Anger over ‘stabbed nurse’ costume at Leeds shop

A YORKSHIRE fancy dress shop has come under fire for a display featuring a mannequin dressed as a blood-spattered nurse with a knife in her chest.
The Halloween window display at Amazng Party Co, Albion Street, LeedsThe Halloween window display at Amazng Party Co, Albion Street, Leeds
The Halloween window display at Amazng Party Co, Albion Street, Leeds

Campaigners against sexual violence said the display at the store in Albion Street, in Leeds city centre, was made more offensive by a sign saying “dead sexy”.

The costume follows other controversies over Halloween costumes in recent weeks, including a Jimmy Savile outfit available online and another styled as a ‘psycho mental patient’.”

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Karen Ingala Smith, of charity nia, which campaigns against violence against women, said: “From ‘psycho mental patient’, to Jimmy Savile and now a stabbed woman, nothing seems to be beyond consideration to fancy dress outfit retailers this Halloween. Mental ill health, sexual abuse and fatal male violence against women are not fun, they should not be exploited for profit.

“Thirty three UK women were stabbed to death through male violence in 2012, I don’t think that’s fun.”

Julie Bindel, a feminist campaigner against sexual violence, said she was “horrified” by the display, adding: “Leeds has yet to recover from the appalling reign of sexual brutality carried out by Peter Sutcliffe in the 1970s, and countless atrocities by men towards women every day. This display makes a mockery of the women for whom this violence is all too real.”

Writer Emma Bolland called it “violent and misogynistic”.

A spokesman for the Amazing Party Company called the criticisms “absolutely ridiculous”, insisting the nurse was a zombie “and zombies don’t exist”.

“We are a fancy dress shop and things are made up,” they added.

“We will not be altering it.”

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