The University of Queensland’s now-infamous Pay Gap Bake Sale has already succeeded in making people pay attention to Australia’s wage disparity, even if that attention only relates to their suddenly diminished ability to purchase cupcakes.
That is to say, the negative response to the sale is a proof of concept – the prices are obviously unfair, people are mad about it, and that’s the point. End of.
Source: ABC.
However, the imminent sale has also proven another, less enviable point: women who take a stand against needlessly unfair conditions are still subject to some absolutely vile abuse.
That’s what Madeline Price, the vice-president of gender and sexuality at the UQ Student Union, told the ABC.
According to her, members of the union’s Women’s Collective have been attacked with “rape threats and death threats by people who were threatened by the existence of a bake sale that could potentially engage with an issue of inequality.”
“We’ve come to realise that whenever a woman raises her voice in the public sphere, the attention that attracts also attracts these rape threats and threats of sexual violence.”
Despite not deserving that kinda bullshit – at all – Price also said the event’s vehement opposition is “a really negative thing, but a good place to start discussion”.
“It’s been a bit of an interesting experience to say the least but it has galvanised the feminist community on campus because it is now blatantly obvious why this sort of thing needs to be happening.”
In case you were wondering, the bake sale is scheduled to go down tomorrow, and debate is still roaring over on the university’s ‘Stalker’ page.
Even if you’re not going to buy anything – hell, even if you vehemently disagree with their viewpoint – maybe avoid resorting to threats of sexual violence, yeah?
Source: ABC.
Photo: Anya Semenoff / Getty.
