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Europe
Sweden: Army castrates heraldic lion
2007-12-13
Protests from female soldiers have led to the Swedish military removing the penis of a heraldic lion depicted on the Nordic Battlegroup's coat of arms. The armed forces agreed to emasculate the lion after a group of women from the rapid reaction force lodged a complaint to the European Court of Justice, Göteborgs-Posten reports.

But although the army was eventually happy to make the changes in the interests of gender equality, the artist who designed the insignia was less than pleased. "A heraldic lion is a powerful and stately figure with its genitalia intact and I cannot approve an edited image," Vladimir A Sagerlund from the National Archives told Göteborgs-Posten.

Sagerlund blasted the army for making changes to the coat of arms without his permission. "The army lacks knowledge about heraldry. Once upon a time coats of arms containing lions without genitalia were given to those who betrayed the Crown," said Sagerlund.

But the castrated lion has already won the day and is now worn on the arms of all soldiers in the battle group's Swedish battalions.

"We were given the task of making sure the willy disappeared," Christian Braunstein from the army's 'tradition commission' told Göteborgs-Posten. "We were forced to cut the lion's willy off with the aid of a computer," he added.

The Nordic Battlegroup is one of eighteen such military groups in the European Union. Some 2,000 of its 2,400 soldiers come from Sweden, with the rest coming from Finland, Norway, Ireland and Estonia.
Posted by:mrp

#11  PATCH > Personally I don't see anything offensive about the design - OTOH, WTH IS GOING ON IN SWEDEN AS PER THE MEDIA'S OTHER ARTICLES!?
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-12-13 22:50  

#10  Is this the "cutting edge" of Swedish military technology?
Posted by: Mike   2007-12-13 18:45  

#9  a group of women from the rapid reaction force

And what rapid reaction is that exactly? Whining?
Posted by: SteveS   2007-12-13 16:14  

#8  

YIKES!
Posted by: Dick Arbusto, CEO of Hallibushwater   2007-12-13 14:31  

#7  So it's offical. The Swedish army has lost its nads.
Posted by: ed   2007-12-13 12:52  

#6  The lion now has a Mohawk with mullet. No that's offensive to Native Americans. It just has the mullet.
Posted by: Nimble Spemble   2007-12-13 12:05  

#5  did they shave the mane??? if not, then it is still sexist.
Posted by: Abu do you love   2007-12-13 11:54  

#4  talk about a metaphor.
Posted by: Whomong Guelph4611   2007-12-13 11:01  

#3  Note how feminists are always caught out in their penis envy...
Posted by: M. Murcek   2007-12-13 09:23  

#2  A lion without a penis is either a female lion, in which case the logo is still "sexist", or it is a castrated lion in which case it is most probably accurate.
Posted by: Excalibur   2007-12-13 09:21  

#1  "The army lacks knowledge about heraldry."

No sh*t.

More feminism gone stupid. I remember one of our VMAQ squadrons getting rid of the playboy bunny logo after tail hook, I could almost see the logic though still thought it was lame P.C. crap. In the sweede case; I can only imagine the time wasted discussing a logo's genitalia in staff meetings. And these dudes used to be the vikings? Now clearly the viqueens. Oh well, the way the weak ass sweedes are going in 50 yrs they'll give the lion a scimitar and an abaya - but don't name him mohammad.

Posted by: Broadhead6   2007-12-13 08:50  

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