One step at a time, we are changing the culture
It is always encouraging to hear from members who say they have been inspired by Collective Shout and are now taking action in their own community. We heard from one such member recently, who left this comment on our blog post about Roger David and City Beach selling degrading t-shirts. In his comment, Ben said he sent the following email to those who introduced him to Collective Shout:
….I thought I would drop you all a quick note to encourage you to sign up for the Collective Shout initiative, but to also go one step further when you can!
Tonight I went to our local Target store, and while walking through the men’s clothing section I stumbled across a rack of ‘Rip Curl’ shirts standing in full view of passersby. One of these shirts had 4 pictures of the one naked lady repeated on the front of it, with a simple black bar covering the centre section of her breasts. I was quite shocked to see this at Target, and inspired by this Collective Shout initiative I went in search of a manager. Praise God – I actually found three managers standing talking to each other! All three followed me back to the rack of clothing, and when I pointed it out to them and told them I found it offensive they completely agreed and understood. The three managers immediately removed the shirts (about 20 or more) from the rack, and informed me they would take the shirts directly to the store manager. All three men openly agreed that those shirts should not be on display or for sale in a family store. So, congratulations to Target in Toowoomba for happily agreeing with a customer to remove offending material.
Can I encourage you all to take it up with local store managers if you see offensive items, as well as join the Collective Shout.
Can I also encourage you to give praise were praise is due – the other day I realised that our local newsagent was no longer displaying pornographic magazine advertising outside the front of their store, so I went in to the store and congratulated them on removing that sort of material – sadly, it turns out I was the first person to have congratulated them on taking this stand. Can I encourage you all to give praise to stores that do change their ways if you see it to encourage them to continue to do a good job.
Thank you for this good news item Ben. We know that others will be inspired to do the same.
Sisterhood by Kate Wilson
While we’re on the topic of speaking out, check out this amazing poem by Kate Wilson. Love your work Kate.
5 Comments
Yay — good on you, Ben!
I love to hear about successes. I expect them to be rare, but I still speak out if I feel the need.
Last week I saw in my local pharmacy a large display of playboy brand perfume. I was very nervous as I went and spoke to the pharmacist. I shared my concerns with her, that playboy was a pornographic brand, a brand that degrades women, and I didn’t think it was appropriate to promote this brand at a pharmacy where families, children, etc frequently visited. I was as polite as I could be, and she said she would talk to the employee in charge of fragrances and cosmetics. I left not knowing if she thought I was a complete fool or if she saw any merit in what I said. I had no expectation of any changes being made, but just could not stand by and say nothing, as I and many others have to go there with children.
A few days later, I went to the pharmacy and the display had been completely removed. I don’t know if anyone else said anything, or why exactly they removed it, but I consider it a success!
Well done Ben!
That’s great Caitlin! Totally understand the nerves as it can be quite daunting approaching these stores, but well worth doing and indeed, necessary if we are to see changes made. In this case it sounds like it was your comments that caused them to change the display. Good on you!
And well done to Ben as well, when we saw his comment we loved it and thought more people should read it.
Great to see these good news stories coming in, we need to hear them.
This is awesome! I have shivers all over..