Pinkalicious ruling paints men as unsafe predators
I don’t have a problem with lesbians. I don’t mean that in a pseudo sleazy ‘eyyy wanna come back to my place with your friend?’ kind of way but rather that if two women love each other then best of luck to them.
In an age of single sex gyms, toilets, schools and the precedent set down by Peel Bar successfully gaining exemption from the equal opportunity act the fact is that it would be hypocritical to suggest gay women can’t have their own dance parties.
The Peel Hotel’s primary reason for seeking an exemption was to prevent “sexually based insults and violence” towards male homosexual patrons”. They sought to ban women and straight males from their venue.
However, Pinkalicious owner Julie MacKenzie makes a much more gender targeted attack and I can’t help but feel a sense of stereotypical ‘angry lesbian man bashing’ simmering below the surface.
Most men couldn’t be bothered with attending lesbian dance parties unless they were perhaps supporting a female friend or were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Eye candy is usually scarce, hundreds of accusing eyes burn into you and if girly drink prices in straight venues are anything to go by, they’re probably beyond ridiculous at lesbian events.
Still, I’m not going to pretend like it has a zero chance of happening but are the men that rock up to this event really as bad as MaKenzie makes them out to be?
Pinkalicious was given the green light to stop men because they might pester women for sex.
“The feedback I was getting from the girls was that they wanted something exclusive for women to be able to express themselves in a safe environment.”
Whilst I’m not suggesting some sleazy men wouldn’t turn up to these events what begs the question is doesn’t Pinkalicious have security like everywhere else? In my experience if someone is seen to be harassing patrons they tend to get evicted pretty quickly. Quicker if a pretty young girl goes and complains to the bouncer on duty.
Putting aside logic though, even if they want their own female only parties that’s fine but was it really necessary to demonise men over it?
What ever happened to fitting in to society?
Now you can go to your same gender school, sit around in the Womyn’s room at university till you graduate, get a job at a women’s only gym and go out to exclusive women’s only events.
Sounds to me that despite harping on about society accepting gay and lesbians there’s still an awful lot of them that are hell bent on excluding themselves from everybody else. I mean what’s next, female only car lanes so that lesbian drivers can feel ‘safe’ on the roads?
What happens when they rock up to the supermarket register and the cashier is a straight male, do they drop their shopping basket and burst into tears?
I could continue and get even more sarcastic but I won’t.
I’ve been hit on three times in my life by gay males, twice at a bar and once randomly at work. Each time once I’ve worked out we were having more then a random chat I’ve politely declined and mentioned my love of the vagina.
I don’t see why it’s such a painful issue for the homosexual community to address in return.
VCAT granted Pinkalicious exemption from the equal opportunities act and I say best of luck to them. If having your own gender specific dance party is what it takes for lesbians to feel comfortable then by all means go ahead, I just wish they didn’t have to stereotypically pull out the man bashing to justify it.
Ironically Pinkalicious’ website lists the main dj for their next August event as one Mike Evans. Mike Evans obviously being a male dj I’m not too sure how that works.
July 26th, 2009 at 1:24 pm Rachel(Quote)
I don’t see why you’re so outraged.
Have you ever been out to a gay night and had yourself and your gf stared at all night to the point where the bar staff were uncomfortable? Or had someone put their hand up your skirt while you were dancing?? None of these were things were dealt with by security when asked. And I’ve heard of worse things. Australians haven’t come as far as you imagine….
July 26th, 2009 at 6:34 pm ozsoapbox(Quote)
I’m not outraged just dissapointed that the reasons given to seek the exemption were because men are sleaze.
If you or your partner are at a Pinkalicious event and patrons are being inappropriate isn’t it the responbility of the event organiser to have sufficient security? Or is a man-ban Julie MacKenzie’s shotgun-effect answer to concerns from her customers?
Straight girls have to deal with a lot of crap too when they go out too. The fact of the matter is all attractive women wind up in this situation, I’m not saying it’s right or they deserve it – just acknowledging it’s not a lesbian only thing.
Admittedly I’ve never had a girl I’ve been with have a hand go up her skirt but really, if the event organiser can’t create a safe environment without labelling all men as sexual predators then I think they’re not trying hard enough.
The problem you girls seem to be having at your events are plain simple morons attending, not men.
August 11th, 2010 at 12:42 am Lisa(Quote)
so you are proposing that venues have enough security to stop males from behaving inappropriately to lesbians who in no way show any interest in them in the FIRST INSTANCE of the advance, by intervening..or by extension that women should be prepared to take the first one on the chin…both absolutely ridiculous propositions in term of venue economics and what any woman should accept as being par for the course .
PS the pinkalicious events have doubled plus in numbers since the exemption…the market speaks so much louder than self opinionated rantings such as yours
August 12th, 2010 at 4:12 am ozsoapbox(Quote)
Oh noes, the males are talking to us!
Seriously darling, if everyone waited for everyone else to make the first move nobody would be taking to anybody. Our bars would royally suck.
Oh please, like women don’t throw their weight around in venues either. Even here in Taiwan I’ve had to deal with unwanted advances from girls who just don’t get it.
Don’t like it? Stay at home and have a teaparty but don’t try and label an entire gender as doing nothing more then ‘pestering women for sex‘ when we go out.
That just tells me there’s a lot of precious lesbians out there. God help them in the real world, assuming they’re not horribly dog ugly with their confidence shot to pieces to begin with.