In February 1969, W.I.T.C.H. members held a protest at a bridal fair at Madison Square Garden. Wearing black veils, they chanted "here comes the slaves/off to their graves," and posted stickers around the area emblazoned with the statement, "confront the whoremakers," a pun on the common leftist slogan, "confront the warmongers." The protests also involved turning loose several white mice at the event, which fair attendees began scooping up off the ground. Radical feminists criticised W.I.T.C.H. members for reinforcing the sexist stereotype that the assembled women would be scared of mice. They also condemned what they understood as W.I.T.C.H.'s approach of promoting a message of "we're liberated and you're not" to other women, believing that in doing so they were distancing and alienating themselves from feminism's base constituency. Later historian Alice Echols expressed criticism over what she saw as W.I.T.C.H.'s "contempt" for those women who were not involved in leftist activism. The event resulted in negative media coverage for W.I.T.C.H., and some dissension among members over goals and tactics. After the incident, W.I.T.C.H. moved away from the shock tactics that they had previously employed and instead focused their attention on consciousness-raising.