A Taiwan People’s Party (TPP) spokesperson on Sunday defended against accusations of objectification following criticism over sexualized flight attendant outfits worn by dancers at a campaign event.
The controversial dancers performed on Saturday at the inaugural event of a women’s campaign support group for TPP Chairman and presidential candidate Ko Wen-je (柯文哲) in Taipei.
The Taoyuan Flight Attendants’ Union in a statement condemned the “terrible objectification and sexualization” of flight attendants and demanded an apology from Ko and TPP Taipei City Councilor Chang Chih-hao (張志豪), a former pilot who organized the performance.
Photo: Liu Hsin-de, Taipei Times
Less than a week before, the union had delivered a petition to the National Human Rights Commission calling for a ban on discriminatory dress code requirements for female flight attendants among Taiwan’s major airlines, which still mandate pencil skirts and enforce appearance rules.
Ko’s campaign spokeswoman Chen Chih-han (陳智菡) said that the performers were part of a professional dance troupe that chose the outfits based on the theme of the dance.
“There was no intention whatsoever of disrespecting or objectifying any profession,” she added.
People these days are finding fault with Ko at every turn, she said, asking whether the troupe would also be accused of disrespecting Japanese or Korean people if they wore kimonos or hanbok.
“No organization or individual has the right to demand an apology for exhibiting one’s bodily autonomy,” Chen added.
Chang also defended the performance, saying the organizers wanted to hold an event that showcases beauty.
“That’s a good thing,” he said. “There was no objectification of women. Everyone is reading too much into it.”
A magnitude 4.9 earthquake struck off Tainan at 11:47am today, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said. The hypocenter was 32.3km northeast of Tainan City Hall at a depth of 7.3km, CWA data showed. The intensity of the quake, which gauges the actual effect of a seismic event, measured 4 in Tainan and Chiayi County on Taiwan's seven-tier intensity scale, the data showed. The quake had an intensity of 3 in Chiayi City and County, and Yunlin County, while it was measured as 2 in Kaohsiung, Nantou County, Changhua County, Taitung County and offshore Penghu County, the data showed. There were no immediate reports of
Weather conditions across Taiwan are expected to remain stable today, but cloudy to rainy skies are expected from tomorrow onward due to increasing moisture in the atmosphere, according to the Central Weather Administration (CWA). Daytime highs today are expected to hit 25-27°C in western Taiwan and 22-24°C in the eastern counties of Yilan, Hualien, and Taitung, data on the CWA website indicated. After sunset, temperatures could drop to 16-17°C in most parts of Taiwan. For tomorrow, precipitation is likely in northern Taiwan as a cloud system moves in from China. Daytime temperatures are expected to hover around 25°C, the CWA said. Starting Monday, areas
Taiwan has recorded its first fatal case of Coxsackie B5 enterovirus in 10 years after a one-year-old boy from southern Taiwan died from complications early last month, the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) said yesterday. CDC spokesman Lo Yi-chun (羅一鈞) told a news conference that the child initially developed a fever and respiratory symptoms before experiencing seizures and loss of consciousness. The boy was diagnosed with acute encephalitis and admitted to intensive care, but his condition deteriorated rapidly, and he passed away on the sixth day of illness, Lo said. This also marks Taiwan’s third enterovirus-related death this year and the first severe
A Taiwanese software developer has created a generative artificial intelligence (AI) model to help people use AI without exposing sensitive data, project head Huang Chung-hsiao (黃崇校) said yesterday. Huang, a 55-year-old coder leading a US-based team, said that concerns over data privacy and security in popular generative AIs such as ChatGPT and DeepSeek motivated him to develop a personal AI assistant named “Mei.” One of the biggest security flaws with cloud-based algorithms is that users are required to hand over personal information to access the service, giving developers the opportunity to mine user data, he said. For this reason, many government agencies and
RSS