The Volokh Conspiracy

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Crime

'Wife … had hung a Hello Kitty towel on her door'—what am I missing here?

|The Volokh Conspiracy |


I came across a California family law case in a Westlaw query, and found this passage:

Husband testified to the following: He previously worked as a mechanical engineer for Boeing…. On June 14, 2014, Husband exchanged e-mails with Wife that he believed established their intent to divorce and legally separate. By then they were already sleeping in separate bedrooms.

[Footnote:] Realtor Lauren Cotner, who appraised the value of the house, testified both parties' rooms had locks on them. The lock on Wife's door made the house feel "like a fortress." Wife slept in the master bedroom and had placed a "kitchen-size refrigerator" in it, and had hung a Hello Kitty towel on her door.

I get most of this, but what's the relevance of the Hello Kitty towel? Is it some weird symbolism I'm not getting? Is it that no man would sleep in a bedroom with a Hello Kitty towel? What am I missing?

Eugene Volokh is the Gary T. Schwartz Distinguished Professor of Law at UCLA and a Visiting Fellow (Senior Fellow starting May 2024) at the Hoover Institution (Stanford). Naturally, his posts here (like the opinions of the other bloggers) are his own, and not endorsed by any educational institution.