After requesting that the “slight cleavage” appearing on the poster for the Dieppe (Seine-Maritime) comic book festival be masked, triggering a controversy, the City finally backtracked and announced that the “original version” would be maintained.
“Today (…) it is time for us to affirm that in Dieppe there was never any question (…) of censorship of artists”, expressed in a press release the PCF mayor of Dieppe Nicolas Langlois and the president of the Norman Comic Strip Association (ANBD) Jean-Pierre Surest. The creation of the poster for the comic strip festival, which will be held on July 22 and 23, was entrusted to designer Jim. The festival’s guest of honor had chosen to have Marie, the heroine of her comic strip Une nuit à Rome (Bambou editions), dressed in a red summer tank top with a slight neckline, and surrounded by books. .
But the town hall had issued “a request” to “modify the poster to remove” this neckline, according to Jean-Pierre Surest. He reported the “problem” to the designer who “transformed the original poster”. “I was not threatened” and “nobody forced me”, assures the president of the ANBD. The new design featured a stack of books in front of the young woman’s tank top. This decision had provoked a lively controversy and a “media frenzy” which prompted the mayor to backtrack. “We must more than ever, collectively, question ourselves about the place of the image of women in the public space, about the systematic choice of an image of a woman to present an event or a product”, justified the mayor in his press release. Women “must in no way be confined to the role and image that some have wanted to impose on them for too long,” he added.
The town hall reminded the daily Paris-Normandie that the poster for a clearance sale held in May presented “a man carrying a woman with shopping bags on his shoulder”, and that “the controversy had spread to social networks which shouted sexism. “Comic festival organizer friends, do you want great visibility? Make the buzz and highlight your beautiful region in the media? A professional at your service, hire me to make the poster”, for his part quipped in a publication on his Facebook page the designer Jim.