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A restaurant in Auckland, New Zealand is under scrutiny after a picture of their Valentine's Day signage went viral.
Eiffel en Eden, like many other restaurants and cafés, has a chalkboard sign outside of their establishment.
This allows employees to write quippy, enticing messages.
For Valentine's Day, Eiffel en Eden updated their chalkboard sign in honor of the holiday.
However, the message was not well received.
After so much effort to raise awareness of New Zealand's terrible violence against women a slow clap and a jaw drop… https://t.co/w1MQ2Kov37— Ana Samways (@Ana Samways) 1550081700.0
The sign reads:
"On Valentine's Day open the car door for her."
"After Valentine's Day open the car boot [trunk] for her."
For many people, the attempted joke seems to imply that the woman, herself, would be going into the trunk of the car and imply domestic violence, assault and kidnapping.
The cafe's owner claimed that the punch line of the joke referred to opening the car's trunk for her to load in groceries.
"you should always open the boot when you're shopping"
However, with numerous cases of New Zealand women being killed and placed in car trunks, groceries are not the first thing to come to mind.
The restaurant's manager, Henry Gough, stated:
"There are a few people interpreting it [as domestic violence], but we never intended it that way. We had good intentions."
Regardless, people found the sign insensitive and tone-deaf.
To add insult to injury, Eiffel en Eden did not admit that their wording could be interpreted to mean something much more sinister than the intended meaning (that still reeks of sexism).
People are furious.
@AnaSamways Disgusting. The appropriate response would’ve been “oh crap, I didn’t know it could be taken that way,… https://t.co/qWpEd7XqoU— J.Rackham (@J.Rackham) 1550132446.0
@AnaSamways https://t.co/nQqEXuHUpq— Ben Javert (@Ben Javert) 1550083016.0
@AnaSamways That is disgusting!!— Mazza Fully Vaccinated Williams (@Mazza Fully Vaccinated Williams) 1550085031.0
@AnaSamways That’s unbelievably awful.— Andrew - pls get vaccinated - 100% Pfizered (@Andrew - pls get vaccinated - 100% Pfizered) 1550081835.0
@AnaSamways It's like they *want* to alienate more than 50% of their customers. Not really playing with a full deck, is he?— Deb D nearly double jabbed (@Deb D nearly double jabbed) 1550090815.0
It's a shame because every time I went to Effiel en Eden, I LOVED the food. Now- after the signage mocking domestic… https://t.co/D5gAig0R1q— Justice for Gabby Petito | Arrest Brian Laundrie (@Justice for Gabby Petito | Arrest Brian Laundrie) 1550110299.0
Ewww. This is abhorrent and disgusting. Auckland restaurant's Valentine's Day sign seen to promote violence against… https://t.co/hzUOnxmezO— Juliette Sivertsen (@Juliette Sivertsen) 1550100263.0
police attend a domestic violence call out every 4 minutes and 80% of cases go unreported. I posted this on my IG a… https://t.co/4RbQFT8NNW— 🙋🏻♀️ Pfizer Pfloozy | she/her (@🙋🏻♀️ Pfizer Pfloozy | she/her) 1550089459.0
@EiffelenEden terrible terrible sign! So not funny So sad youre globally known for dv&sexism now (your march sign… https://t.co/C3qPwdVLfr— ajmajm20 (@ajmajm20) 1550186320.0
The restaurant has previously received criticism for another sexist sign it posted.
We wonder what the alternate meaning for this is?
"Arguing with a woman is like reading the software license agreement – in the end you just have to ignore everything and click, 'I agree'."
There are just no words.