French minister sparks controversy by appearing – clothed – on the cover of Playboy

msn.com:

battling strikes and increasingly violent demonstrations against plans to raise the retirement age by two years. Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne, who is only the second woman to occupy the position, called Schiappa personally to tell her that it "was not at all appropriate, especially in the current period", an aide told AFP on Saturday.

Schiappa is currently the minister for the social economy and French associations. She previously served as the minister for gender equality. "Defending the right of women to do what they want with their bodies: everywhere and all the time," Schiappa wrote on Twitter on Saturday. "In France, women are free.

Whether it annoys the retrogrades and hypocrites or not. "The sight of Schiappa wearing designer dresses for a glamour magazine was viewed by some as sending the wrong message, with one person quoted as saying they thought it was an April's Fool joke when they first heard about it. "Where is the respect for the French people?" asked Green MP and fellow women's rights activist Sandrine Rousseau, an outspoken critic of the centrist government. "People who are going to have to work for two years more, who are demonstrating, who are losing days of salary, who aren't managing to eat because of inflation?" she told the BFM channel on Saturday. "Women's bodies should be able to be exposed anywhere, I don't have a problem with that.