Since we're big fans of Lithuanian blondes, we fail to see what's wrong with any of this.Empowering blondes or stereotyping them?Hopefully skimpy outfits and heels are also required. Just saying.
The jury is out on a Lithuanian company that plans to build a "fantasy resort" staffed only by blondes in the Maldives.
Olialia (pronounced Oh-la-LA) has created a business empire in Lithuania, using its troupe of glitzy models with platinum hair to market just about anything from potato chips to pop music. There's Olialia pizza and Olialia cola, even Olialia computers.
With the Maldives resort - and plans for an airline linking it to the Baltic republic - Olialia is taking its blond ambition to a new level.
"Blond is light. It attracts people like sunshine," brand manager Lauryna Anuseviciute, a 24-year-old former model, explained at the Olialia office in downtown Vilnius.
In Lithuania, where a big chunk of the population shares Anuseviciute's light hair color - naturally or aided by peroxide - such unabashed glorification of blond beauty doesn't raise many eyebrows.
It remains to be seen how the Olialia concept will be received in the Maldives, a more ethnically diverse archipelago in the Indian Ocean, which requires foreign developers to hire at least 50 percent local staff.
Maldives tourism officials said they had not received any details about Olialia's plans and had not issued any permits.
"We welcome any serious innovations and investment for discussions so long as it is backed by serious finance with a robust and realistic business plan," Simon Hawkins, director of the Maldives Marketing and PR Corporation, wrote in an e-mail. He underlined "realistic."
However, he didn't appear to see the blond requirement as a major hurdle for employees from the Maldives, saying "perhaps they could work behind the scenes, or die their hair?"
No need, according to Anuseviciute. "Staff who are not blond will wear a blond wig to make everyone look similar," she said. The wig will be considered part of their uniform.
Sadly, some object to this. It's racist or something.
Back home, the small women's rights movement is cringing in disgust. Not only is the "blond island" idea demeaning to women, but borderline racist, said Margarita Jankauskaite, director of the Lithuanian Center for Equality Advancement.Cheap beer and cheap blondes? What the heck is wrong with that?
"I am ashamed that this initiative came from my country. This only sends a message to the world that Lithuania is a country of cheap beer and cheap blond women," Jankauskaite said.
By the way, if you can't get enough of Lithuanian blondes, feel free to peruse the photo gallery. You can thank me later.
4 comments:
Howz about I just thank you know. I might be busy later.
I have a head full of white hair, do you think I could get a job there?
Of course not.
The Good Lord certainly did a job on the males of the species: sex, food, sex, sex..maybe some beer.
I am absolutely appalled by this. Very demeaning to women.
/checks airfare to Lithuania
That link goes to a post about Latvian blondes not Lithuanian blondes.
Yes, the two Baltic states are neighbors, but are not the same.
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