A vegan café in Australia which gained notoriety for imposing an 18% “man-tax” on male customers has announced it will shut down.
Describing itself as a community restaurant focused on female empowerment, Handsome Her opened in 2017, with proceeds of the one-week-a-month premium going to a women’s charity.
Aimed at reflecting the gender pay gap, the policy also saw women offered priority seating – something some online commentators deemed to be “bigoted, sexist” and “man-hating.”
After two years of trading, owner Alexandra O’Brien announced she had sold the business in preparation for her “next adventure”, and paid tribute to the whirlwind of “sad, angry male tears” that had surrounded the venture.
In a Facebook post in which she described herself as a “leftist, extremist, man-hating vegan dyke of your worst nightmare,” O’Brien said: “Let us reassure you that we are not closing because of male tears or misogynistic vitriol from men’s rights activists
“We’re lesbians, we’re quite used witnessing the fragility of the male ego which literally cannot compute the idea of a woman who is not interested in them. These abusive comments have been mostly amusing, only reinforced our views about how toxic sexism is, and great motivation for us to keep up the good work.”
O’Brien also denied the café was closing down due to a lack of business. She said: “If you’ve been in you know we are doing just fine. Our fans and regulars can smell a rat when it comes to fake google reviews from #sadmen.
“Most of our male customers have happily paid above and beyond the optional surcharge (mantax) which we donate to charity. Handsome Her was somewhat of a social experiment for us outside of our professional realms, and we have seen that it works to put our politics to the forefront in life and in business
“As much as people would love to believe it, sorry but the max tax did not run our business into the ground, we just don’t want to own a cafe anymore.”
The café is open until the end of the week and will operate a “pay as you feel” scheme on Sunday with all proceeds going to a charity which protects Nepali girls from abuse, exploitation and torture.
According to News.com.au, the gender pay gap for Australia’s full time workers is 14.1%, with women earning on average $239.80 per week less than men.