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Charges at bars for men and women?
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
Ok, so a few months ago I was at a bar up in Reno (Nevada) in the casino, and my group was a mixed group.
We got to the front of the queue and I was told it was $5 to get in, while it was free for women. Now, it might just be me being oversensitive, but is this fair, and more to the point, is it even legal?
I've never encountered it in the UK, but I'm sure it must happen. Are bars just taking advantage of the view as men as sex-starved maniacs who will pay any price to come into a bar populated by women in the hopes of getting laid? Or is it something else entirely?
I was absolutely raging at the fact I had to pay, while my GF got in for free. I wasn't there to pick anyone up. I just wanted a quiet beer, and the charge at the door really irked me.
Thoughts?
We got to the front of the queue and I was told it was $5 to get in, while it was free for women. Now, it might just be me being oversensitive, but is this fair, and more to the point, is it even legal?
I've never encountered it in the UK, but I'm sure it must happen. Are bars just taking advantage of the view as men as sex-starved maniacs who will pay any price to come into a bar populated by women in the hopes of getting laid? Or is it something else entirely?
I was absolutely raging at the fact I had to pay, while my GF got in for free. I wasn't there to pick anyone up. I just wanted a quiet beer, and the charge at the door really irked me.
Thoughts?
0
Comments
That said, the whole concept of "ladies night" annoys the crap out of me and I refuse to go in anywhere that does it. Only exception I've made was at the casino in Bradford who did a deal on food- lady gets her meal free if she brings along a bloke. They were going for the romantic slant and it was nice to get BOGOF
I guess they are working on the assumption that the ladies will attract guys to the club and that men will spend more money which in my experience is true but it doesn't make it fair.
Also maybe it is a deterrent for having huge groups of guys trying to get it, 'cos again most clubs I've been to seem to want mixed or female only groups and won't let groups of men in.
yes. but its unfair and i think there should be laws against it.
for example you cannot charge a black person more than a white person because of their skin colour, so why should sex be any different for men/ women?
He obviously makes money from this promotion, so who's the fool?
It isn't fair, I completely agree. It isn't fair that because I don't drink during the day I miss the happy hour deals in the local either.
But that doesn't mean that the Government should come wading in throwing its weight about.
Incidentally, I can decide to charge a black person more for the same product if I want to. Nothing stopping me from doing it at all.
I mean, like Otter says, what if bars were charging more for whites than asians?
It's a private transaction and the Government has no place wading in.
If you were to argue that car insurance should be regulated then I'd have fewer complaints, seeing as car insurance is a legal requirement. That should come under sex discrimination laws, even though I think the price differential is justifiable.
isn't discrimination on the grounds of race illegal?
Either way, like all bouncers the world over, you do it for "another reason" don't you.
I find ladies nights a bit old-fashioned though. They seem to work on the assumption that the guy is going to be paying for the girl anyway, so its going to keep the men happy if they only have to pay for themselves. Its not the 1950s anymore though.
I know companies have every right to price according to demographics, but even if it is legal (which based on the Sex Discrimination Acts I can't see how it is), it's morally reprehensible. And yes, I would say exactly the same if the roles were reversed and women had to pay.
Kind of a moot point. You choose to not drink during the day, you don't choose to be male.
And please, no sex-change jokes :razz:
I can't refuse service, though, which is different.
I honestly don't think that they would make more money if they did away with the promotions. The girls come in and spend more on drink and the blokes are prepared to pay the money to be in a club full of pissed up ladies. It's the way of the world.
We both have long term partners so the cattle market doesn't interest us. But the idea of ladies night isn't targeting us, it targets those who are after a cattle market. But that said, for a couple ladies night effectively means "buy one get one free" as it did when I went for a meal at the casino that was free for ladies and a tenner for a bloke.
If they didn't make money they wouldn't do it. As I say, who's the fool? The bloke who stumps up the cash with the promise of pissed up totty, or the nightclub owner who's raking it in?
Don't agree with it but I wouldn't kick up a fuss unless I felt it was important (i.e. if the campus bars did it).
Even though it's men who pay more for ladies night, the principle behind it is really quite misogynistic. It's dragging women into the club to act as a selling point for men: come to our club, we've got more spissed up skirt ready to suck you off because they got in for nowt!
It's the same with most things: at first sight it looks like men get the raw deal, but really who does in the end? Sexual equality hasn't meant the end of the predatory male and something it's meant that women who don't shag around with the predatory males are frigid boring little things. Who wear dungarees and never shave. Why else would an entire fashion industry marketed at young girls be built on the back of a pornographic magazine?
What about guys who want to go to the club because it's the only club that plays the music they like? Or that club has the best atmosphere? Or they have a group of ten odd friends and that's where they frequent? Or they have a mixed group of guy/girl friends and the girls opt for there because it's cheaper for them? There's countless reasons why guys would still go to clubs, not all of them are there for "pissed up totty". And it being a common practise doesn't mean it's right/moral to do so.
Yea you're right completely, though I think (optimistically) things are slowly changing - by things I mean people's attitudes. Some of the attitudes towards women just 20 years ago would not be tolerated now. But, as with anything, it takes time.
I do think though that there would be more attention at the very least were it the other way round. I don't know if it's supporting the underdog or what but politicians prefer to find the groups with the least priveledges and argue their corner. But this is going a bit off topic so I'll wrap up there :thumb:
I don't like the idea of ladies night either but that isn't really the point. The point is should the Government come wading in to ban the practice? I don't think its the Government's place to.
Regardless of the reasons why people go there, the simple way of changing it is to go somewhere else. If you don't like the price or you don't like the service then you don't buy the product. And a night out in a club is a product just like any other.
I wonder though, where do you draw the line then? I mean charging different prices vs. refusing entry and so on. At what point do you say 'this is unfair and unjust discrimination that should be put up with'. I mean, if you went for a job and they didn't employ you because of x racial / gender factors you would rightly say that's not fair and that it shouldn't be allowed and the government has said 'we agree, it now be illegal'. So along the long spectrum, where do you put the line. Or the smudge, really.
Ladies nights shouldn't be banned per sé, but being allowed to charge one group of people more than another for no real reason (with things like car insurance being a 'legitimate' reason... but let's not get into that) should be.
To use an example from the news today; battery farming. Don't like battery chicken farming? Don't buy battery chickens. But it doesn't work like that.
Anyway, I'm likening this to my own clubbing habits. In Glasgow there's only one club that really caters to my music taste and that of my friends. That coupled with the (relatively) cheap drinks prices, the crowd, whatever... If they were to implement this kind of policy I shouldn't have to just accept it and start going elsewhere. What's the alternative? Go somewhere else on my own, to a club that plays music I don't like and have a shit night? Stay in the house by myself and watch TV? Move to a city with more suited to my music taste? I'd still pay double of what girls do to get into this club in particular becuase I'd still enjoy the whore experience, but that really isn't the point here.
Equally I think its the Government's place to make sure businesses are safe, and that includes banning smoking. So the Government should legislate on food hygiene, public health and safety, and so on.
About buying things, I'm really not so sure, but I'd be more on the side of the Government keeping its beak out. I think the law saying that hotels have to accept gay couples is misguided although I agree with the sentiment. I think consumer choice is what creates the biggest change- if companies stop making money then they buck their ideas up.
If everyone boycotted companies that charged one gender more than another, those companies would change their prices very quickly. Point is that most people really don't give a stuff. If people aren't going to vote with their feet then I don't think its the Government's place to force changes because some people don't like it.
It does, though, when it comes down to it.
If people stopped buying IAMS pet food they'd stop torturing dogs and cats.
If people stopped buying Nestle they'd stop raping Africa.
If people stopped paying double to get into sleazy ladies nights in sleazy nightclubs they'd stop having ladies nights.
So you do like the cattle market that ladies night gives you
Well not really. The battery farming thing came about because of people bitching and whining about the morality of it, not through loss of sales. Both battery and free range were available, both doing fine.
Haha, best freudian slip ever
It wasn't great.
It would put me off going to a bar here on ladies night as it tends to imply loads of men in a line desperate to meet women.
Oh I also used to go to ladies night at a bar in Birmingham where they did free wine for women on Thursdays. That was gooooood, even though the wine was rank.
Would've thought so.
Seperate queues actually make sense though. I don't think I've ever been to a club where the guy:girl ratio is equal, usually leaning more heavily into the guys. Bearing in mind girls can only be searched by female bouncers, having the girls wait inline with the guys for them to be searched by male bouncers before they themselves can be searched isn't very efficient.