What is even better than the sugary goodness of delectable cupcakes? Cupcakes that send a message about feminism and equality.
We’re all well aware that women and other minorities are payed way less for the same work as white males. Students at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia recently had an amazing idea to draw attention to the problems with the wage gap between men and women. According to BuzzFeed News, during Feminist Week at the university, the UQU Women’s Collective threw a feminist bake sale that highlighted the wage gap between different groups in society.
An explanation of the bake sale read, “you self-identify with us to find out how much you must pay for the goods as a proportion of what you earn out of $1.00.” Basically, while a white male would be paying a full dollar for a cupcake, a woman of color would be charged only 55 cents for the same treat, the organizers explained.
Even though this is a seriously awesome idea, it pissed off some people. The bake sale stimulated immense backlash from certain members of the community. The whole idea behind this bake sale was to get people talking and start serious conversation about how messed up it is that wage gaps still exist, but rather than sparking transformative conversation, the organizers began to receive threats and personal attacks over the internet.
According to ABC, one involved student, Madeline Price, claims that they’ve “had rape threats and death threats by people who were threatened by the existence of a bake sale that could potentially engage with an issue of equality.” Seriously? Death threats over cupcakes? Luckily all of these misogynistic haters stayed behind their computer screens like the cowards they are, and didn’t bother to show up at the bake sale and follow through with their threats.
Price went on to explain that the bake sale actually received a lot of positive feedback, despite the heinous threats. “It’s just been this really interesting dichotomy between people who are threatening attendees and people who’ve been working on the event, and people who are going, ‘Ah I now see why feminism is relevant, because of the people who are threatening you,” she told ABC. So in the end, these flagrant threats brought even more positive attention to the bake sale, once people realized why feminism is important and why the wage gap is entirely absurd.
The wage gap in Australia is currently at 17.3 percent, BuzzFeed reports. The Institute for Women’s Policy Research puts it at 21 percent in the United States. Props to these amaizng women for taking a stand against gross injustice and bringing attention to continuing inequality.