Did you know that trying to raise awareness on gender pay gap by selling cupcakes at gendered prices could lead to death and rape threats? Neither did I, but that is what discovered the organisers of a Gender Pay Gap Sale at the campus of the Australian University of Queensland.
To start a conversation about this important issue, they decided to bake and sell cupcakes at a differentiated price: “each baked good would only cost you the proportion of $1 that you earn comparative to men” (it included other discriminations influencing the salary).
Educative and recreational, such events have already been organised in other places of the world. However, some did not appreciate the approach chosen and screamed it online. Indeed, the public event page, as well as the personal Facebook page and mails of the organisors have been inundated by violent comments, threats, and images picturing male violence against women.
“This innocuous bake sale drew a vitriol of negative, derogatory and threatening online comments from people threatened by a discussion about equality and feminism; a discussion that we now, so obviously, need to be having in a public space.”
And a conversation we will have.
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