‘Locals Only’ Outrage: How ‘bar culture’ interplays with sexual assault
‘Bar culture’. What is it?
The term indicates this: a [social] environment — be it a nightclub, sports bar, or a college/high school bush party, where alcohol and/or recreational drugs are consumed. You can consume it with your partner, a group of friends, or sometimes even alone. And when you consume any of these compounds, your state of consciousness and judgement towards a situation(s) becomes impaired. Simple, right?
Ingesting these aggregates can become risky and a provide an anecdote for caution, especially when a small to large group of males and females with hormones are together in this one, clustered, social environment. And what was once a simple equation can become a complex one really, really quick; what was once a fun, outgoing environment becomes grim and swallowing.
According to the National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism, nearly 25% of American women have been victims to sexual assault by a perpetrator within their lifetime. For the perpetrator, distal factors of sexual assault include: a) general, heavy alcohol consumption, b) alcohol expectancies about sex, aggression, and disinhibition, and c) stereotypes of alcohol-induced women being sexually available and appropriate targets.
So how do these perpetrators locate such appropriate targets? Well, they’re typically in an alcoholic-inebriated state, where the evaluation of risk and motor skills are impaired dramatically.
The study indicates that these distal factors set up shop for situational factors to occur; perpetrators are likely to hang around an environment that lures bar culture.
When Katii Capern, a Ryerson University student, and friends attended King Street W. bar, called ‘Locals Only’ on the west side of Toronto, Ontario, she found a sign inside the bar.
Curious, Capern asked a staff member of the bar what “A***” stood for.
“Anal,” they responded.
After trying to get in contact with the venue and failing, Capern took to social media to express concern, and outrage. It went viral and is now trending on the likes of CBC, Huffington Post Canada, and now the U.K.-based Daily Mail.
The owners of Locals Only have apologized profusely for their actions, and will rehabilitate their training for employees to avoid repetition in behaviour.
The Sexual Assault Action Coalition have expressed their concerns towards Locals Only as well.
A joke about sexual assault in a heavy-drinking environment; an environment that invites bar culture. An environment that invites perpetrators to scope out their next; alcoholic-induced victim and perform their sexual aggression in expectancy to already have the permission to do so.
It is the responsibility of venues that is founded on the basis of being a social environment to not only step in and intervene when seeing such behaviour, but promote and establish a consensual culture as well. A bar venue that holds a liquor license to sell alcoholic beverages to patrons best be promoting a safe space for potential victims that are vulnerable. And not only that, to also to let perpetrators know that their behaviour is not welcomed. It is the responsibility of bar culture and Locals Only to inform and educate them on rape culture and how they perpetuate it as well. We, as a collective society, need to implement a communal safe space that supports and implements physical and emotional meaning to “No Means No”.
Thus, on what is deemed to be a poorly timed message via a corporate social media fail, turned out to be a an impactful social media win. Let this be a lesson in not only moral and business ethics, but branding advertisement as well for Locals Only.
