“She’s your daughter. Not your date” anti-incest billboards OK?

Things like that can happen though. I once knew a woman who worked for Child Protective services. She was involved with a story that made the local news, in which two parents were jailed for selling their kids, ages six to thirteen. Ignorant me(I was just out of high school) , I asked her “How do you sell a kid?” and was told it wasn’t exactly selling, more like renting them out by the hour. I nearly got sick, at that age I’d never dreamed such a thing could happen.

They could put up a picture of Iphigenia and say, “She’s your offspring, not your offering.”

Well, you can sell a child. We usually call that slavery.

As you’re driving along, keep this is mind:
Your daughter’s unsuitable for sexy time
Also: Don’t eat her, or sacrifice, or sell her
As for further suggestions, we’ll get to that later
Burma-Shave

And conversely, wording like this seems to me to add an unnecessary overtone of creepiness to every father and daughter who have ever gone out and done something innocent together and called it a “date.”

So then what does that make a “Daddy Daughter Dance?”

It’s recurrent theme in modern US society, though not really new, goes back in a way to witch trials. You take something extremely bad (there were perhaps satanic cults doing unspeakably bad stuff to trigger witch hunts, if not actual black magic) which nobody can defend and blow its prevalence completely out of proportion, batting down criticism with the implication that skeptics are defending the unspeakably bad thing. ‘White slavery’ is another, so is dog fighting (never anywhere near as common as the hype implied), and others.

I’ve been to the FL panhandle and found it a generally depressing place, but without smug put downs of ‘red necks’ I’d want to see evidence that actually incestuous statutory rape is a major problem there. I could believe guys, all over, hitting on their step daughters is a bigger problem now because there are more step kids/parents than there used to be*, and that’s obviously not good either, but the implication most people seem to take from the poster is biological daughter. I’d want to see solid evidence of a breakdown in the incest taboo.

And without that I could very much understand local people feeling the billboard, even if put up by a local org, was needlessly trashing their locale to potential visitors, employers etc.

*at least in the period after modern medicine greatly decreased death rates of people in their prime but before divorce rates skyrocketed; in an earlier time there were also more stepkids because there were more remarried widow/widowers with young kids than now.

It’s an easy mistake, that we’ve all surely made:
Getting one’s daughter confused with one’s date
But before you go further than an innocent peck:
Incest is bad! So please, double-check!
Burma-Shave

I think this message wanders so far off what it should be that it’s nearly heading in the wrong direction. It really is creepy.

I guess I’m in a minority here because I didn’t see it as accusing ME of incest and I assumed the idea of it was more of a veiled way of letting children know this isn’t okay (despite being told otherwise by their aggressors).

I’m not of a mind that it’s the best thing ever and we need them on every street corner but some of the reactions here seem a bit extreme to me. On the other hand, I guess the town is correct to worry if most people here are reading all this stuff into it.

Certs is a breath mint! Carts is a candy mint!

Wait, you’re both right!

Regards,
Shodan

A romp with your sweetheart is great, but remember:
No romping with any close family members
So please keep in mind, when she calls you “daddy”:
If it’s your literal title, that makes you a baddy
Burma-Shave

OK, I’ll stop now.

“She’s my daughter”
slap
“She’s my date”
slap
“She’s my date AND my daughter”
“Forget it, Jake, it’s Perry, FL”

Way to go, whoever came up with that. Just keep reinforcing the stereotype of the “redneck South” as the Land of Incest where a virgin past age 12 is a girl who can outrun her dad and brothers (and IS there a billboard targeted at brothers?).

And yeah, like **Miller **and Starving Artist I am awed by how boldly they came down on the side of being against raping your minor children. But I also laughed at Martian Bigfoot’s obvious twist on it.

I would agree that changing it to third person would have been somewhat better – and it would then also communicate that it is something that is not just to be solved between the family members.

To play devil’s advocate, I’m pretty sure sex with a step-child of any age is considered incest, and a lot more common than we’d like to think about. So it’s not like we’re talking about an unimaginable thing beyond the pale.

Still… I’m gonna go with Marshall McLuhan on this one. “The medium is the message”, and the message is to avoid this town.

I agree. A billboard aimed at the men who are molesting their daughters is not likely to have any effect. I’m assuming these men are already aware that what they’re doing is both immoral and illegal.

I think it would be a better use of resources to put out messages aimed at the victims, telling them how they can seek help.

This is what happens with the “1 in 3 women in America are raped” claims. Anyone who questions the validity of the stats is liable to be accused of “defending” rape.

I wonder at what point society would balk at the figures. What if people said, “2 out of 3 women in America are raped?” “9 out of 10 women in America are raped?”

I’d say you win the sick joke portion of the thread.

5 out of 4?

Ditto. The slogan implies it’s ok to rape your date.
But I don’t see what that has to do with the OP’s comments about choosing a town for a business. Anyone can rent a billboard and put up weird, creepy, or even offensive messages and it doesn’t imply the entire town, or even anyone in the town, approves of it.

*Again on the subject of date vs daughter:
You can fondle the one, but hands off the other
When you drive with your date, you may cop a feel
But if it’s your daughter, both hands on the wheel!

Thanks for your continued cooperation on this matter, kind regards, Gropey-Shave*

Yes, I know I promised to stop. Sorry. I’m really done now, honest. Actually, though: Is it a warnable offense if I write all my posts on this board like this from now on?