“Hey, are you going to the off-campus Delta Theta Upsilon Xenon Alpha Gamma Radiation’s party?”
“Yeah, I was planning on it.”
“Me too! But it’s $7 at the door. Well, girls are free though. Lucky!”
Am I, though? While it’s incredibly easy to focus on the “what” in this situation, if we stop to think about the “why” for more than five seconds, it’s kind of disgusting.
Ah, I love the smell of female objectification in the morning! Or the afternoon, or the nighttime, (because it happens all the time, after all). Nothing like some casual misogyny to really get a party started. Speaking of getting a party started, play the song “Blurred Lines” during your next rager to really pump some sexist overtones into the room!
I guess I don’t really have a right to complain. As a female after all, I know I will never have to do something as outrageous as pay a cover charge at a party. For the low, low price of allowing myself to be objectified and treated as a product for the men of the room to consume, I get a full cup until the booze runs out!
Never mind that women don’t want this preferential treatment. As the saying goes, when the product is free, you are the product. Given the choice between being seen in a non-sexual light (or the insinuation that I am a decorative object) and paying, then I will gladly part with my money.
Never mind that, according to the Department of Justice, women age 18–24 are at an elevated risk for sexual assault, and that 20 to 25 percent of women will have been sexually assaulted by the time they graduate college. It’s important to note that those numbers are rough estimates, because — to nobody’s surprise —people are uncomfortable reporting sexual assault cases.
Never mind that according to the National Institute for Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, about half of all sexual assault cases involve alcohol. Of course, alcohol doesn’t cause sexual assault, but used within the already sexist and overwhelmingly sexual context of frat parties and clubs, it certainly doesn’t help prevent it.
Never mind that misogyny is a two-way street, and men are hurt by this culture too. Yeah, in the seven dollars more they had to pay than their female friends, but also in the hypermasculine rhetoric that policies like these support. It encourages harmful gender stereotypes — men are either going out to get a date or get laid. The more ladies, the more choices! Men shouldn’t have female friends, they should have their bros, their past hookups, and their future hookups.
Never mind any of that. When there’s a chance at saving money, who cares about the “why”? It’s the “what” that’s important. Right? We’re all broke college students; just take your free drinks and try not to think about how you’re really paying for them by adding another pair of tits to the room.
It’s not about the booze charge. It’s about the outdated sexism that runs rampant throughout frat houses and clubs, and the fact that in 2018, it simply has no business being there.
