If you ever feel, like I do, that the world is going completely mad, then this article will tell you that it is not… not completely anyway. You may remember that a cafe opened in Melbourne a couple of years ago. Run by lesbians (which is not a problem in itself), it gave priority to female customers and imposed a man tax. Yes, that’s right. Initially, men had to pay 18% more than women to enjoy the delights of the cafe although at some point it was reduced to 15%.
What could possibly go wrong?
A lesbian-owned vegan cafe in Melbourne, Australia that charged an 18 percent “man tax” went out of business after only being in business for less than two years.
Oh yes. I forgot to mention that it was a vegan cafe. Of course it was. We went to a local pie shop the other day, for what was going to be a late lunch. It was hilarious because they only had the vegan options left. We declined the feta, pumpkin and soybean alternative and went elsewhere. Obviously, judging by the number of vegan pies still for sale, we were in good company.
The Handsome Her restaurant made headlines in 2017 when it announced its rules for seating arrangements: female customers got preference and men had to pay an 18 percent tax to eat there.
The tax was described as a way to “protest the gender pay gap.” It backfired– or fired them in the end.
First rule of business. Do not offend a significant part of your potential customer base. Lesbians still have brothers, fathers, or male friends that they might want to take to the cafe. Whether or not their male counterparts would want to go to a cafe like that is, of course, another matter.
The general public didn’t like the idea, arguing the “man tax” discriminated against and alienated half the population.
Which, of course, it did. So these particular lesbians wanted to fight discrimination by… discriminating against some of their potential customers. That is a really smart bit of business strategy, don’t you think?
Handsome Her’s owner, Alex O’Brien, said that was exactly why lesbians must “dismantle the patriarchy,” 7 News Australia reported.
I think the patriarchy just proved that it is doing just fine as it is. The one with the problem, Alex O’Brien, is you.
“When we opened Handsome Her in 2017, we expected that perhaps we might make a stir through our brazen public discussions of structural inequality and oppression.
The Man Tax blew up the internet — an idea that we didn’t think was all too radical. Yet the way the world responded showed us how fragile masculinity is and solidified the necessity for us to confront and dismantle patriarchy.
We were just one little tiny shop on Sydney Rd that was trying to carve out a swathe of space to prioritise women and women’s issues, and suddenly we became the punching bag of Melbourne and the internet.
We strived to bring lesbianism back into fashion. What, you didn’t know it was out of fashion? Well for many of us, it is.”
The Hayride.
The second rule of business. Keep your business and your activism poles apart. They do not go well together.
Lesbianism is neither in or out of fashion. These days, it is fairly mainstream, having been superseded in the outrage stakes by transgenderism. Most of us know a few lesbians or homosexuals, and we really don’t give a stuff.
I would happily go to a cafe run by lesbians, although I would probably not know whether they were lesbian or not. However, if they decided to advertise this fact by overcharging men for the privilege of eating there, then I would go somewhere else.
Clearly, most of their potential customers did the same thing.
Goodbye Handsome Her. You’ve just learned an important lesson. Being in business is not a silly game. You have to appreciate all customers, not just shun the ones you don’t like. If they are prepared to pay for your services, be grateful. Otherwise, your business will not do well.
As Handsome Her has now found out… the hard way.