OPINION: I was lost for words when I read a Palmerston North toy shop's idea of a laugh was to stick on a toilet door an image depicting a man peering over a bathroom cubicle at a woman.
No, actually, I tell a lie. There were a few words that did spring to mind. Disgusted was one of them. Appalled, horrified, shocked. And I sure as hell didn't find it funny.
I am a mum to three very young, very impressionable boys. One of our favourite things to do is to go to our local toy shop and have a look around.
I like taking them to the toy shop because it's a safe space for them where they can make a bit of noise and run around and no one is going to mind, and it's a place where they are surrounded by things kids love. You know the things I mean - model train sets, stuffed animals, building blocks, picture books.
But at no time have I ever been in a toy shop and thought to myself, ''Hey, gosh, you know what's missing here? A bit of casually misogynistic humour that makes light of serious issues like predatory behaviour towards women and the hilarious concept of peeping toms."
Grandmother Suzie Horrobin was absolutely right to complain about the sign she saw when out shopping with her 10-year-old grandson. I would have done exactly the same thing.
Imagine having to explain to your child or grandchild what the sign means. What are we meant to say?
''Oh don't worry honey, it's just that some grown-ups think it's really, really funny to wait until another grown-up is sitting down on the loo and then sneak a look at her doing wee-wees."
To those of you on Facebook - men and women - crying alligator tears over your keyboards and defending the sign as just a bit of humour, this is not "political correctness gone mad".
Because let's be clear about one thing: an image of a man creeping up on a woman, peering over a door and watching her while she's sitting on a toilet is not funny. It's not funny in a pub or a man cave or in Donald Trump's locker room and it's sure as hell not funny IN A CHILDREN'S TOY SHOP.
It makes fun of predatory behaviour, turns it into a joke, and it normalises it. In an age where we have the President of the United States bragging about grabbing women's genitals without their consent, much more care needs to be taken with the messages we send to our kids about what is and isn't acceptable behaviour.
All of that aside, the sign is simply not funny. At all. I am forced to watch The Night Garden with my toddler every day and have a very low threshold for what's funny, and trust me this ain't it.
So please, enough with defending this caveman humour. If you can't think of anything better to stick on a door in a toy shop then maybe you are in the wrong business, and maybe all the parents of young kids should think about taking their business elsewhere.
Angela Cuming is a journalist and writer who lives in Hamilton with her three young sons.
