Fighting for party equality

So I’m walking into Boomerang’s last week with a few female friends when the bouncer stops… So I’m walking into Boomerang’s last week with a few female friends when the bouncer stops me.

“Guys have to pay $3,” he informs me.

It doesn’t really seem to be worth grumbling over, so I hand over the measly three bucks. Drinks are obscenely cheap on Thursdays and it seems to be a trend one has to get used to in Oakland — gender inequality in prices.

But the more I think about it, the less these practices make sense. Isn’t this discrimination? It isn’t even advertised as being “Ladies Night” or the like — and even if it was, isn’t that still discrimination? Can you imagine if a bar had an “Asian Night”?

Even more glaring than this practice being used at bars are the widespread pricing customs at house parties. Everyone knows that if you’re throwing a party and you are trying to make your money back, it’s basically essential not to charge girls. Otherwise, they will just go somewhere else where they’re not expected to shell out any money. Some places — usually parties thrown by girls — will compromise by charging girls $3 compared to the going rate for guys of $5 — but they still run a risk of having a sausage fest on their hands.

Just what exactly are we saying with this custom? That girls are to be held to some different standard when it comes to parties? Should girls be allowed free hot dogs at The O? Or their Blockbuster late fees waived? Just where do we draw the line here?

One of my friends has pointed out to me that guys tend to drink more and, thus, should pay more. I think this is faulty logic. I know plenty of girls who could probably out-drink Pitt’s starting lineup. Can we really screen people on how much we predict they will drink? Why not just have a scale ready at the front door and charge people who clock in at over a certain weight since they’re likely to throw down more beer?

The whole guys/girls pricing equality basically comes down to what kind of image we want to present about our gender. Women have strived for decades to obtain the right to vote, equal paying rates, the freedom to pursue any vocation or passion that they wish. So in this spirit of equality, why are they given a free pass when it comes to going out on weekends? The message that women are sending with this expectation of not paying is that they have come as sexual objects, almost like “entertainment” — a notion that I don’t think would be quite the same if they paid as much as guys.

I’m not suggesting that guys and girls won’t always hit on each other in dirty basements in Oakland on weekends or that it is necessarily a bad thing. But I do think that leveling the playing field would — in addition to making things equal and fair for guys who have to pay and party hosts trying to make their money back — create a level of respect between the genders that’s been missing a lot of the time during my years at Pitt. Girls might stop being viewed as a herd to be recruited to populate parties and be seen more as partying equals.

The only way this would work, of course, is if everyone was on the same page. So I would hereby like to use the bully pulpit of having my musings printed for thousands of bored Pitt students in Stonehenge to Hubble to call upon all party throwers in the future to end the partying injustice and charge girls and guys the same rate — be it five, three or free for all (not a bad idea and the norm on most college campuses I have visited). All great societal changes must undergo a period of transition and it is to be expected that there may be an initial backlash at first implementation of this policy. But hold strong and don’t give in. If everyone stays united, the people will have no choice and nowhere else to go. “If you throw it, they will come,” to paraphrase “Field of Dreams.”

Some argue that girls have become so accustomed to the way things are done now, they would just boycott parties altogether and just stay home or head for Matrix or something. To which I say, “Have a nice night, ladies.” If a girl is not willing to treat me as an equal, she’s probably not someone I would want to meet at a party anyway.

Equal rates to party on Bates! E-mail Daron at djc14@pitt.edu.