Look what they've done to France's national icon

This image has caused outrage in France. Created for a government advertising campaign, it's being seen as a demeaning depiction of Marianne, the icon of the French republic (as portrayed by ­Delacroix in 1830). The aim is to promote a £31bn debt-financed spending plan – to help stimulate economic growth – and some critics say the ad ­implies a woman's role is to make babies, while men deal with the economy. Here's that controversy in full: The hat Marianne's Phrygian cap – as her traditional conical headwear is known – tends to be revolutionary red. In white it looks "as though she's wearing a shower cap", says one critic. Or like she's just mugged Papa Smurf. Neither is a good look. The dress Some people have balked at the use of white to represent French womanhood, a colour associated with virginity, monoculturalism and the aristocratic Ancien ­Régime. There are also science-fiction connotations. Is this woman about to produce a ­bouncing French child or a being from another dimension? The pregnancy The advertising firm behind this image has explained, ­perplexingly, that "the crystal pureness represents this ­beautiful moment of ­motherhood that enshrines the full potential of the big loans". Feminist bloggers are having none of it. "The hand of the state should not be in my uterus," goes one ­typically strident comment. Vive la France!