be sent to the agency. “Ryanair expects that these typical humourless groups will again oppose Ryanair’s 2009 cabin crew calendar, but at least they will have the benefit of 13 stunning Ryanair babes throughout the year,” a statement read.
www.dublinsimon.ie
About Howard Lake
Howard Lake is consultant editor of UK Fundraising. He founded the site in 1994 and successfully sold it in 2022. As director of Giving X Ltd he is exploring growing giving on a massive scale.
He is the founder of Fundraising Camp and co-founder of GoodJobs.