The Ministry of the Interior’s online contest to choose the best example of a “nice man” is doing nothing but deepening gender stereotypes, Democratic Progressive Party Legislator Huang Sue-ying (黃淑英) and the Taipei Association for the Promotion of Women’s Rights (TAPWR) said yesterday.
As part of an awareness campaign for the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women, the ministry’s Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault Prevention Committee launched an online contest (www.niceman.org.tw) on Wednesday, asking netizens to name who they felt was the perfect man and to give their reasons why they nominated that person.
Netizens could also cast votes for the “nice man” candidates that others nominated.
Photo: George Tsorng, Taipei Times
However, women’s rights advocates have been describing the contest as a disaster.
“In today’s diverse society, there should not be ‘standardized’ criteria to define what a ‘nice man’ should be. We, as a gender equality advocacy group, are strongly opposed to having any standardized definitions of either a good man or a good woman,” TAPWR secretary-general Kao Pei-chin (高珮瑾) told a news conference at the Legislative Yuan in Taipei.
“Women’s rights advocates fought for decades against the standardized criteria of what a ‘good woman’ should be like,” she said.
“We don’t think it’s right for the government to try to come up with a definition of what a ‘good man’ should be like,” she added.
She said that in one section of the event’s Web site, a woman could randomly pick a quality of a “good” man that she wants to meet, while a man could randomly pick a quality of a “good” woman.
“If the ministry really cares about gender diversity and equality, why does it always have to be a man and a woman pairing up?” Kao said.
Huang agreed with Kao, saying that the design of the online contest is full of gender stereotypes.
“Instead of looking for a ‘nice man,’ I think it’s more important to look for a ‘nice minister,’” Kao said.
“Only when it has a minister with true gender awareness will the ministry be able to do a better job on gender diversity and equality,” she added.
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