My Feminist Rant About New Pink Sports Bar

Call me one of the guys, but this idea actually offends me a bit.  I stumbled across an article on DNAinfo about a new sports bar opening in NYC.  At first glance there's nothing super unique about Campeon.  It serves Mexico City street cuisine that their chef grew up eating.  It has 36 flat-screen TVs showing everything from college b-ball to the Olympics.  Pretty par for the course for a sports bar...until you talk about the decor. 

Is this Barbie's sports bar?  Something seems amiss here.  The walls are bright pink.  The mirrors are shaped like suns.  There's leather couches and chandeliers strewn throughout the room.  For a second one might think that maybe the interior decorating was left over from a previous tenant.  Nope. Ken Strum, the owner, tells DNAinfo it's by design.

"It’s highly stylized and geared towards women in that it’s not a typical Hooters-style bar that [is] overly masculine with the Guinness mirrors. We did a softer design. We wanted to make it very inviting for women so that they don’t feel like they’re sitting in a men’s kind of club."

No distributor mirrors?  No beer banners flying high and proud from the rafters?  No sports memorabilia upon thy pink walls? I mean this is NYC after all. What about the Giants and the Jets and the Mets and the Rangers?  Ken, you just took away everything I love about sports bars!

I can't remember one time where I've thought, "Let's not watch the game there.  Their interior decorating makes me feel uncomfortable and like I don't belong."  Not to mention, I feel like Campeon is playing into the stereotype that women are too soft and dainty to enjoy sports the way boys do.  The concept and design was put together by a MAN.  I may feel slightly different if the bar's owner was a woman, but this is a man thinking women are uncomfortable around the Guinness mirrors and dark colors. He does realize most sports bars feature the colors of the hometown's teams right?

Sorry Ken, I'll pass on your little pink sports bar and foo foo drinks.  You'll find me sitting with a pounder of local beer at Big Al's, The Crescent, Busters, The RAM...well, pretty much any sports bar that isn't pink.