The ban would include gift products that contain distasteful or offensive content including those that are homophobic or sexist.
From phallic bottle openers to branded shot glasses, it’s never hard to find tacky souvenirs in a tourist spot. But there is one European city that is looking to introduce regulations on how far bad taste can go in these gifts. designed for tourism massive.
He Barcelona’s town hall is studying prohibiting the display and sale of ‘souvenirs’ that they define as “offensive or in bad taste.” This would include products that contain “homophobic or sexist” content.
Los ‘souvenirs‘ of Barcelona degrade the city
A councilor described the kiosks and stores that promote these products as a “unfortunate disaster” what degrades the city. The concilor Jordi Coronas has criticized the bad taste of the ‘souvenirs’ displayed in the streets of Ciutat Vella, the oldest neighborhood in the city of Barcelona.
These include “penises with the Barcelona brand and t-shirts with messages sexist, homophobic or simply in bad taste.” “They devalue the most visited streets in Barcelona,” said Coronas.
Barcelona is considering banning some ‘souvenirs’
Earlier this week, Coronas and other councilors presented their proposal to regulate souvenirs. The motion of the independence group Republican Left of Catalonia was approved by the economic commission of the City Council, which allows them to study the prohibition of “offensive” ‘souvenirs’.
All this occurs just a week before the celebrations of the Pride in the city. Reportedly, Barcelona’s Deputy Mayor for Economy,Jordi Vallssupports the initiative and has promised that the city government will examine ways to limit display and sale of ‘souvenirs’ of bad taste.
How do you measure bad taste or aesthetic quality?
However, he warned that it would be difficult introduce concrete rules since the current regulations cannot establish any “regulatory criteria on the content or aesthetic quality of the memory”.
“It is difficult to standardize it because what is considered in bad taste is a matter of very high subjectivity”, he claimed. Coronas has advocated for a imaginative solution to overcome the difficulties in introducing the ban.
