“Mmm, yes, right here”: in Sweden, “talking” trash cans with female voices and erotic messages create unease

In Malmö, Sweden, two trash cans installed on the David Hall Bridge now greet onlookers with small interjections.

"Mmmmmm... thank you...", "oh yes, right here", "Mmm, a little more to the left next time", we hear a whisper when we put garbage in one of the containers.

If the initiative was initially intended to encourage, through humor, the inhabitants of the city to selective sorting, the robotic voice seeming straight out of a pornographic film, now arouses unease.

Especially since it is exclusively female.

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Deemed sexist, these messages with overtly erotic connotations were quick to provoke the ire of Swedes, denouncing the project with videos posted on social networks.

"Uh, the public trash cans in Sweden that groan when you open them to make people throw more on the floor... haha, when are you dropping the jacket on us?

To believe that women are good than to not be respected”, annoyed a user.

Just for Laughs

Faced with the growing controversy, the city tried to justify itself in the columns of a Swedish daily.

“The phrases are part of the campaign's intention to get people talking about the dirtiest thing there is: garbage,” department section chief Marie Persson told the

on June 8. last.

And to add: "Recording this sexy voice is a funny new way to get our message across, and to encourage people who do the right thing by making them laugh".

Certainly, but perhaps clumsily.

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Because this initiative could well relaunch the debate, more general, on the sexualization of female voices in the digital world.

Indeed, as our colleagues from

magazine point out , voice assistants, smartphones, connected speakers, GPS, etc. have mostly female voices, sending back the signal that they are more helpful, docile than men.

A CSA report dating from 2017 also noted that “67% of advertisements showing a sexualized character choose to represent women”.