A Person Uses Transgender Law To Expose Gender Discrimination

[KissingSunlight]

A synopsis of this article: A man, who is dedicated to exposing gender discrimination when it comes to things like ladies night, has started to claim he is transitioning to a woman. Therefore, he should be allowed to pay the discounted rate that women pay.

The Article: http://www.reviewjournal.com/opinion/columns-blogs/paul-harasim/utah-man-says-he-s-woman-help-get-justice-men-bars-pool-parties

I find this story funny and ironic. He is using something that social justice advocates are for to expose something that the very same people refuse to admit is discrimination.

Do you think this guy has a point or he is being an insensitive jerk?

EDIT: I discovered this story in a newspaper. I didn't completely read the whole online article when I posted the link. The bottom third of the article wasn't in the newspaper version. Now that I had read the whole online article, Yikes! This guy is an obnoxious sexist. I thought he was borderline sexist before hand. Thus, I found the article kind of funny. Now, not so much.

 

[CeeBod]

Seriously, he's crusading against the "injustices" of Ladies nights in bars and pool parties? As a single guy I love places that make an effort to attract cute girls in, because many bars that don't are complete sausage-fests! That's not an injustice, it's to everyone's benefit to reduce the sausage-fest ratios!

Reading through the full article this guy does seem like he's a bona-fide mysogynist and he's angrily railing against any perception that there are ocassions when being white and male doesnt give him the full priviledge that he expects his superior position to warrant. So yeah, fuck that guy! The law he mentions seems to be a poorly thought out law that could cause more problems than it solves but this dick being a dick is about the worst way of pointing that out. People will oppose him whether he's right or wrong, because he's a dick!

 

[Zhukov]

You forgot to mention the part where he straight up admits to hating women and several women have reported being harassed by him. Isn't it funny how these kinds of activists tend to turn out like that, eh?

But hey, he's clearly doing it out of public minded concern for social justice.

I for one am so very glad to have such a righteous specimen of a man standing up for my manly rights.

 

[springheeljack]

Oh I bet he is an absolute delight to associate with I tell you what. (gags)

The guy sounds like a total scumbag or as he put it a total wacko. Giving discounts to people is perfectly legal. What is someone going to fight against senior and veteran discounts next? That's really what we need right now

 

[Saelune]

Do I think things like ladies night are sexist? Yes.

Do I think this man is fighting sexism? No.

This guy just wants to prove anti-Trans people's fears of any old man saying he is trans to do bad things.

 

[FalloutJack]

Do you think this guy has a point or he is being an insensitive jerk?

No no, he's fine. We need people to help this sort of thing out. Of course, I'd expect in the future that ID cards - Because getting carded on these occasions seems reasonable, at least - should be used to back the claim up. If you're going to be legally changed or even somewhere in the middle, your identification should probably reflect that.

 

[Thaluikhain]

So, are we supposed to ramble angrily against feminism or against trans rights here?

 

[TheMysteriousGX]

See, this sort of thing fails when you say, "hey, I'm gonna do this thing to be a douchbag expose gender discrimination". You gotta go undercover for this sort of thing to be effective.

You know, get a psychiatrist involved, start taking hormones, etc. Otherwise, the people who said weren't trans were right.

Otherwise, you're just a douchbag complaining about unequal cover charges for an event most male patrons are perfectly okay with. 13 freaking dollars, who has the kinda time to sue over that.

After reading the article: Oh shit, I've actually heard of this d-bag before. He's been ridiculous for years.

 

[DefunctTheory]

The hell?

While it is kind of sexist... it's the most trivial kind of sexism. Like how people are slightly more prone to opening doors for females then males. And it's not even rooted in some kind of nastiness - It's business. Arguably sleazy business, but business. It feels like calling sun screen racist because black people don't have to use it as much.

 

[LysanderNemoinis]

Hey, if he says he's a woman then he's a woman. I thought that was the whole point. If it doesn't matter what your DNA says, what your biology says you are, or what you have lived your life as for decades, if you say you're suddenly a woman, you must be treated as such and anyone who says differently is transphobic, right? Besides, who are any of you to judge? You should all check your privilege.

 

[infohippie]

So, are we supposed to ramble angrily against feminism or against trans rights here?

If I had the energy I think I'd just ramble angrily about douchebags being douchebags. This guy's a dick.

 

[Revnak_v1legacy]

Well, how wonderful. Total douche gets pissy about bar cover charges (as if cover charges are the majority of what you'll be spending that night if you aren't a weak livered baby) and decides to exacerbate the issues faced by trans people. What a goddamn hero, fighting to save me five bucks every other weekend.

Yes, women paying less for cover charges is a sexist thing done for ultimately sexist reasons (getting pretty girls into the club). Stop going to bars that pull this shit if it bothers you, point out that it's wrong, maybe even make a big stink about it everywhere. Pretending to be trans is not an even slightly justifiable way of dealing with this issue.

 

[MHR]

There's a case to be made that he's extorting discounts so the bar doesn't get accused of anything. A case of being so scared of discriminating you're discriminating to avoid discriminatory attention.


The other irony being of course that he's pretending to have/want a pussy just because he's too pussy to just shut the fuck up and pay the regular drink price like every other man.

 

[Luminous_Umbra]

Strictly speaking, yeah, it's sexist.

That said though, I'm conflicted about this. On one hand, I would prefer if more significant instances of misandry were focused on. On the other hand, I really don't want this guy being the face of such efforts.

So, continue on, I suppose?

 

[Elijin]

Isnt this sort of discrimination essentially an apology?

"We're sorry you're going to be hit on a dozen douchebags while you try enjoy a nice night out, here's a cheaper door price."

I mean sure its more like 'We need to lower the price so women will find it more appealing to put up with people's bullshit' rather than the apology...but...yeah.

 

[Maze1125]

I'm not going to say he's a very nice guy. The article even says he has "grown to hate women".

But that's irrelevant to his argument. His argument is completely correct, such pricing is completely sexist. If it went the other way, where women had to pay more, you can bet that feminists would be campaigning hugely against it, and rightly so. (Hell, lets take if further: Imagine that black people had to pay $35 while white people could enter for $20.)

Yet, because this is discrimination against men the issue is being trivialised and he's being told to "man up".

Sexism is sexism. Saying it's okay for one said to be discriminated against is just going to make it harder to stop discrimination on both sides in the long run. (Note that the law he's fighting explicitly says it's okay to discriminate based on sex, that's a law that should be fought.)

 

[balladbird]

Isnt this sort of discrimination essentially an apology?

"We're sorry you're going to be hit on a dozen douchebags while you try enjoy a nice night out, here's a cheaper door price."

I mean sure its more like 'We need to lower the price so women will find it more appealing to put up with people's bullshit' rather than the apology...but...yeah.

Nah, it's a marketing tactic. cheaper cover prices mean more girls in the bar, which in turn attracts more guys paying the full cover charge. The reason the system has become so universal and persisted so long is because it works.

Businesses care more about their bottom line than gender politics.

As to the topic... meh. It's not my place to tell anyone what hill to die on.

 

[Parasondox]

He may be trying to exploit a law but he is always creating more negative tension towards those who are generally transitioning from male to female or vice versa. Fuck, the is just going to be a story on some very right wing media outlets and some jackass public nobody will just use this as fuel to harass, verbally and physically abuse those who are transgendered on the street. I have seen arseholes online thinking is funny when someone is getting abused and attacked just for being transgendered. Fuck them and the attacks too. We dont need more cunts in the world