Now here’s something worth getting worked up over…
I hope I didn’t step on too many toes by refusing to get worked up over Subway’s faux pas, but here’s something that I do think we all should get more outspoken about: the pornographic ads and commercials that surround us nearly everywhere we go.
I don’t think I’ve done my duty in this area, but I really appreciated Kelly’s heartfelt response to what she saw in a restaurant recently. The manager’s reaction, while far from ideal, struck me as very encouraging. Now I’m feeling inspired and motivated to speak up more. This is an area where we need to stop being so shy and let business owners and managers know how offended we are!
I will set no wicked thing before mine eyes: I hate the work of them that turn aside; it shall not cleave to me. Psalm 101:3
What do you do about the semi-pornographic magazines you see in line at the grocery store? About the R-rated music lyrics that you hear in restaurants? About the X-rated vending machines in gas station bathrooms? About the cardboard Budweiser girl right next to checkout at your local corner store?
So far I’ve done nothing but grumble. Maybe I’ll start by asking Kelly - the sweet, friendly manager of the local corner store - if the Budweiser girl can stay in the back next to the beer case, where most of her admirers will gather. And I can certainly refuse to patronize local gas stations that have those vending machines.
On the road it may be more difficult to make a lasting difference, but in our local community we are without excuse. When the tank of my 15 passenger van costs over $100 to fill and hubby is driving 500 miles back and forth to work each week, our family has some power to wield. Maybe we should be more mindful to wield it to God’s glory.
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Filed under: Christian living, thoughtful stuff
I’m with you, Kim. I take issue with our grocery-stores claim to accommodate “sensitive” customers by providing a magazine free check-out lane. Does that really address the problem? NO! I guess I’ll just have to keep complaining. So, would all of you please complain too, so the grocery store manager can’t tell me I’m the only one that complains?
My parents used to turn the magazines with scantily-clad women around so that the backs showed. I worked at a grocery store for two years, and people still did that. Not that often though, I think. Some are worse than others, picture wise.
Which restaurants have R-rated lyrics playing? Nearly all of them have music, but nearly all of the lyrics I’ve heard are all right…The only R-rated lyrics I can think of would probably be rap, and I’ve never been to a restaurant where they played a lot of rap.
Thanks for this post - it’s inspired me to speak up when I am offended…
Recently I had the “opportunity” to say my two cents worth at a Jalapeno Tree Resturant. There were seminude beer women in the wall paper, quite large in the men’s restroom. I have six boys and didn’t think they needed to get an eye full every time they had to go. Within two weeks the manager had removed them. He didn’t think it was appropriate in a family eating establishment either.
Well said. I have been known to very tactfully discuss the issue of racy magazine photos with the manager of my local grocery store, as do several other moms I know that shop there. There are a couple of ’safe’ lanes, where they have only food and decor magazines, and so we generally go through those to check out.
I very often spend a few minutes turning around the magazines near (on the end caps) because I feel that whoever is looking for one of those magazines might wonder, “Why were all these turned around” and perhaps feel a little check in their conscience for looking at them.
When one magazine I used to subscribe to began featuring ‘gay’ couples homes in their magazine (with disturbing images on the wall in the photos of their home), I fired off a tactful letter stating exactly why I was cancelling my long-time subscription with them.
Conversely, I also write letters when I’m pleased by family friendly changes or ‘clean’ movies that come out. For instance, after watching the delightful story of Beatrix Potter, starring Rene Zellweger, I wrote several letters letting the actress, the movie company and the theater I saw the movie in know that I would continue to attend movies of that caliber. I heard somewhere that every letter a company gets represents how 17,000 other customers feel.
In Southern California where we live, smut is just about everywhere you look and is often times unavoidable (freeway billboards) until you’ve already seen it. However, we’ve discussed often with our son that turning his eyes away from such things and thinking on wholesome, pure things instead greatly pleases the Lord, and will also please his future wife one day, too…knowing that she has a husband that doesn’t have a wandering eye or that turns and drools at all the immodesty.
Preach it!!!! I just blogged on this same issue!
i was wondering what you mean when you say x-rated vending machines? maybe its because im in a different country than you, but the only machines i can think of in bathrooms here (australia) are for feminine products and tissues. and diapers in the parents room. then again, most of the public bathrooms i use are in shopping centres, not petrol stations.
I agree. There are so many things (pictures/music/etc) that are offensive. I say speak your mind and help will come.
In Florida at a Publix Grocery Store, they had a candy free aisle by request of some Mom’s. I asked if they would do a magazine free aisle (I even suggested they just use the candy free one and take the magazines off as well). My son would have to go around and wait for me at the end of the check out lane, so that he would not be distracted. The manager said he could not do that, but if I found one particularly offensive he would remove it. I immediately pointed out several that I felt were pornographic and used that word. He did nothing.
I was turning the really offensive ones around, but now the back is sometimes as offensive as the front.
Hannah,
I think that much of today’s popular music has lyrics that ought to be rated R if we really analyze them; the problem is that we’ve become desensitized to the topics or we’ve learned to tune out the music and lyrics.
Sarah,
Here in the US, many gas stations (esp. remote ones and those along the highway) have vending machines that dispense cond*ms and a wide assortment of other “personal products.”
I just commented at her site that I wondered if the tables were turned how men would react–
Would your husband like to sit next to a life size image of a half naked man in a provocative pose?? YOu know, wearing a French male Bikin bottom???
I don’t think so—yet when it is a woman it is acceptable–uggh so frustrating!