Ladies Night: Not about the ladies
Holly Meyer
Issue date: 5/1/08 Section: Opinion
It's ladies night.
A vodka and cranberry, gin and tonic, dry or on the rocks - it doesn't matter how much it is - if you are female, you can have whatever you want because your drinks are on the house.
On the surface, free drinks for females seems like a relatively benign idea with women coming out ahead. Buying alcohol can rack up a hefty bar tab and drain a paycheck pretty quickly. The bar owners are being courteous hosts - besides, it's about time women got something men didn't.
In an activism campaign for a class project, a Women, Gender and Society student - coincidentally, our photo editor, June Farley - has posted fliers questioning the intent of ladies nights. The posters are right. These promotional nights should be questioned.
The poster asks "Ladies: What are you actually paying for those drinks?"
The idea does not really seem like profitable business practice. The bar is giving away their number one money making product to about half of the population. But, the popularity of "ladies drink for free" nights seems to say otherwise. The clever marketing of a common bar practice just begs to look at what really is for sale - alcohol or women.
"Maybe it is a way to pimp out women for a marketing scheme," the poster says, offering a plausable answer to its main question.
The marketing hinges on the idea that the promise of an abundance of females will attract men to the bar who, in turn, will buy alcohol. Also, free alcohol for women equals intoxicated women. It turns the promise of free drinks into the promise of drunken females with low inhibitions.
Not all drunk people are horrible people, but according to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Women's Program Web site, about half of rapes are committed by males who were drinking and about the same amount of women raped are under the influence of alcohol.
Ladies Nights masquerade as goodwill and favor toward women, but as the poster suggests, "see past the words and do something."
The free drinks are sexist and the marketing campaign objectifies women.
Consider the text on the poster and "think about it."
A vodka and cranberry, gin and tonic, dry or on the rocks - it doesn't matter how much it is - if you are female, you can have whatever you want because your drinks are on the house.
On the surface, free drinks for females seems like a relatively benign idea with women coming out ahead. Buying alcohol can rack up a hefty bar tab and drain a paycheck pretty quickly. The bar owners are being courteous hosts - besides, it's about time women got something men didn't.
In an activism campaign for a class project, a Women, Gender and Society student - coincidentally, our photo editor, June Farley - has posted fliers questioning the intent of ladies nights. The posters are right. These promotional nights should be questioned.
The poster asks "Ladies: What are you actually paying for those drinks?"
The idea does not really seem like profitable business practice. The bar is giving away their number one money making product to about half of the population. But, the popularity of "ladies drink for free" nights seems to say otherwise. The clever marketing of a common bar practice just begs to look at what really is for sale - alcohol or women.
"Maybe it is a way to pimp out women for a marketing scheme," the poster says, offering a plausable answer to its main question.
The marketing hinges on the idea that the promise of an abundance of females will attract men to the bar who, in turn, will buy alcohol. Also, free alcohol for women equals intoxicated women. It turns the promise of free drinks into the promise of drunken females with low inhibitions.
Not all drunk people are horrible people, but according to the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Women's Program Web site, about half of rapes are committed by males who were drinking and about the same amount of women raped are under the influence of alcohol.
Ladies Nights masquerade as goodwill and favor toward women, but as the poster suggests, "see past the words and do something."
The free drinks are sexist and the marketing campaign objectifies women.
Consider the text on the poster and "think about it."
Viewing Comments 1 - 10 of 10
Margaret
posted 5/02/08 @ 10:55 AM CST
I think this is a great article, Holly. After all, there MUST be a reason that a company is willing to risk their profits...
Stacey
posted 5/02/08 @ 11:47 AM CST
Oh my God...Of course ladies' nights are a scheme to get men to come to the bar...that is one of the reasons they do ladies' nights and not mens' nights (women would not be as interested and men drink too much anyway to make this work). (Continued…)
Amy
posted 5/02/08 @ 2:49 PM CST
I agree with Stacey.
JShu
posted 5/02/08 @ 6:32 PM CST
Holly Meyer strikes again. Holly, you are entitled to your opinion just as much as anyone else, but why is it that you seem to do all of your man-bashing on the pages of the Alestle? As a regular reader of the paper, I can appreciate both sides of many of the opinion columns that have been written, but this is twice this year that you've gone overboard. (Continued…)
KD
posted 5/05/08 @ 9:39 AM CST
Bars use the "ladies night" as a way to draw in women for free drinks, which in return draw in more men because they know that more women will be there. (Continued…)
Adam H
posted 5/09/08 @ 1:13 PM CST
I'm offended that she doesn't think Men's night would work. DO I NOT HAVE ANYTHING TO OFFER BESIDES MY WALLET?!?!
Steve
posted 5/09/08 @ 5:09 PM CST
"The free drinks are sexist and the marketing campaign objectifies women."
Has the student group from the 80's Women For Women made a return to campus? Can National Town Meeting and the Cougar Guard be far behind?
Let me go on the record as saying that Holly Meyer is a nut case. (Continued…)
Michael
posted 5/15/08 @ 10:36 PM CST
You would think the women going to these events would be old enough to make a choice when or when not to stop drinking. It's not like they don't have a choice. (Continued…)
Holly S.
posted 5/16/08 @ 12:27 PM CST
The reality of this situation is that sex sells. That's how it is and that's how it always will be. No one will ever change that. Women are used for marketing everyday, in every industry. (Continued…)
Adam H
posted 5/16/08 @ 1:08 PM CST
and then your article after that can be about how the consumers are taking advantage of the bars by leveraging their sexual and social interests into lower alcohol prices. (Continued…)
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