Not truly notable news - sex, sexism and sports in reverse order

There were two articles released in the news today that are the kinds of articles that make you pause and ponder - what in the world is going on?!?

The first article covered an employer's guide to Euro Cup 2012. This is  basically an HR guide covering:

• how to handle an expected increase in absenteeism 
• what to do when you're given false medical certificates (something I have experiences with now)
• how to handle it when your employees come back from that extra, extra long lunch break drunk
• how to how to accomodate your employees' viewing hours by creating flexi-hours
• potential charges of sexism, nationalism or other discriminatory issues that may be raised by those uninterested in football (this I found a little sexist - I like football and watch more than some men I know... does this mean the flexi hours are only meant for male Euro Cup viewers?)
• what to do when your suit and tie guys engage in football hooliganism.
• how to handle the betting pool

The second was an article about a primary school principal who was just fired after his S&M porn star past came to light. What a doofus.

But that leads me to some statistics that may be more horrifying than interesting - ok, statistic singular. I don't think I'm jumping leaps and bounds if I say, generally speaking, that European women have a different attitude towards nudity, sex and sexuality than Americans (I'm going to lump UK in with America on this one). And this region of the world sex and sexuality are even less... taboo isn't the right word, more of a non-issue? I don't know what I'm looking for exactly but the approach is more relaxed. Anyway, here's that statistic - approximately (that's a strong start for a statistic, but...) approximately 20% of Czech women have appeared in pornographic material - or at least material that by more American standards would be viewed as pornographic. A number of ads that are printed here would violate American standards for commercial publication. But that's the percentage. I heard it from someone involved with research in the industry who is not prone to over-inflate his figures. That's pretty high.

And leads directly to the billboard we saw on the way to the airport this AM - picture this... dawn rising, a peaceful taxi drive on a highway surrounded by the lush green of a country-side landscape and a billboard appears.... it's a close-up on a business woman - no, not the woman, on her bust. She's wearing a suit - and... ok, wait, it's a suit jacket and a bra, a push-up bra. That's it. It's a giant billboard of some woman's boobs. And the tagline? Boost your business


Here's a link to an article I'd thought I'd linked to earlier but apparently hadn't. It doesn't showcase the billboard we saw today but it definitely will give you a taste for the more outlandish and overtly sexualized advertisements that are displayed here.