Thread: What do you think of Violence against women storefront display?

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Just a bit of background about myself, I am a peer supporter for Western Ottawa Resource Centre. It is a program that pairs women in the community with women who have experienced abuse. One of my fellow peer supporters was downtown and noticed the storefront with a disturbing display. I do not have photos. Here is her email:

I have just been downtown and I was compelled to go into a clothing store and ask if their marketing policy was one that promoted violence against women. I was assured that this wasn't so. I then suggested that if this was the case they might just want to change their window dressing that was showing half a woman's blood splattered 'body' - cut in half by a chain saw, lying on the 'ground' beside this naked body was one red high heel shoe, There were a couple of other chain saws in the display.

The assistant, who was probably a student earning some money, told me it was for 'Halloween fun'. I suggested that she find out what kind of fun she was promoting.


How far is too far for a Halloween display? I think this one crossed the line.

Well, I'm not a fan of that sort of Halloween decorating to begin with, but your friend may be reading too much into it -- as well as being rather selective in her outrage. If the display the you've described "crossed the line", then nearly every horror movie (slasher genre, etc.) made over the last 30 years must have crossed the line too. *shrug*

Hmmmm ..... Let me start this post off by saying I totally support your work with violence against woman or this with violence against anyone, man, woman, or child, but I have to respond by saying maybe that you are being a bit extreme? I mean Halloween isn't suppose to be all about cute little Blowmolds and Inflatables that look like something from Disney. (To those who are into Blowmolds and Inflatables my apologies all I can say is to each their own). I guess if this store crossed the line then you would be picketing my house since I have a bloody female head coming out of the grave with skeleton arms and hands, not to mention the female severed heads I have on stakes! Or would you find my female flying crank ghost offensive? The point is Halloween is about the DEAD, the "underworld", and part of this is the illusion of many haunts or even store front displays is of the shock and gore that goes trying to scare the public that visit. Would you have found this store display offensive if it was a man cut in half by a chainsaw? Enough said....no flame wars please.

I don't think this storefront was about "violence against women." I think this lady, for obvious reasons, has a heightened sensitivity to this kind of thing and quite honestly I think she's reading things into the display that aren't intended to be there. If I saw this storefront I'd probably think it was cool.

Make sure this lady never watches a film called The Poughkeepsie Tapes!

I have to agree with everyone else here. I think because of heightened sensitivities that it became an issue. Would said friend have had the same reaction if it was a MAn that had been slaughtered? my guess is not likely. Just because the "victim" happened to be female, it does not necessarily mean that the store endorses violence against women...It means they endorse Halloween. I think when people become TOO sensitive/passionate about certain things like this, they can actually do the cause more harm than good. By this I mean that if your friend ends up coming into any store that decorates gruesomely and accuses them of promoting violence against women, she's going to come across as a kook or a lunatic, not someone that is properly advocating for the cause. This happens in a lot of things...I have friends that are SOOOO pro-breastfeeding, that they actually do more harm to the pro breastfeeding cause than good, because they unintentionally make other women feel guilty for using formula, or intimidate them. Although the intentions are good, they come across mixed to others who aren't as passionate/sensitive about a certain topic, and then the person trying to advocate for the cause look like crazies (for lack of a better term) I tell my friends when they are crossing the line between breastfeeding advocate and crazy liberal hippie nutjobs :P Just try to tell your friend to keep a level head, and try to look at it from another perspective. If she wants to see a store that "advocates" violence against women, there was recently a an ad placed in an edmonton hair salons shop that showed a woman with a black eye, etc standing next to her husband, and the ad said something like "your hair will look good no matter what you're doing" ...have her take a look at that, and compare the two scenarios...they are much different. It's all about perspective, and maybe hers is a bit oversensitive, so she should take a look at other things to compare. Then maybe she will see that there was no harm meant good luck1

Maybe this is a bit like pornography....it's subjective.

Does this woman get upset or offended from movies? I.E. Psycho or Silence of the lambs These movies all have murdered/killing of woman.

I think she is over reacting to this.

Would it be less offensive if the victim were a man? If yes, then why?
I will say though, as far as the display goes, it's definitely not my kind of Halloween fun.

Overreaction.

Since none of us have seen the actual display--I think it is difficult for anyone here to judge the display. The one thing that stands out to me in the description of the scene is that it was a naked body--which is different from it just being a torso--if that description is accurate--the scene may have more sexual overtones that could make someone see it in a different light then just your everyday gory Halloween scene.

I think it is great that a store is celebrating Halloween, but for a commercial business this might be pushing the line--they are in business to attract customers--I don't know that potentially offending customers would be a great sales tactic, but unless I actually saw the scene it is next to impossible to guess what their intentions were.