A Chickpea and Sunflower Bagel for Her, and a Save the World Sandwich for Him －彼女にひよこ豆とひまわりのベーグルを、彼には世界を救うサンドを－

A vegan cafe in Australia caused controversy a couple of years ago by deciding to ask men and women to pay different prices for the same food.  If men or women have to pay more for the same dish, which gender do you think should be charged more?

Of course women should be charged more.  This is because women’s bodies are, on average, smaller than men’s.  So if a man and his girlfriend both order a sandwich, the woman may be 90 per cent full after eating it, and the man only 72 per cent full.  It makes sense to me therefor that the man’s sandwich should cost him 18 per cent less.  It is 18 per cent less satisfying for him.

But this is not how the owners of Handsome Her cafe in Melbourne saw it.  Statistics in Australia show that men earn 18 per cent more than women on average.  So the cafe owners asked men to pay 18 per cent extra for the same food, to highlight the gender pay gap.  They also gave women “priority seating”.  I’ve no idea how the priority seating worked.  Did the cafe ask men to move to the back of the bus, I mean cafe, if a woman came in and wanted to sit on the comfiest seat?

Anyway, the cafe went out of business at the end of April this year.  The cafe’s unusual policies were discussed and criticised on the internet.  Many people found their “man-tax” idea ridiculous.

I don’t know whether the man-tax was the reason the cafe went out of business, but it suggests to me that the owners were making a mistake by mixing up food and politics.  I am interested in politics and agree that it is important to protest and argue for positive change.  But some places are better for political protests than others.  When I go out for lunch, I don’t crave a socialist sandwich, or a workers’ rights sandwich, or a save the world sandwich.  I just want a tasty sandwich.  Maybe the cafe went out of business because they were spending too much time planning a revolution to overthrow men, and not enough time cooking tasty sandwiches.


Vocabulary:

gender – relating to a difference between male and female

statistics – a set of numbers collected to show differences between groups, changes over time, etc.

to highlight something – to draw attention to something

priority seating – seats reserved for people with special needs, such as the disabled, parents with young children, etc.

the comfiest – the most comfortable

ridiculous – absurd; deserving to be laughed at

to crave something – to strongly desire something