A new billboard message on highway 40 is starting to go viral with its ‘infuriating’ message, according to many on social media.
The message on the billboard reads. “Real men provide. Real women appreciate it.” It appeared last weekend on a heavily-traveled west-bound stretch of Business 40, between Kernersville and Winston-Salem.
The owner of a Winston-Salem women’s boutique called Kleur has now set up a protest rally for the new sign, planned for Sunday at 11 a.m., her event is called “Saying NOPE to this: a protest against what this sign represents, with better signs“.
Her protest is now planned for Merschel Plaza in downtown Winston Salem.
Molly Grace, the owner of Kleur says that she sees the sign as an attempt to silence women who want to be seen as equals to men.
In her new Facebook event she commented, “We are NOT protesting that the sign is capable of existing, or the people who put it up, or the ad agency, or the right to put it up. We are protesting patriarchy and sexism, and that this antiquated way of thinking about women exists at all. We are protesting the implied demand that women be silent and appreciate, regardless of whatever circumstances, their role as non-providers.”
More than 100 people have already signed up to come to the protest.
Not everyone is angry about the billboard, however. One Winston-Salem man told WHNT-TV that he agreed with the message.
“Being a married man myself, I think my wife really appreciates the fact that I can provide for a family and take some of the stress off her.”
The origins of the billboard are now being kept a secret. The sign is owned by Whiteheart Outdoor Advertising. Its owner, Bill Whiteheart, commented that the organization that rented the sign doesn’t want to be named.
What do you think about the new billboard?