to be offended by these posters

[KatyDid02]

I took my DS to a new barber shop that recently opened, it was recommended by a friend and is a local business rather than a chain - which I prefer to support.

DS liked the man running it, he was very pleasant and did a great job which wasn't rushed at all and was a very, very reasonable price. We would go back there at the drop of a hat, however he had a large poster from FHM of several scantily clad women and another which had what I considered to be a very sexist slogan. DS didn't notice them at all.

Would you say something or would you let it go? Would it stop you going there?

"If you went into a female hairdressers that had a "hot hunks" calendar of topless firemen or whatever would anybody stop going there?"

Yeah I would actually. Goes both ways.

olathelawyer, I wouldn't give him 'bad PR', I just wouldn't recommend it.
He can put his pictures up, it's his choice. I just wasn't keen on them, however it might not stop us going back - I've discussed the issue and my objections with DS.

I thought that was just me, Maryz.

It would stop me taking my DS there but I probably wouldn't feed that back to him. I'd just find somewhere else.

Is it this poster?

www.spencersonline.com/product/why-beer-belongs-on-the-bottom-shelf-poster/

I saw it recently in a bar.

I wouldn't take my teenage children back to a barber's that had that poster up. I would have left straight away and not had anyone's hair cut, but I wouldn't say anything to the barber.

I answered up thread and said it wouldn't bother me assuming it was just a few FHM bikini girls..but THAT poster would!
That is inappropriate in a barber that cuts childrens hair!
I think if they advertise childrens prices or try to attract them as customers in other ways it is worth pointing it out to the owner.

Is it that poster? That's horrible. I'd let him know it's offensive

You might also bear in mind that if you bleat about his posters he might tell you that he doesn't want your custom any more, and you'd still have to find another hairdresser. It is, after all, his shop and up to him how he decorates.

But I think your DS probably neither noticed nor cared, and making a big deal out of a few posters is making it a bigger deal for your DS than it needs to be.

Cant see the poster for some reason.
But guesing what it looks like, that sort of thing is insiduous.
And it is part of parenting isnt it. It is up to each parent as to where the line is drawn.
SGB, do you have children?

Yes, it's the poster on the link.

I would say something too.

Something along the lines of how much you liked the haircut, but unfortunately you won't be returning. When he asks why, say you find the poster offensive.

It's not just a woman in a thong, it's the pose, it's the wording, it's the suggestion.

I'd ask him to turn the poster round, or cover it up while he's doing DS, then he can do what he likes after? You're paying him remember so it's not much to ask that he ensures that both Mum and DS feel relaxed.

Yikes, that's revolting. I'd not be getting my children's hair cut there. But as it really is that awful, I also wouldn't be giving him any feedback. Someone couldn't have put that picture up on the wall "innocently", not knowing how it would be seen.

I'd therefore assume that with that picture on the wall he was aiming for a certain sector, being the "laddish" market, and didn't want business from women, children or men other than the really blokey types.

I wouldn't go back. He has actively chosen to put that poster up, in preference to any other more appropriate one. You shouldn't have to point out that in a professional setting where you may have a broad range of potential customers that this kind of poster isn't suitable.

It's pretty sad that the assumption is that this kind of, er, decor is what makes for a welcoming atmosphere for the mostly male clientele of a barbershop, even leaving aside how it makes the occasional mothers with children feel.

Yes, SecondRow, I quite agree. And I don't even think it would be viewed as welcoming by all men. It's not the most sensible example of marketing I've ever seen.

I really hope it wouldn't, lisi. Just musing because my DP went around town trying to get a haircut yesterday and ended up going to about four different places for completely mundane reasons, queues, closed down, whatever. His previous fave was a Turkish barber who was cheap, efficient, and left him with a gentle scent of singed hair wafting out of his ears . He ended up in a slightly alternative-scene second-hand-shop/cafe/hairdressers chatting about music venues. I must ask him this evening what was on the walls, if he even noticed, and indeed what was on the walls in the now-closed, fairly masculine Turkish place.

I wouldnt bat an eyelid and if I discussed the feminist issues surrounding soft porn around here someone would call the psych crisis unit.

Not sure what you mean, debduck. Having concerns about the objectification of women being normalized for children from a young age is somehow akin to experiencing psychosis or distressing mental illness? Or something else?

I wouldn't get my DCs' hair cut with that on the wall for them to look at. Shit, I'd be disappointed if DH went somewhere with that up.

But then I avoid shops that sell lad mags and The Sport and have signed up to The Child's Eyes campaign.

I think we are too casual about overt sexual / sexist imagery as I think it perpetuates sexual stereo typing and inequality. But I appreciate I'm a minority.

I have an 8 year old DS who has recently had his hair cut. I don't recall there being any posters of women on the walls in the barber, but I do know that DS is generally disinclined to take much interest in things that don't interest him IYSWIM. And, as yet, pictures of women are not as interesting (to DS) as maps, pictures of trains, pictures of kids TV characters, or Dr Who.

That's horrible. I would complain to him, and I would make it clear that I would be heartily discouraging any of my friends to visit.

If it's that poster linked to above then I wouldn't be going back even it was removed.

I think if its a new business then they maybe just aren't aware that this is offensive.

I would comment and return depending on what response I got.

Just come back to this after looking at Threads I'm On. I revise my former comments and say that my DS would not have sat down and had his hair cut in that establishment if that was the image he would have had in front of him.

SolidGoldBrass if your son is 8 and currently "disinclined to take much interest in things that don't interest him" do you honestly feel that having that image in front of him for say 10 minutes might not make his young brain make strange connections, unhealthy ones even? Beer = boys/men = girl's/non-boy's arse being "offered" - is your boy able to read? Would he not be trying to fathom something from that picture? It's not like a TV image changing every few seconds that his attention can wander away from and then forget - it IS literally in his face.

OP don't even bother having a conversation with this barber.