Quick question for any of you “whiney bitches” out there: Do you have a problem with the perpetuation of sexual epithets used to denigrate women? A new-ish venue in Brisbane’s Fortitude Valley called Spectrum Daquiri Bar is being criticised for items on its menu containing terms commonly used as gender-specific slurs against females (except in the case of Jesse Pinkman who uses them as non gender-specific slurs against everyone or thing).
The offending drinks, titled ‘Whiney Bitch’ and ‘Red-headed Slut’, have provoked a slew of angry trolling on the bar’s Facebook page, with commenters accusing the proprietors of tolerating sexism, and some going as far as suggesting the cocktail names promote violence against women.
Reactions to the drinks and their corresponding descriptions – such as the Red-headed Slut which appears on the Spectrum Bar menu as “a well-known cocktail featuring Cranberry Juice, Peach Schnapps, Jagermeister and Vodka – it goes down well” – have been varied, with some commenters calling for the bar to be boycotted, while others have defended it. Here’s a sample of comments:
The establishment made a positive step toward initiating change when it asked Facebook followers for suggestions of how it can improve in the new year; however, this step forward was subsequently reversed when negatively-skewed pieces of feedback started to be deleted from the page – a major faux pas according to the unwritten laws of Facebook as a feedback forum:
Personally as a woman and a former redhead, the thing that most offends me about this situation is the fact Spectrum specialises in DAIQUIRIS. As Claudia Kishi the best dressed member of The Babysitters Club would say: ew gross. And not since the Barbados time warp or when Doug opened a fictional bar called “Cocktails & Dreams” in the movie Cocktail, has the rainbow-coloured mouth-hate known as the daiquiri been in vogue.
In the meantime, the battle for ownership of the word ‘slut’ rages on like the fight for the Iron Throne as of Game Of Thrones’s second season finale [Note: Game Of Thrones Season 3 will premiere on March 31, 2013, in the US. Squee].
Main image via the Spectrum Daiquiri Bar Facebook page.
