When students at the University of Queensland dared to use a bake sale to highlight pay gaps, the backlash was swift and horrible. The same sort of backlash women face whenever the patriarchy is questioned, writes Lauren Rosewarne.
Because there’s no relationship more special, more sacred, more time-honoured, than the one between a white boy and his cupcake. Threaten this and there’ll be consequences. Boy oh boy will there be consequences.
So the University of Queensland – pilfering an idea that drummed up attention in places like the University of Washington in 2003 or Bucknell University in 2009 – have organised an affirmative action bake sale.
Simply put, sugary delicious carby delights are priced according to the presumed earning power of the customer: Mr Whitey McWhitey for example, will pay premium for his red velvet cupcake because his earning capacity will – statistically – be better than Charlotte’s or Abdul’s.
Had this shop been a permanent campus store, sure, I’d have a problem. It’s not fair and nor is it legal to charge different demographics different prices. (Unless, say, you’re talking about pink vs blue-handled razors, and then apparently a whole other set of rules applies).
The key difference here, however, is that the bake sale is a one off. It’s about peddling cakes, sure, but more importantly it’s a protest and a piece of performance art happening on a university campus during Feminist Week.
Pricing cakes differently makes a simple but thought-provoking comment about earning capacity being impacted on by factors – like genitals – which shouldn’t be relevant yet remain so.
More interesting for me than all the math that went into those price tags though, is the inevitable bake sale backlash serving as its own piece of protest art: what better illustration is there for the ongoing need for feminism than to have a statement about inequality getting shouted down by those holding the very privilege that’s being spotlighted?
As every feminist knows of course, daring to do your politics anywhere, but especially publicly, comes at cost. Very few of us have any actual interest in man-hating, but – shock horror – that’s never mattered.
Whether you’ve written about sexual violence or media discrimination or, as transpired when I dared innocuously mention my lack of enthusiasm for Mad Max in this very space, a penalty gets paid. Your argument – hell, generally speaking, keyboard warriors won’t read more than your headline – gets interpreted as just another bollocking, and a penalty is doled out. And that penalty is, unsurprisingly, always gendered and always serves as testimony to women’s vulnerability in public space. It doesn’t matter whether that space is alone at a train station at midnight or in publishing an opinion piece online.
These men are so outraged to have the secret of their swag of privilege exposed, that they’ll use the very underpinnings of their power – threats of violence, insults based on f–kability – to launch an attack. Seemingly none of them did debating in high school and missed the lessons on arguing ideas rather than making personal attacks, and retaliation ensues. No effort is channeled into stating an opposing case or proving you wrong. Instead, it’s all about calling you a fat ugly slut and suggesting that the appropriate punishment for your words of detraction is rape.
Dare question patriarchy and patriarchy in all of its threatening, violent misogynist ugliness will loom large.
For equality to happen, those with the power need to give up some. For many of the privileged though, this is a fundamentally grotesque assertion and one that needs to be policed. Policed through the tactics of abuse and through threats that remind us of our vulnerability, of the cost of doing our politics and, ironically, of the grave necessity for our feminism.
Dr Lauren Rosewarne is a senior lecturer in the School of Social and Political Sciences at the University of Melbourne.
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This post originally appeared on ABC News.
Top Comments
Feminism has nothing to do with it. Basic morals and decency have everything to do with it. These days, people aren't required to behave in an appropriate manner, so they don't. End of story. Why spin the Feminism story EVERY time? It just dilutes the message til it starts to mean very little...
Because women can also lack basic morals and decency, but it's not exactly common for them to threaten to (or to actually) rape, beat, and murder men. The "feminism story" isn't being spun by the people calling out males (not all males, of course) for threatening and perpetrating sexual violence against women. The men are the ones responsible for this ongoing dialogue. As the author states, their continued behaviour showcases exactly why feminism is needed.
You know you are privileged when you can't even understand the point of this.
Classic crybully move. Be deliberately provocative and as soon as anyone responds to the provocation, scream your head off. The story isn't about a bake sale with different prices, as the headline calls it A simple bake sale, no it's about rape threats online. Women are victims, men are rapists tra-la-la-la-la.
Standard cry bully tactic by identitarians. That's what it is.
Second wave feminism did so much good, third wave does so much bad. No wonder women are turning away from feminism, polls in the US show its down to just 18% of women there identify themselves as Feminists.
Not sure where antipop is screaming her head off in that one sentence comment? There is a lot more outrage in your reply. Guessing by the amount of likes antipop has that others also agree...
The world is a lot bigger than just the US. Do you have a credible source for 18%, or are you just making up stats to suit your agenda?
This article is about rape threats, triggered because a bunch of "men" can't cope with a bake sale at a Uni. Have you ever been to Uni? Things like this bake sale happen all the time; to get people thinking etc.
You are a small-minded person (I have noticed many of your moronic comments on this site lately) you have no idea what women deal with on a day-to-day basis, you think just because we can now vote and own property everything is okay? Give me a break...we still have a long way to go globally, with many issues still happening here.
I don't see how you can call it a crybully move. It's clear stated fact that rape and death threats were made by men against the women organisers of the bake sale. Even if you don't like the fact that certain groups of customers were offered discounted prices at the sale, it's hardly reasonable to suggest that it ought to provoke death threats, rape threats and vulgar threatening and demeaning statements based on gender and appearance. I don't even see how the event was in any way provocative.
And interesting you talk about turning away from feminism - several articles on this story report that after the threats were made several students told the organisers they now saw the need for feminism despite not having previously seen it.