Pxssy Palace club night is charging straight, cis men six times more for tickets – and it’s genius
Pxssy Palace charges straight cis men more money to attend event (Twitter/Pxssy Palace/TikTok
A London club night organiser has gone viral thanks to their genius pricing system which sees straight, cis men charged six times more than Black and queer partygoers.
Pxssy Palace regularly hosts nightlife events that actively work to be a welcoming space for LGBT+ and ethnic minorities by prioritising clubbers from marginalised genders and sexualities.
As described on their website, the club nights provide “a space to dance, connect and engage, while encouraging consent, sexual freedom, pleasure, expression and exploration of our authentic selves” and the organisers are all about “equity over equality”.
One unique way Pxssy Palace try to ensure their events are enjoyable for all is through their special ticketing system, which means ethnic minorities identifying as queer, transgender or non-binary can attend for just £16.80.
go to literally any other club in the whole of london that is available to you without fear of it not being a safe space you self entitled lump
i’d charge more personally https://t.co/BUkkgOqTXm
— buffy ? (@heartstarlet) February 1, 2022
What an amazing idea omg https://t.co/T09zEkZBMi— OLONI BABY (@Oloni) February 1, 2022
I don’t see the issue. https://t.co/BELw055WME— Michael. (@yosoymichael) February 2, 2022
Elsewhere, those labelled as “Allies” (which is named as “white trans and queer/straight BIPOC women”) are asked to pay £24.64, while the price for straight, cisgendered men was advertised as £112.
Monday (31 January) saw a screenshot of the event’s ticket prices start to do the rounds online, leading right-wing critics to try and accuse the event of discrimination against cis men.
The organisers, who held their latest event on 28 January, had already explained on their website that the pricing scale is merely a suggestion and that profits made is used to help poorer clubgoers attend for free.
“We do not police this, you make this decision on how you feel you should pay,” they said in a statement on their site.
There are hugely popular, successful clubs in Central London who turn away groups of Black women, whilst allowing groups of white women inside. It's been going on consistently for at least a decade. Will any journalists write about that? Plenty of first hand accounts online https://t.co/fRdHoNSiOh— Ruqaiya (@ruqaiya_h) February 1, 2022
Ngl Trans people are some of the most marginalised people on the planet, they don’t have many spaces curated specifically for them. Makes sense when they finally do have a space where they’re safe they wouldn’t want the groups that are typically most against them to infiltrate it https://t.co/9tbXIMHCHt
— ਕੁੰਵਰਪ੍ਰੀਤ (@Kayyouen) February 1, 2022
They reiterated their message again in response to the right-wing backlash as they broke down the thought process behind their pricing system.
Speaking to Dazed, the organisers explained: “The idea behind the tiers is to respond to the unfair economic imbalance that exists within our society. The gender pay gap between women and men are just the first of many disparities within the trans, non-binary, Black, indigenous and people of colour community.
“The tiers help us prioritise these groups as they are who the party is for. Our tier system works in much the same way as the concession model whereby students, families or pensioners are offered concession tickets to widen accessibility.”
hey thx everyone for your support yday & hello new followers pls consider buying a t-shirt from https://t.co/iirr49mP5c or donating to the taxi fund https://t.co/QxUeKlKdV0 ❤️— Pxssy Palace (@pxssypalace) February 2, 2022
@pxssypalace luv to @tabooade our host that done 3 outfit changes in the night – ur a star ⭐️ ♬ original sound – pxssypalace
They continued: “There aren’t a lot of places that BIPOC queer women, trans and non-binary people can go to and feel welcomed, never mind a place where they are actually embraced and supported.”
Pxssy Palace then repeated the fact that their pricing policy is not enforced at the door and added: “You should pay with your heart and whatever your wallet allows, regardless of your identity and if you can pay more you should, as that allows us to give away a lot of free tickets every month to those who are on low income. We stand by this model completely.”
In fact, their pricing system has enabled them to “provide disability safeguarding and training programs for our team to respond and tackle sexual assault, as well as a welfare team to assist our guests if they need”.
