OREM, Utah – A Utah mom was so offended by finding “pornographic” T-shirts at a local mall that she bought the store’s entire stock in order to keep them off display.
Judy Cox said she was shopping with her 18-year-old son when they encountered a display of “Visual by Van Styles” shirts in a window at the PacSun store in Orem, Utah’s University Mall. According to Cox, the shirts’ depictions of scantily clad women in provocative poses were beyond inappropriate in Orem, a city of about 90,000 people 40 miles south of Salt Lake City. The majority of residents are members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, a notoriously conservative sect.
“These shirts clearly cross a boundary that is continually being pushed on our children in images on the internet, television and when our families shop in the mall,” Cox told The Associated Press.
According to the Provo, Utah, Daily Herald, when Cox complained to the store’s management, she was told policy decisions, including displays, were handed down by PacSun headquarters. The local store could deviate from the merchandising plan only if it it didn’t have the proper merchandise on hand.
That’s when Cox shelled out $567 to buy all 19 Visual by Van Styles T-shirts in the Orem’s store’s inventory. She said she intends to hold the shirts hostage just long enough to ensure they aren’t sold to someone else.
“I’ll let [PacSun’s] corporate office figure out what to do with them when I return them on day 59 of a 60-day return policy,” she told the Daily Herald.
In the meantime, she suggested that Orem City Attorney Greg Stephens investigate the store for violating a city code that bans public display of “explicit sexual material.” Stephens told her she would need to file a complaint with the police before his office could get involved.
