IKEA criticized for male-only comics

Norway's prime minister last week blasted Swedish comics publisher IKEA for a lack of female characters in its popular series, "Instructions For Assembling Your New IKEA Furniture".

"This isn't good enough," Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik told the daily Verdens Gang. "It's important to promote attitudes for sexual equality, especially in comic books aimed at young readers. Girls must be shown that they too can assemble a cabinet using only an Allen wrench and Phillips screwdriver."

Added Bondevik: "And it wouldn't hurt if those furniture-assembling women were really hot and wore skimpy clothing, either."

A spokesman for IKEA responded to the sex discrimination charges, because all the company's spokeswomen were busy fetching coffee and taking dictation. "IKEA is the world's most progressive and innovative comics publisher. We were the first to ship our titles with free pieces of pressboard and random screws, and over the years we've developed a network of retail outlets in 32 countries.

"In some of those countries, women simply aren't allowed to assemble furniture. Or to drive. Or to vote. Or to leave the house by themselves. We've adapted our books to be less offensive to those other cultures, but that in no way reflects our own corporate attitude toward women."

The spokesman then turned and shouted, "Where the hell is that girl with my coffee?"

Prime Minister Bondevik has suggested as a compromise that IKEA depict gender-neutral robots and monkeys assembling furniture. "And if one of those robots could have some cleavage going on, so much the better!"