Peace likely to cause conflict
Published by punkass marc June 24th, 2006 in HUH!?In our continuing series on the finer points of confusion and contradiction, let us now examine the Case of the Missouri Mall Code.
Echidne unearthed this story:
A southwest Missouri mall defended its dress code after a security guard told a 10-year-old girl her bandanna decorated with peace signs, smiley faces and flowers violated the mall’s code of conduct.
She was literally on a shopping trip for church clothes when she was told to remove the bandana during lunch by the guard. Her offense?
The officer handed Lydia’s mother a printed copy of the Battlefield Mall Code of Conduct, which prohibits patrons from engaging in certain activities while on mall property.
Lydia had violated No. 10 on the list of 17 offenses: “failing to be fully clothed or wearing apparel which is likely to provide a disturbance or embroil other groups or the general public in open conflict.”
Lordy, lordy. If only we could replenish all the blood that’s been spilled at Battlefield Mall over the peace sign, or put a quarter in the curse jar for every hateful speech it’s incited, or find some way to send a message of peace and understanding to everyone who hates this message of peace and understanding.
Seriously, though, no symbol of liberal politics has been more coopted than the peace sign. It really is at the level of harmlessness of, say, the smiley face. Even Catholic jewelry stores sport the damn thing.
But maybe the mall cop had a bad day. The company could easily laugh this one off.
Christine Moses, director of mall marketing, noted the mall is privately owned and behavior on its premises can be regulated.
“The bottom line is we want to have an environment (conducive) to shopping. Offensive apparel does not fit in with that environment,” she said, although she could not say how the bandanna was offensive.
Offensive apparel. Wow. Would anyone like to bet against how freely I could walk around that mall in this shirt?
I like to think that any of you who saw me in such gear would provide a disturbance or embroil a little conflict, but I guaran-damn-tee you I could get away with wearing this shirt from the mall’s perspective [and rightly so, as lame as it is]. Hell, it’s probably available in Spencer’s Gifts.
I’ll let Les Morris, a rep of the mall’s owners, have the final say:
“The code of conduct is pretty clear, and, you know, I think common sense should prevail.”
4 Responses to “Peace likely to cause conflict”
- 1 Pingback on Jul 7th, 2006 at 7:51 am
True story: a proposed peace sign composed entirely of children ignited a bitter conflict at a PTA meeting I attended last year. I shit you not.
My kid’s elementary school has a tradition in which the kids are told to wear shirts of varying colors and made to stand on the playground in various patterns to be photographed from above by someone on the roof of the school. That photo then appears in the year book.
The year before last, the kids arranged themselves into an American flag. (My kid was a speck of blue in the upper left.) This year, they had planned to form a peace sign, with kids in white forming the actual peace sign and the other kids, all dressed in green, forming the background against which the peace sign would appear.
But someone let the cat out of the bag, and at the PTA meeting before the event, uber-patriotic jackass parents confronted the principal and teachers, accusing them of “slapping our boys overseas in the face” and “undermining troop morale” and “using our kids to make a political statement against President Bush.”
In a tableau reminiscent of the “let’s take it outside you Nazi cow” PTA scene in Field of Dreams, several of us hippie pinko moms tried to shout down the blustering war-monger moms. But we failed to stiffen the spines of the school administrators, who caved and opted instead to have the children form the school mascot, a dolphin. Bad idea — the photo in my kid’s year book looks more like an amoeba than anything else. I guess the outlines of a dolphin are difficult for a squirming mass of K thru 5 younguns to master. Bet they would have made a fine peace sign, though.
Well, there you have it. The peace sign now represents hatred of troops and leaders.
The next time I see it, i’m going to riot on principle.
That’s right! Fuck peace! It hurts our economy.