Canadian Home Depot removes "peeping tom" halloween prop

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Originally published at: http://boingboing.net/2016/09/28/canadian-home-depot-removes.html

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Stupid. Back in my Peeping Tom days, no bonafide practitioner would ever strike such an obvious pose plastered against the windows. We kept a discrete distance using opera glasses.

Now, though, this is another sector that’s been disrupted by the interwebs.

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I definitely agree with her that this trivializes sexual predators, and my vote goes for “tasteless and should be removed”. But to her point of “peeping is illegal, so it shouldn’t be a Halloween prop,” I’m sure it’s also illegal to knife/axe/other murder people, create Frankenstein-style monsters, fly a broom without a license, and drink people’s blood against their will…

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It’s still available in Home Depots in the US and online.

I like options, and this one is tempting me.

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Wait, Halloween is supposed to be funny?

This has to be one of the biggest examples of missing the point that I have seen.

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I bet you can search the law and find nothing prohibiting these things. Of course, how you acquire the parts for your monster or the blood to drink, that might be difficult.

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Also, when did we ban jokes that one outraged mom failed to see the humor in? That doesn’t leave much.

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This is a decoration, right? I don’t put this on other people’s houses? If it’s meant to be placed outside so that it appears to be looking into my house, I’m not really sure what the point is. If it’s meant to be placed inside the house so that it appears to be looking out the window, then I’m not sure it falls under the guise of what most people would consider voyeurism, as the perpetrator would only be looking at activities going on in the area immediately outside my house, which isn’t an area most people would consider a private space.

I don’t want to dismiss this woman’s concerns, but at the same time I’m confused about her conclusions.

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Also, I’m not aware of anything on the books that prevents a dog from playing basketball.

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Aren’t Halloween decorations supposed to spook people outside the house?

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I’m glad it wasn’t just me who was super confused by how this was supposed to work.

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You’ve described my reaction much more concisely, thank you.

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I think that the use-case for this is if you’re having a Hallowe’en party or something similar.

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Its only possible use is to put it on your friend’s window.

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Hanging people is illegal and so is chopping up people with a machete. We need those kinds of decorations removed as well since they trivialize the crime of murder and aren’t funny.
Further, we need to stop with the gross food. Cannibalism is abhorrent and a crime. We don’t need to be normalizing the consumption of human flesh.

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The house? Isn’t this for your car?

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she feels the decoration downplays voyeurism, which can often lead to sexual assault or rape

Whelp, if she has a feeling about it, that’s all the evidence I need.

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If someone secretly stuck this up on my window peering in it would scare the living shit out of me, which I think is the point.

Maybe it’s really for April Fool’s Day.

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So it isn’t a peeping tom but more a Gladys Kravitz busybody.

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