Credit: JennHudd

scaled.Picture_2.png

  • JennHudd

…to protect “young shoppers” from the US Weekly cover showing Elton John and David Furnish holding their new baby. Here is the unshielded cover, which attentive viewers will note looks like a slightly less gay version of this.

Thanks for the heads-up, Towleroad, which reminds us that the Arkansas law banning gays from adopting or fostering children was struck down last year, and supplies interested complainers with the phone number of the Harps grocery store pictured at right. (It’s 870-425-6556.)

David Schmader—former weed columnist and Stranger associate editor—is the author of the solo plays Straight and Letter to Axl, which he’s performed in Seattle and across the US. His latest...

47 replies on “Arkansas Grocery Store Deploys “Family Shield”…”

  4. And at the convenience store near where I grew up, the girlie mags were displayed under the counter, about three feet off the ground, in plain view. My mom bawled out the guys who worked there once or twice about stocking softcore porn at kid-eye-height.
    @3: Sure, but it’s tasteless, paranoid, and crotchety to do so. Crawl back under your rock, Basehead.

  5. Private business serving the public who can do as they like and shop elsewhere. I personally find those things offensive and when I see them in stores I remove them or put the magazines in front before leaving all the merchandise I planned to purchase sitting right on the floor and leaving to shop elsewhere. I will not shop at a place that feels the need to decide what I might and might not want to purchase by censoring it.

  9. One would hope that some bigoted shopper moved the shield from one of the other magazines rather than the store actually doing this…

  14. @12 Can’t we just put one of those around the entire south-eastern part of the country? Maybe with a flap so the cat can get out? I jest…

    but not entirely.

  15. I wonder if they also shield all those nearly naked women on the covers of the rest of the mags. Or the sex advice on cosmo every month. Personally I’ve seen far too many inches of Kardashian skin in my life already.

  18. What the HELL is behind Sir Elton on his right (our left)? A leopard print couch?! Why is it going in a different perspective than the beige blah happening between Elton and David, which doesn’t continue to David’s right side?

    Also, I like David’s wedding band better than Elton’s.

  19. Speaking of shields, what’s up with the icon that’s plastered all over the page in various sizes? If it’s an ad, I don’t get it.

  20. That photo looks photoshopped to me — at the very least, the text on the “shield” looks faked. David Schmader, you’re a reporter, right? I’m assuming that means you called the store to confirm this is legitimate? What was their response?

  23. @18, that is not a leopard print, but a leopard. Ever since Elton did the Lion King, their domestic staff is all carefully trained animals of the savannah. The leopard is in charge of grooming Elton’s toupees.

  25. The US cover is a slightly less gay version of last week’s covers of Travolta and his new baby or the cover of Glenn Beck’s new parenting book.

  28. So, this is off-topic, but if he lives to see the baby turn 18 he’ll be 81 years old. Kinda sad, that aspect. Hopefully he’ll live to a ripe old age, though.

  30. Hey Slog, guy in Fayetteville AR here. Harps has done this in some other small towns, we make fun of them too, it’s ridiculous. This looks like a mistake or something done by a provocateur as when they do this it’s to cover up boobies, not gay guys holding a baby.

  33. Can they do something to make me never hear Elton John’s music again? Cause I really have never liked anything I’ve ever heard by him.

  34. @29, so you’d rather have your parents dead (possibly) and get a check? Have them too old to be able to chase you around much as a kid, probably gone before they can what you make of yourself later, etc.? The money would be nice, sure, but that’s kind of a different issue, isn’t it?

  36. @34, lighten up, it was a joke.

    You suggesting the kid was better off not born at all than born via surrogate to dads who are 48 and 62 respectively?

  38. Harps is doing it wrong! The Fred Meyer in Longview has an entire family shielded check out AISLE!

    Cowlitz County, the Arkansas of WA.

  40. They’ve been doing this in Utah for YEARS, people. Think about how horrifying it might be for a garment wearer to see the flesh of a non-garment wearer on the cover of a magazine….

  42. 5

    well
    you ARE a bitch aren’t you-
    we’re sure no store is sorry to see
    your fat ass going out never to return….

  44. As a kid, nothing would have raised my curiosity more. I would have looked just because it was covered up and embarrassed my mother by asking her why.

  45. When churches called for a boycott on “The Last Temptation of Christ,” ticket sales soared. I personally never wanted to see or read “The DaVinci Code” until my nephew was punished for having a copy on a Catholic school campus. As several others have noted, putting the cover behind a “family shield” makes kids want to see it more, and I just bought this issue of “US” (the only issue of “US” I’ve ever purchased in my life), specifically because of the Arkansas controversy. I’d be willing to bet that this will be the largest selling issue of 2011.

    Attempts to ban and censor media have the effect of creating demand for the product.

    What’s so hard to figure out about that?

  47. Yeah, and it says it’s customers come in all shapes, sizes, beliefs, and PREFERENCES. Head briefly emerges from ass, only to promptly resume position.

Comments are closed.