Jewelry Store in Feminist Hot Water for Ad Making Pun Out of “Throwing Rocks at Girls”

I can't decide whether it's feminism at its most humorless–or capitulation to humorless feminism at its most craven.

It's probably both.

Here we go, via UPI:

A North Carolina jewelry store apologized to anyone offended by a billboard bearing a controversial message: "Sometimes, it's OK to throw rocks at girls."

The billboard, which featured the words surrounded by precious stones, sparked a backlash on social media when it was erected by Spicer Greene Jewelers in Asheville.

"Small steps like this lead to a culture of violence against women. Also, children will not see the humor in this billboard. All they will see is, 'It's OK to throw rocks at girls,'" resident Shannon Page wrote on the Facebook group WAX, West Asheville Exchange.

Children? How about teaching the kiddies that there's this thing called a "pun"?

Yup, this really does win the "How Many Feminists Does It Take to Change a Lightbulb" award.

Then Chelsea Clinton, known far and wide for her sense of fun, got into the act via a tweet:

Talking about hitting girls is never funny. Ever. 

So then:

The owners of the store, Eva-Michelle Spicer, 28, and her husband, Elliot, 27, apologized for any offense caused by the billboard.

"I'm truly sorry that it offended anybody, that was not our intention," Eva-Michelle Spicer, whose parents previously owned the store under a different name, told WLOS-TV. "The billboard was intent to be a nostalgic thought of a childhood teaching, that it's not OK to throw rocks at girls. It's not OK to throw rocks at anyone. It saddens me that it was taken that way, because it certainly wasn't intended."

The owners said they will donate 10 percent of sales through Sunday to Helpmate, a local domestic violence shelter.

Helpmate Director April Burgess-Johnson said the billboard reinforces confusion surrounding love and abuse.

"So what we need to do is draw clear and distinct lines that even in a joking manner, we're not gonna mix an expression of love and an expression of violence. Those are very separate and different things: one of which is very sweet, the other of which is very dangerous," Burgess-Johnson said.

Burgess-Johnson doesn't sound very gracious about the Spicers' abject apology, does she? But that's what happens when you capitulate to bullies. They bully you some more.