he day has finally come. The Las Vegas trip you and the guys have been planning for the last year is finally here and you can’t wait to experience the glamorized Las Vegas strip as you’ve seen in the movies. You’ve landed in Sin City, put your best suit and tie combination on and you’re ready to hit the town and take some shots to get the night started. Luckily, your hotel is across one of the most sought-after nightclubs. You make your way there and begin small-talking some good looking ladies. A 6 foot, well-dressed promoter greets the group and says “Guys, I’m going to take these lovely ladies up right now for free, if you go ahead and get in line we can try to get you in within the next two hours.” You turn your head to the growing 500-person line and sigh. Trying to remain optimistic, two hours have passed and you’re at the front of the line. The same promoter checks your IDs and says “That’ll be $80 each, please”. We’ve talked about gender inequality towards women in other areas of the world, but it seems like Sin City is rampantly sexist toward men. Could Las Vegas be the most sexist city in America?
A Preconceived Notion
Because Las Vegas is so hyped up in a lot of movies, many people have a preconceived notion of what the city will actually be like. A lot of the time, guys just want to go to Vegas and have a rowdy time with three simple things involved: alcohol, girls, and gambling. Doesn’t seem like too much to ask, right? Well, there are a few reasons why Las Vegas is working its way toward being one of the most sexist cities in America. Here are a couple of reasons why.
A Day In The Life
Let’s take a look at what a day in Vegas looks like for girls. They wake up, tan by the pool, have way too much champagne at their brunch, and then nap off their mid-day hangover before getting dressed up for the evening. The guys enjoy some wings at the sports bar and then make their way to the casino. They don’t make it very far in before the bouncer kicks them out for wearing sports jerseys and not “following appropriate dress protocol”. Oh, and let’s not forget they paid $30 to enter the casino, and then couldn’t get a refund…
Club Entry
So the guys have to wait in a much lengthier club line up than the ladies, so what? Not the end of the world. Bring a flask with you and you’ll be ready to dance the night away once you’re inside! After all, it’s your only chance to see Calvin Harris live, one of the world's most popular DJs. Might not seem that bad until you get to the front and see that the cover charge for men is $100, and it’s only $30 for women. Just when you thought the inequality couldn’t get worse, the group of girls ahead of you said they got in completely free of charge for simply texting the promoter photos of their group prior to lining up. So in a nutshell, they’d been given entry for proving they were hot. Sexism or prostitution?
How Does Nevada Get Away With This?
How does such a sought-after tourist destination get away with such gender inequality? Well, Nevada’s affirmative “equal enjoyment” statute contains a glaring omission — the protection of sex as a class.119. Basically, this omission makes it okay for adult entertainment venues, nightclubs, and so forth to continue charging men more than women for admission and drinks in the face of strong evidence of the practice’s inequality.
Now, this examination obviously doesn't end here, but the whole gender discrimination topic in Las Vegas is on the rise because it serves an important government interest. It’s clear that the popular tourist destination relies heavily upon the cash-cow gaming industry and courts find that sex-based pricing attracts men to the casinos, which serves the compelling government interest of maintaining the state’s economy.
It seems as though, when it comes to sexist treatment of men, society seems to turn a blind eye. While there are small groups that advocate for better treatement of men Las Vegas seems to only be concerned with mens money and not their treatement.
