A Nightclub Has Banned Staring at Someone Without Prior Consent

VIEWER DISCRETION IS ADVISED. Please accept my disclaimer that this clip is from a movie that came out in 1998 and reflects behavior, norms, and social interactions common to that period. My use of it does not constitute my endorsement of the culture mores depicted herein, which have no place in our society today. I post it here simply to illustrate a point that mating rituals have changed in the last quarter century. Particularly within our nightclub community. 

The Sun UK - A NIGHTCLUB has banned staring without getting "verbal consent" - and hired "safety officers" in pink vests to police revellers. 

The venue also asked clubbers not to turn up if their "sole purpose" for their night out is the meet someone to "pick up". ...

Club 77 in Sydney said managers will call the cops if clubbers stare at others without getting their consent.

And in an Instagram post, the club said "safety officers" in pink vests would enforce the new staring rules.

Club 77 said it wanted to be a "safe space" and updated its rules as it had recently "attracted some people who do not share our values and ethics when it comes to club culture".

I guess I've been out of the club scene longer than I realized. Because before I traded clubs for pubs with neon beer signs hanging on red brick walls, 50 cent wings, and surly drunks, the very "values and ethics" of club culture was going there for the sole purpose of picking someone up. That's why they built those monuments to hedonistic sin and got away with charging covers. 

But with those overpriced shitty drinks and deafening, bass-heavy extended dance remix music came a certain social contract. It was understood there would be staring. I suppose it was encouraged. You were either watching someone or hoping someone would be staring at you, depending on your level of physical attractiveness. To be sure, a certain percentage of the starers were creepy introverts who could never transition from The Stare to The Eye Contact to The Approach That Leads to a Conversation. Some personality types will just never possess the confidence to pull off the "Sup, girl?" 

Still, this is 2022. So we have to address it the way we do everything. With a gross overreaction. Our solution to every issue is to take The Path of Most Resistance. We'd rather turn our back on a problem, head in the other direction, circumnavigate the globe and an approach it from the total opposite direction. Instead of walking 20 feet across a room and saying, "You're weirding everyone out. Knock it off." My generation didn't invent "Why don't you take a picture? It'll last longer." But we did perfect it. And it proved effective in 100% of clinical tests. But now this crowd loves to find the hardest, most expensive solution to every minor problem. 

I mean, what is the budget of these pink-vested hall monitors? And is every club going to be required to hire a fully strained staff of Stare Experts to police the grounds now? More to the point, what exactly is Club 77's Stare Policy? How long does one have to be looking in order for it to constitute a stare? How will they differentiate it from a common look? Or a scan. Peek. Sight. Glimpse. Peep. Gaze. Side eye. Furtive glance. Lingering view. Regarding one longingly. One Pink Vest Patrol Officer's creepy stare could be another clubgoer's "looking around the room." Or just that middle distance stare you do when you're thinking about something else and you're not checking out anyone or anything. Are they going to be triangulating guy's corneas to determine how deep their field of vision is? And what about the ones who wear sunglasses inside? Granted, they're all assholes (except actual blind people) and deserve to be thrown out just on that basis. But do they get to ogle women with impunity because of their assholery? 

I, for one, leave these issues to you people of club going age. Until recently, the eyes were the windows to the soul. Women of my mom's generation loved to talk about how the sex symbols of their day could make women swoon just with their eyes. But this generation is turning the simple, noble act of checking someone out a hate crime. Good luck perpetuating the human race with that. But you've brought this shit on yourselves.