Vegan café who imposed ‘man tax’ set to close
Vegan café Handsome Her has closed less than two years after opening.
The café in Melbourne’s Brunswick hit the headlines after it offered women priority seating and imposed an 18 per cent surcharge for male customers one week a month.
Although non-compulsory, the "man tax" reflected "the gender pay gap", the owners said.
Posting the news on Facebook, the café owners said the reaction to the man tax "showed us how fragile masculinity is and solidified the necessity for us to confront and dismantle patriarchy".
"We were just one little tiny shop on Sydney Rd that was trying to carve out a swathe of space to prioritise women and women's issues, and suddenly we became the punching bag of Melbourne and the internet," they added.
In another post on Facebook, the owners denied reports that the man tax had run their "business into the ground", saying they "just don't want to own a café anymore".
“We have sold the business because we are young, educated and off on our next adventure," they wrote in the post.
Sheridan Randall, 29th April 2019
