‘No dry humping’: Murray Bridge business owner’s warning sign raises eyebrows
Brittany Schulz, the owner of romance book shop Fiction and Friction, has seen a bit too much of the latter lately.
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Public displays of affection aren’t everyone’s cup of tea, but where do you draw the line?
A Murray Bridge business owner has been thrust into the national spotlight this week after setting what she thought was a reasonable boundary: a “no dry humping” sign in her shop window.
Two teenagers had visited Brittany Schulz’s bookshop, Fiction and Friction, on consecutive Friday afternoons.
As it turned out, they weren’t there to read or browse for a book – they were more interested in enjoying one another’s company, in full view of other customers.
At one point they even closed the door of the shop’s fantasy room – ironically enough – so that they might have some extra privacy.
Ms Schulz wound up telling them to leave.
A few days later, a friend jokingly suggested she put a warning sign up on the shop door.
Thinking it might make for a funny Facebook post, she did.
She had expected the post to do the rounds on the local Facebook chat groups and so on; what she didn’t anticipate was that state and national media would come calling.
On Tuesday, Ms Schulz made a live appearance on Nine’s Today show before an audience of a quarter of a million people.
“It’s mind-boggling,” she said of all the attention.
“I was just hoping to deter (the young couple), deter it from turning into a face-to-face confrontation.
“(The sign) was always a bit of fun or sarcasm in relation to inappropriate behaviour and not knowing how to react.”
She declined to name and shame the young lovers or publish images which might identify them.
Policing their behaviour was the job of their families, she suggested, not a shop owner.
In fact, she was glad they felt like her shop was a safe space.
She just felt like somewhere private would have been more appropriate for the activities they had in mind.
“What they’re doing isn't actually a bad thing, it's just that you probably shouldn't be doing it in public where kids can walk past you,” she told Today.
“If they were just sitting here and doing nothing, that (would have been) totally fine.”
South Australian law includes an offence for “indecent behaviour”, though the meaning of the word “indecent” is not defined in the Summary Offences Act.
The Law Handbook SA defines the term as “highly offensive to the recognised standards of common propriety” – meaning, basically, whatever an average person would find unacceptable.
Ask 10 business owners how they would deal wish such a situation and you might get 10 different answers.
Ms Schulz’ message to the amorous adolescents?
Romance novels were something to be read and enjoyed – not acted out in public.
“I’m glad you felt safe here, but it felt like you were taking advantage of my kindness and my patience,” she said.
“Unfortunately, you won’t be welcome back.”
Disclosure: In an all-time twist, the author of this story is, in fact, the friend who suggested Ms Schulz put the sign up in the first place. He didn’t think she would actually do it, and he’s just as mystified about the attention storm that has followed, but here we are.
