Italy Is Planning a National Sex Day, and It's Already Going Horribly

At least the intentions were noble? Sort of.

On September 22, Italy will hold it's very first "Fertility Day," allegedly because there aren't enough Italian babies being born in the country. (Note: Italians do not get off work on Fertility Day so they can concentrate on procreating. It's a day of events to educate Italians on family planning and get them pumped to start their own families.)

To promote Fertility Day, the Italian government started a social media campaign under the #FertilityDay hashtag intended to get Italians proactive in the face of falling birthrates. And good lord is that campaign a disaster.

Here's a taste:

According to Quartz, one slogan reads, "Beauty has no age. But fertility does," and another says, "Male fertility is much more vulnerable than you might think." Nothing threatening or insensitive about that. "Get a move on!" urges a third slogan, and a fourth says, "Young parents. The best way to be creative," which is funny, because Italy has an incredibly high unemployment rate among young people, and having babies isn't exactly a solution. Quartz also points out that gender discrimination in the workplace is high in Italy—no wonder #FertilityDay came across as insincere to potential mothers.

So yes: Threats, thinly veiled insults, and a troubling workplace culture sure to not make a good environment in which to start a family.

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