Modest Adjustments

That well-known bulwark against religious fanaticism, the Righteous State, has been having a bit of trouble with its own officially-sponsored god-botherers. Bearded lunatics are on the rise, demanding gender-segregated public spaces and bans on images of women in advertising. This of course presents a cruel dilemma to any country which aspires to be a genuine European colony, let alone a fully-paid-up deputy of the World Cop by the grace of God. The government has given a little ground, ordering the "targeted adjustment" (censorship, in Oldspeak) of material on human reproduction and contraception in the textbooks used at junior-high faith schools. Images of women are not covered by the changes: "The image of women has a place and expression in school textbooks," condescended the education ministry. More to the point, an advertising and beach-tourist business without pictures of female flesh would be no business at all.