Public cries of discrimination against white men have prompted the promoters of a debut screening for a new series about the comedy industry to adjust their “justice pricing ” model for the Sept. 28 event at the Roxy Theatre in Victoria.
After lowering the ticket price for “cisgender, hetero, able-bodied white males” from $20 to $15 – women still pay $10 – the promoters for Building the Room took to a blog on the series website to further discuss their much-maligned decision to use the pricing model.
“A lot of people have pointed out that the pricing model we’ve adopted is not equitable. They’re right. Having said that, equity does not equal equality,” the Sept. 20 blog stated. “In fact, achieving equality sometimes demands inequitable treatment to correct for existing disparities in rights, privileges and economic power.”
The blogger pointed out that the price disparity did not represent “in real terms the disparity between average incomes and purchasing power that exist.”
On Tuesday, addressing backlash that apparently included death threats, the director for Building the Room asked that people stop harassing the cast, crew and venue, who had nothing to do with the justice pricing decision.
In an e-mail Friday morning, Shiraz Higgins, the film’s director, said he had altered the pricing model after having been “flooded with feedback”.
“Justice pricing has always been a work in progress,” he wrote.
The screening happens at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday, Sept. 28. More information and the blog can be found at buildingtheroom.com.
