Man sues brewery after identifying as female to get beer discount
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Man sues brewery after identifying as female to get beer discount

What a wanker.

Brewdog/Vimeo

Siobhan Ball— | Last updated

For the last year, Brewdog—a Scottish brewpub and restaurant—has sold their Pink IPA at a 20% discount for women in an attempt to highlight the gender pay gap.

Now, in a truly stunning case of missing the point, a man has successfully sued them for gender discrimination.

Unwilling to simply buy another beer or pay the extra pound charged to male clientele for the drink, Dr. Thomas Bower “felt forced to identify as female” in order to get the beer at the discounted price.

https://twitter.com/JoycieBanachek/status/1140987572493176832

This was apparently humiliating for Bower and, unsatisfied with Brewdog’s explanation that this was national policy as part of a social awareness campaign, took them to small claims court.

Unfortunately for everyone, the judge found in his favor, awarding him more than $1,200 in damages and agreeing that fraudulently identifying as female in order to make use of a discount must have been humiliating and “an unpleasant experience for him.”

While the judge may be correct in that gender-based discounts do technically violate the Equalities Act, men and women on Twitter came together to celebrate the pettiness of a man suing over a campaign designed to combat gender equality.

https://twitter.com/philrush74/status/1141031808563388417

https://twitter.com/LewLewis1/status/1141003548282503169

Others pointed out the irony of his win given the usual victims of gender discrimination

And the memes were out in force

 

https://twitter.com/untemperedlink/status/1140951653010595840

And there were some truly scathing assessments of the man.

https://twitter.com/mybadluckcharm/status/1140953272296955905

It’s not all fun and games however, as the idea of men falsely identifying as female to get what they want is a stick used to beat the trans community. Cases of people actually doing that are incredibly rare, but by creating one, he’s fed into that narrative regardless of his intentions.

Bizarrely, he’s gone on to donate half of his winnings to the Young Women’s Trust, a charity that attempts to tackle the wage gap, and the other half to male suicide prevention. Hopefully, this means he’s learned a thing or two about the issue.

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Siobhan Ball

Siobhan Ball

Siobhan Ball is a historian, archivist, and journalist. She also writes for Autostraddle and bi.org

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