In protest of PacSun’s ‘pornographic’ t-shirts, a mom buys all of them
She told KTVX, "The bottom of one woman is completely uncovered and it's a very provocative pose that she's in.” She added that her concerns were mostly with the fact that children would be viewing those images in the display. Ms. Cox spoke to the store manager about her complaint. According to the Daily Herald, the manager told Cox that she had already refused to put up an accompanying banner with the display because she thought it was worse. But she couldn’t take the t-shirts down without speaking to the corporate office.
Still, the concerned mother was not able to shake her thoughts saying, "As I was leaving the mall I just had this thought come to me that I can't leave it. I can't let it stay in the window for three or four more days while someone makes a decision." She put her money where her mouth was and decided to purchase all of the t-shirts she had a problem with, spending a total of $567 on the 19 shirts.
"I told her it didn't matter what the cost was that I just wanted every single one, including the displays to be out of the store," she recalled. Cox told KUTV 2 News, that if the store gets another shipment of the tees, she’ll be back to buy all of them once again. Plus, she plans on returning the t-shirts for a full refund at the end of the store’s 60-day return policy.
The Daily Herald confirmed that the store manager contacted the PacSun corporate headquarters about Cox’s complaint and the district manager was aware of it. However, PacSun did not return calls from the newspaper.
Ms. Cox also talked to the mall management to ask that they enforce their lease agreement which includes an indecency clause. Rob Kallas, the mall manager, said that Cix was not the only one that issued a complaint to the mall and their protocol is to talk to the store manager, alert the mall management, and then consult the Orem city attorney. Kallas said, “The city attorney then determines if it is violating city codes…We are watching it closely."
The University Mall is home to a Victoria’s Secret store as well, which Cox admits, also displays images of women in the same state of undress in their windows. However, she told KUTV that the two are different, “It's a lingerie store you're not going in and purchasing a shirt with a pornographic image on the shirt. People are buying lingerie."
Cox is not stopping at her t-shirt buying. She intends to meet with the city attorney to end campaigns like the one in the PacSun window. She has also contacted the organizations, One Million Moms and Women for Decency, about her cause.
Ms. Cox told KTVX, "I hope it sends a really strong message to PacSun that at least in this community this is not a standard for us this, this is not something we approve of."
