August 16, 2010 10:40 AM

Muzique Says "No Fat Girls": Does Club Have Right to Discrimate?

By
Neil Katz
Topics
News ,
Diet

Muzique nightclub in Montreal. (Muzique/Youtube)

(CBS) We are all constantly bombarded by messages to lose weight and get in shape, but one Montreal nightclub has taken to outright banning those who don't drop the pounds - at least for one night.

Last week, the Facebook page of Muzique posted an ad for a party that read  "NO FAT GIRLS ALLOWED!!!!!!!!!!," according to the Montreal Gazette.

The club's management claims it was meant as a joke and blamed the party promoters for posting it.

"We didn't even realize (the comment) was there until a couple of days ago, and it was too late to retract it because the event had already happened," John Jay, Muzique's press man, told the Gazette.

"We don't think it's funny at all." 

Neither do some of the club's customers.

"When I saw it, I freaked out. I was livid," one plus-sized fan of the club told the paper.

"It's discrimination pure and simple and discrimination is wrong," Jeanette DePatie, spokeswoman for the Association for Size Diversity and Health told CBS News. "This isn't tolerated for most other disenfranchised groups anymore. And it's sad that this is still tolerated and in some circles approved of."

The offending line has been taken down from their Facebook page. But the club's message still seems clear.

The club is the "flagship for all things fabulous in Montreal's high-end party scene," the current page reads. "Attracting a bevy of models, actors and young financiers every weekend to experience Montreal's most extravagant and exclusive events for the mature and distinguished."

Still, Jason Tull, one of the owners, tells CBS News his club doesn't discriminate. "I don't care if you are purple," he says. "People are people."

Ironically,  Tull is overweight himself, clocking in at 6-feet tall and 260 pounds. But, the club man says he looks great in a suit.

What do you think?





Add a Comment See all 100 Comments
by JulieInMontreal October 2, 2010 2:39 PM EDT
See it's like a paradox: Unattractives want to go in trendy clubs because there are attractive people there, but then, if uglies were allowed there, then, there wouldn't be any attractive people there, because they would flee from the unattractive hordes. So the unattractive wouldn't want to go there anymore, as the attractives are all gone.

"Should clubs be allowed to discriminate based on weight"? Damn right they should. I mean it is a pri-vate-club. They should be allowed to discriminate on whatever criteria they damn please, whether that includes fats, uglies, the physically unattractives, ethnics people, purple people or any other criteria they want. How would you like if someone else told you had to let in your house or place someone you don't like? Are you serious? Some of you need to get over your unattractive selves and realize the world does not own you an entry in a club. I mean fer Christ sakes.

Like it or not, selectiveness is the basic principle behind being a club. Sure people might also go there for the music, but if club let every old, unattractives and other sexually inadequates or unfuckables the club loses its purpose.

People already discriminate on a daily basis based on looks, attractives don't sex up the rejects of sexual selection etc. People can choose and you have no business telling us women we can't.

Sure they could allow unattractives in the place but then the clientele would just move to another club. And so the club would shut down. Not good for business. Of course there are some area of society where discrimination based on color or size shouldn't be allowed. If a fat woman is qualified for a sewing job in a manufacture, then the employer has honestly no business rejecting her based on her weight. If he wants a model he should just advertise for a modeling job instead and select accordingly. But clubs are a private venues: and certainly not a social right to be allowed in. Get over yourselves people.
Reply to this comment
by Dubai_expat August 24, 2010 1:48 AM EDT
Can we do this at my job too?
Reply to this comment
by Slomoven August 23, 2010 11:19 PM EDT
Years ago, I heard "when they get through with us smokers, fat people would be next." Are we there yet?
Reply to this comment
by Slomoven August 23, 2010 11:01 PM EDT
It's business and all about money. Always is.
Reply to this comment
by bradkt1 August 23, 2010 10:10 PM EDT
We discriminate every day in the choices we make and it is legal to do so. We have laws that say that discrimination in employment for certain reasons...race, color, national origin, religion, sex. age, handicap and in some places sexual preference...is illegal.

Other than for those reasons, we can discriminate all we want.
Reply to this comment
by filtyting August 23, 2010 8:36 PM EDT
A private club is a private club. I may not agree with the terms they put forth, but since it is private, they should be allowed to let in (or not let in) whoever they want.
Reply to this comment
by voxpopulus August 23, 2010 7:56 PM EDT
Most of the comments here are from people who know nothing about club culture, which thrives on, and is all about, discrimination. They don't let in the nerds, the uglies, the poorly dressed, the uncool. They keep them in the line as the "beautiful people" swan by. I don't like it. I think it's inane, But let's not bs that it's only discrimination when it applies to fat people. How can you be cool, unless someone else is not?
Reply to this comment
by endurorob_5 August 23, 2010 11:40 AM EDT
O.K. the most absurd thing in the entire article is that there is an orginizatoin called "The Associtation for Size Diversity and Health" and the they actually have aspokes person and that she refers to fat people as disenfranchised. Obesity is, in almost all cases, voluntary.
Reply to this comment
by rockcutr August 23, 2010 9:27 AM EDT
This is wonderful. Why would anyone be offended if there was a "fat club"? Add to the list no republicans, gays, transgenders or attitudes of a skinhead nature. It is because we cannot seem to fix stupid that rules and laws are made. In turn, we end up with loads and loads of stupid laws made by low life forms to suppress those falling outside of social norms. Which like the universe is an ever expanding space. What was illegal soon may not be so. Provided enough money flows into the pockets of those who purchased positions of power in order to form a more perfect talking head. This is all as rediculous as armys running off to foreign countrys to kill mass quantities of those who think differently in order to preserve peace at home. Peace = Peace. For the really mentally challenged in positions of power,,,,this is a concept which is unable to concieve. Evolution does not work in all cases. Reptiles will always be reptiles. Prime example G bush #2 just as stupid as g bush #1. A factor of Zero in the growth [evolution] department.
Reply to this comment
by deoppressoliber1964 August 23, 2010 9:13 AM EDT
The club is in Canada. I think it's the Canadian governments responsibility to decide whether or not it's discriminatory, not America's.

We need to stay in our lane.
Reply to this comment
by avigil2 August 23, 2010 8:17 PM EDT
Since when have we ever stayed in "our lane"?
See all 100 Comments
.

Follow HealthPop

Scroll Left
Scroll Right More »
Better Information. Better Health.
CBS News on Facebook
  • Building You a Better Morning

  • CBS This Morning

    "CBS This Morning," anchored by Charlie Rose, Gayle King and Erica Hill, airs weekdays from 7 to 9 a.m. ET and at the same time in other time zones.
    Learn more...