Moms Push for Family-Friendly
Checkouts
Parents
in Abbotsford, B.C., want their local grocery stores to set aside at
least one
checkout aisle that is free of sexually explicit magazine covers, The Province reported.
The group hopes to
protect their children from routine exposure to suggestive headlines
while
waiting in line.
“I
had my seven-year-old son ask me what an orgasm was,” said Shelly
Wielenga.
“I’ve
had my child ask me, ‘Mommy, what’s naughty sex?’ ” Tricia Kolsto told CTV British Columbia. Kolsto
also recalls her
nine-year-old daughter trying to pronounce the words she saw on a
magazine
cover, not realizing their sexual connotations.
Kolsto
and Wielenga, who lead a group they started called Abbotsford
Families United, have launched a
petition calling on stores to remove the magazines from at
least one
checkout aisle.
“If
they have 10 or 11 tills open, why can’t they give us one?” Kolsto
asked. “We
just want a choice. Just like people have a choice to buy the
magazines, we
want to have a choice not to look at them.”
Initial
reaction to the petition has been mixed. To Gagan Khera, a young adult,
the two
women are overreacting. “Everyone has a choice. It’s a free country,”
she told The
Province. “There’s a lot worse out there.” By contrast, grandparent
Kooner
Piar believes these sorts of magazines “should be banned. Get rid of
it.”
But
Wielenga insists they are not trying to act like censors. “[The
magazines] have
the right to free speech,” she said, “but we want to protect the rights
of our
kids.”
“I
appreciate where these parents are coming from. I say good
for them,” Pam Willis, executive director of the Women’s Resource
Society of
the
“Women’s
groups around the world are concerned about this – the language used,
and the
way women are portrayed.”
Overwaitea Food Group spokesperson Julie Dickson told The Province the company is “testing the notion of family-friendly checkouts” and is awaiting customer feedback before deciding whether to adopt such a policy.
