An image which is part of a Canadian Salon’s promotional material has sparked outrage this week, after being just picked up by bloggers, despite having been out for almost a year. The ad features a woman poised on a couch, her hair perfectly coiffed and wearing elegant clothing and shoes. She also has a large black eye, while a man, presumably her partner, stands behind her with a menacing look holding a diamond necklace. The tagline reads “look good in all you do”, and on the salon’s facebook page, the tagline to the image read “hottest battered woman I’ve ever laid my eyes on”.
The ad seems to portray the idea that the salon can make even victims of domestic violence look beautiful, which will result in husbands giving them diamonds instead of bruises. Understandably, the reaction to the ad has been overwhelmingly negative, with many social media users demanding a boycott of the salon, and women’s shelters in the area expressing their disappointment over the fact that the ad seems to trivialise domestic violence; glamourising the issue instead of treating it as a serious problem.
In response, Salon owner Sarah Cameron has defended the image, claiming that it is a “cutting edge” work of art that is a “satirical look at real life situations that ignites conversation and debate”. Many are less than satisfied with Cameron’s statement, and the salon has since been vandalised by persons unknown- who have splashed the salon with purple paint as well as painting the slogans “this is art that is wrongly named violence, that was violence wrongly named art” to portray their disgust of the ad.
Cameron blamed the media for creating the controversy in the first place, believing it has been blown out of proportion and that the “media’s energy and time may be better spent otherwise”- but when an ad attempts to normalise and glamourise domestic violence, it is not innocent, but a part of the problem which can turn life into a living hell for so many women.
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