When Activist Have To Much Time On Their Hands

Fun Fact about me: I'm from Hamilton ON. Hamilton is a working class town 45 minutes west of Toronto, and it has its share of problems. 

I never would have thought that one of the cities problems would be urinals in a bars washroom.

The Honest Lawyer is a bar located in Jackson Square, right in the heart of downtown Hamilton. In the men's washroom it featured novelty urinals that looked like this. 

That was until recently anyways. 

The Woman Abuse Working Group took offense and started a letter writing campaign lobbying for the restaurant to remove the urinals. They sent over 1000 letters and even involved Ontario NDP Leader  Andrea Horwath. 

Now I ask, is this cause really worthy of the Woman Abuse Working Groups time? No...of course not. And I certainly hope that a political party leader has better things to do with her time then concern herself with the decor in the men's washroom in the Honest Lawyer. 

What has been accomplished from their efforts? Is anyone safer? Can they even show that these lips provoked violence against women in anyway? I'm a woman, I don't find them offensive at all. Tacky, yes.

The simple solution, don't go into that bar if it offends you. 

Use the resources of your organization to create real change.  Your organization should make the news when you've helped women escape abusive situations not when you've harassed a restaurant owner into removing his tongue in cheek urinals.