Shocking ***ism from Barracudas restaurant in Fish Hoek, Western Cape.

Good day

Unfortunately my girlfriend and I experienced a shocking instance of ***ism at Barracudas seafood restaurant in Fish Hoek about 3 weeks ago.

We kindly asked to use the bathroom at the restaurant as my girlfriend was not feeling well. She was experiencing period pain and just needed to use the bathroom to urgently change her pad. Yes, this was made clear to the staff on duty and yet they still did not seem to care in the slightest.

The restaurant manager on duty refused her access to the bathroom on the grounds that we had to buy food just to use the toilet. We did not have extra cash for a meal and so she was barred from using the bathroom. We had to drive all the way back to the Fish Hoek community hall because of this disgusting treatment from staff at Barracudas.

This is completely unacceptable from any establishment in 2018. This would have been inexcusable from any establishment in any time period, yet is especially unjustified now.

There is no valid reason to have prevented my girlfriend from using the bathroom. The restaurant would not have lost money nor would their ability to serve customers been impaired. This is another disturbing example of inhuman behaviour in a country that is in such desperate need of humanity, kindness and genuine understanding.

I would hope for this restaurant's sake that they do not also align themselves with the intellectually lazy argument of 'if we let one person use the bathroom for free, we have to let everyone use the bathroom for free.' This is an entirely invalid argument since bathroom access is a human right for dignity and should never be made inaccessible. To also somehow believe that so many people have allegedly requested bathroom access without buying food from their restaurant is highly fallacious.

I strongly urge any potential customers to boycott this restaurant on the grounds of ***ist *****ry and inhuman treatment.

Please do not think for a second that such behaviour is okay or that one could be seen as 'overreacting'. This is a severe issue because it feeds directly into the **** and femicide culture rampant throughout South Africa. Why? If you do not take a woman's pain or discomfort or challenge seriously, it means you see her as inferior. If you can see any person as less than, you can very easily disregard their pain and use violence (physical, emotional or verbal) against that person more easily, even if that violence is subconscious. This can easily lead to abuse, assault and/or **** in the long term. Remember, **** culture does not begin with ****. It begins with a simple thought that a woman is inferior in any way to a man.

We are both deeply saddened that such behaviour still exists in South Africa and so we will take every instance to address it, call it out and educate those we still feel it is okay or that it is 'not such a big deal.'

We hope that Barracudas very urgently educates their staff and that serious redress for accessibility occurs within the restaurant.

No one should ever have to feel excluded for anything that is easily and readily available.