LABELLED by some as “demeaning” and “offensive” and by others as “hilarious” and “good advertising”, a painted window display on the front of Auburn St jewellery store Chiang Rai Charlie’s had Goulburn buzzing earlier in the week.
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It all began on Tuesday afternoon, when a complaint received by the Post highlighting the painted image (depicting an animated Santa Claus groping a blonde-woman’s breasts and saying “What a set!”) to be “disgusting”.
The image, which has since been re-painted, sparked a heated debate on the Goulburn Post Facebook page.
Posed with the question “What do you think? Is this a festive adornment gone too far?” many leapt to the defence of the store, saying it simply looked like Santa was giving the woman a necklace.
“I had to look at it for a little while to try and ascertain what the issue was. Really? This is offensive? At least she is a better sort than the one in the Empire Hotel’s window some months back. I see way more offensive things wandering around the streets and the Goulburn Plaza/Centro,” Shaz Wilcox wrote.
“It depends on the mind of who’s looking at it. A prude will say it’s inappropriate, someone with a dirty mind will giggle and innocent minds will just see that Santa has given a lady a necklace,” another user, Maree Blake, said.
“(It’s) no worse than the Christmas picture painted on a local business window many years ago now of Santa on a chimney with his pants around his ankles ... But I can understand why some people would not like it.
That’s their choice,” Rebecca Doughty said.
Still, while majority of the feedback saw no problem with the picture there were still those who saw the imagery as “tacky” and “sexualising”.
“The fact that you can say that an image on the front window of a local shop of Santa groping a woman’s breast while saying “what a set”is not inappropriate speaks volumes. This image is degrading to women and completely unnecessary. What are we teaching our kids when we project such images in the public arena?” Sally Nicholson wrote.
Country Labor candidate for Goulburn Ursula Stephens and Goulburn MP (and Minister for Women) Pru Goward were among those against the cartoon.
“This is a pretty tacky effort, and not one appreciated by many local people. I’ve already had several calls of complaint,” Dr Stephens told the Post.
“I told that him that he was sexualising Christmas and asked that he consider the appropriateness of the image,” Ms Goward said.
A store spokesperson confirmed the image was painted on to the shop front on Tuesday morning and wished not to comment on the matter.
The Post was unable to reach the store owner for comment by the time of print.
