Strætó, the company running Iceland’s public transportation system, has announced the winner of their online design competition to decorate one of their buses. The winner is Lena Margrét Aradóttir, whose design has a feminist bent, RÚV reports. The bus features the abbreviation KÞBAVD, which translates as “women just need to be better [at]”, a phrase women are accustomed to hearing as justification for inequality in many areas. The bus design itself also includes ways to complete the sentence, such as “women just need to be better at… watching themselves, smiling, being grateful, applying for leadership positions, not showing their feelings, being calm, demanding a raise, being natural.”
The competition’s popularity caused some hiccups during the process. Due to some technical difficulties, a number of votes had to be thrown out as invalid and the competition had to be extended twice. Nonetheless, Icelanders participated enthusiastically on social media. Over 50,000 people participated in the competition online, according to a press release from Strætó bs. The winning design received 6,960 votes. The runner-up came in close with 6,783 votes.
