I’m more or less a good, law-abiding person – but I really, really want to kick up my heels and do some good old fashioned political vandalism up in here.
There’s a store at the corner of Pender and Granville in downtown Vancouver that was very lazily hit with graffiti. Someone had walked by the store’s two sides – it’s on the corner – while holding down the nozzle of a spray paint can. It’s annoying, but it’s not like someone tagged the store or broke windows or even did anything other than the young punk version of walking along a wall with a crayon.
The store, however, decided that instead of cleaning it up, they’d take a stand and put up a “poor me” display in the window. They added large letters that say something like:
This isn’t a statement
This isn’t political
This is just vandalism
Okay, we get it. Graffiti is annoying and costs everyone money, and this time maybe the graffiti wasn’t really bad enough to warrant the cost of a cleaning. Still, the “waaaaaaaah” tone of the message pisses me off – because the store in question is one of the only places left in Vancouver that still proudly sells fur.
I really, really want to print out a whole bunch of huge stickers that say:
This isn’t glamorous
This isn’t fashion
This is just murder
.. and stick ’em all over the store front on both sides. Fur sucks. It’s pointless and cruel. You want a statement? I’ll give you one: selling fur in the name of fashion in 2011 is disgusting; as is your “wah, everyone hates us for NO REASON” sniffling.
I’m not a vegetarian – you can’t imagine the number of meats I’m planning on eating today – or a fan of PETA, but I do think that fur is stupid unless a) it’s been in your family for generations (ie was made before knew any better) or b) you live in the friggin’ Arctic Tundra. Hell, even if you killed the animal yourself to provide food for your family and decided to make yourself a snappy coat out of the leftovers is acceptable. But buying it in a store for the sheer purpose of showing others how much money you have is tasteless beyond belief, and it makes me feel all kinds of righteous ire and fury. It makes me want to break things. Hell, it makes me want to throw paint cans. That’ll give them something to complain about.
I’ve never really protested or activismed before. Maybe it’s a good time to start. I have sharpies and cardboard – who’s up for sign-making and chants?
booooo stuff
delicious juice dot com 
I couldn’t agree with you more. I’d love to see you plaster “said” store with your signage. Go Kimli, go!
I agree with you about fur, but this business did not deserve this action and their letter shouldn’t be construed as whiny, it’s true, someone was being a dick and that’s all.
Fur is crap, but so is smoking and processed meals. They have a dying business, we shouldn’t get in the way of it through vandalism nor chastise their bad luck by calling it whiny. Make people change their minds about fur, don’t destroy someone’s business through vandalism (talking about paint bombing).
As long as they aren’t breaking the law they are fulfilling a shitty market demand and the only appropriate method for dealing with this is to eliminate the market through education or legislation not vandalism or heavy handed threats which some organizations are known to promote.
– JC
Kimli, you wear leather so people who live in glass houses…
Is it really necessary to wear leather? No. So don’t go around pointing fingers. This is the kind of bullshit that makes me want to vomit when people get holier than thou about anything.
Btw, I have two extremely close friends who work for the company that was vandalized and they sure aren’t whiny about anything.
I wasn’t aware people who wore mink coats also ate the minks when they were done.
Also, aren’t you being holier-than-thou at me about my perceived holiness?
When I said “store”, I was really thinking “owners/head office”, not “people who work retail to pay rent”.
But, y’know, keep on pointin’.