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Club Amazon ends skirt night

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Club Amazon’s weekly “Skirt Night” promotion has been put on hold, foiling a campus group’s plan to stage a protest tomorrow at the University Avenue bar.

Men Opposed to Sexual Assault member Jamie Gamez said the organization was going to have men don skirts and attend Club Amazon in protest of “Skirt Night” Friday, an event where women wearing skirts gain free entrance to the club.

However, Club Amazon stopped honoring the promotion over a month ago, according to its owner, John Okonek. Instead, Fridays at Club Amazon have become “College ID night,” where patrons flashing their University of Wisconsin IDs are admitted to the dance club with a $1 cover. In addition, the club will allow a younger-than-usual crowd in Wednesdays and Thursdays, when those 18 years old and or above are admitted into Amazon.

“We just do different promotions at different times,” said Okonek, who claimed Skirt Night was popular with patrons. “People liked it.”

Austin King, of MOSA, said he is glad Skirt Night, which he said exposes women to “mass objectification every Friday,” has been discontinued but points out many other downtown bars merit attention for practices encouraging sexual harassment.

“There are plenty of bars that do lots of terrible things, promoting a culture lax on sexual assaults,” King said. “Skirt Night was just one example of that.”

UW student Rachel McPhee thinks Club Amazon’s Skirt Night was sexist toward women.

“[It’s] a poor excuse for people to be scantily clad when it’s cold out,” McPhee said. “If you show your body you can get in for free. I think it’s disgusting, I definitely think it’s objectifying to women.”

Elizabeth Staudt, a member of the Campus Women’s Center, said Skirt Night is part of a disturbing trend among campus-area bars that has desensitized the populace to sexism

“It seems like we’re so used to these kind of nights permeating culture in a college town that we don’t even notice it,” said Staudt, who applauded the efforts of MOSA to raise awareness to issues associated with promotions like Skirt Night.

“This, like other types of drink specials, was just a way to get women in the bar, using women’s bodies as a commodity,” Staudt said. “They can guarantee men women will be there in skirts.”