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It's on, Grosse Pointe. Last week, that exclusive east side community all but declared war on Metro Times when disgruntled resident Andrea Lavigne demanded a ban on our little paper, citing concerns that MT's advertisements were thinly-veiled covers for human trafficking. GP city council considered a ban and said no. Lavigne then took her quest to the GP Library Board, which voted unanimously to place MT out of sight in Grosse Pointe's three libraries, where it is now only available to those 18 or older from behind the librarian's counter.
Ouch?
FOX actually posted our ads online.
The conversation then moved away from fears of trafficking to fears that Metro Times is giving our children free porn.
And then the story changed again to being damaging to girls. "If we're constantly bombarded with sexist bigotry, sexist propaganda everywhere we go, and it's just so normalized, then it creates a very hostile, dangerous climate for women and girls," Lavigne told Channel 7.
We're a bit confused about Lavigne's whole method, though — if you truly believe people are being trafficked, wouldn't you take your concerns to the police, and not your local library? And if your problem is merely with morally questionable content, what about all of the other thousands of books available in any library that might show behavior you don't agree with? Should all questionable content only be available from behind the counter as well?
Placing MT out of sight at the library will not protect our teens and our tweens from big, bad, MT. You could pick one up from a dozen different places on your way to the library — or from 2,597 other locations in the greater metropolitan region, in fact. Or they could access metrotimes.com on their iPhones.
Regardless, we have to admit that we're enjoying the publicity. The Metro Times and Grosse Pointe "beef" should be mutually beneficial to both of our brands. Plus, we're just excited to hear that teenagers are apparently reading.
