This Is What a Real Woman Looks Like

Remember the NSFW Life Ball poster that drove Austria mad? Looks like the photograph of a woman with breasts AND penis got so high up some people’s grill that the Freedom Party (FPÖ) (i.e. Austria’s far-right assholes) took it upon themselves to show us “what a real woman looks like”.

Enter the poster above. Put together by the Youth division of the FPÖ (Ring Freiheitlicher Jugend), this naked, blonde and blue-eyed female is the bigots’ response to transgender reality TV personalities, Conchita Wurst, gender-sensitive pronouns and other recent attempts at making Austria a slightly better place.

“Don’t forget,” proclaims the Aryan beauty, demurely covering her real breasts and non-existent penis with the RFJ flag: “Real women a) have no beard or penis, b) don’t need a quota to be successful, c) need no gender-sensitive language.“

I got in touch with Werner Wassicek, regional chairman of the RFJ, to ask him what the fuck.

VICE: What exactly is a “real woman” and what separates her from “fake women”?
Werner Wassicek: A real woman doesn’t need a beard or a penis. She doesn’t need quota regulations or gender debates. A real, strong woman distinguishes herself through skill, strength and confidence.

Are real women allowed to look different to the woman in your poster?
Of course they are. Unfortunately we didn’t have enough space on the pamphlet to fit all the different types of women.

You say that women have no beard and no penis. What exactly is the problem if she happens to have one of those things?
It becomes a problem when those features are the only reasons a woman is pushed into the spotlight. Would Conchita Wurst have won if she appeared on stage as Tom Neuwirth?

What’s the message behind your poster? Do women have to get naked in order to prove that they are “real”?
No, the message is directed against gender madness and against letting absurd developments get more attention than they deserve. It is indeed a side blow against those who preach tolerance but remain intolerant when it comes to normality and freedom of speech.

Is Conchita Wurst’s victory at the ESC and the depiction of a transgender model on the Life Ball poster worrying to you?
It’s not only about the ESC or the Life Ball poster. It’s also about being open- or narrow-minded and about being tolerant or intolerant. But these are absurd developments and we wanted to show that with this campaign.

You say are against gender debates and positive discrimination, because they don’t lead to equality. But are these things also harmful to some groups?
I don’t know a single woman who is treated equally just because of gender debates or positive discrimination. I’m not talking about hypocritical equal treatment but about the fact that men still earn more than women and women are put off with low paid maternity leave. These are the problems of our times, none of which are resolved by gender debates or quota regulations. Would you want to have surgery performed on you by a woman not cause of her skill but because of quota regulations? I don’t.

The “Team” section of your website lists seven men and one woman. What’s behind this arrangement? Aren’t there more women who want to join the RFJ?
We don’t have to fulfil a quota. What matters is individual performance and motivation.

Were there any women involved in the making of this campaign?
Yes, two men and two women were involved in the planning and editing of the campaign. It would be pretty insane to build a campaign about women but not involve any women.

What is it exactly that you are trying to protect the youth from? Are you afraid that beards and penises are contagious?
It’s not about a fictitious contagion. It’s about showing our youth that there is another way to look at the world. You don’t have to approve of everything the media presents us with. You can swim against the current and there is no need to embrace every new development.

Some of your posters write: “Don’t let yourself get genderised – aimed at today’s women and girls.” What exactly is „genderisation“ and what does it lead to?
It’s a play on words. Sometimes you have to read between the lines.