Sydney Cruise Bar serves up sexual objectification: naked women used as fruit platters

If their product and service was any good, they wouldn't need sexual objectification to sell it

Sydney venue 'Cruise Bar' hired nude female models to lie naked on tables and act as fruit platters for its 'relaunch' party.

Invitations to the event described the stunt as a "re-enactment of a famous Sex and the City scene" and promised 'stunning nude models' adorned with fruit for guests to dine from.

Using a woman’s naked body as a stand-in for an inanimate object - in this case a platter - is a text book example of sexual objectification.

The models were subject to the staring and comments of hundreds of patrons and repeatedly photographed. Photos were then uploaded and shared via social media, which is exactly what Cruise Bar would have wanted. The women's bodies first used as fruit platters could then be used as advertising for the venue.   

Once photos did begin to circulate, Cruise Bar was widely condemned for its dehumanising, sexual objectification of women. 

via the Daily Mail with comments from Collective Shout's Melinda Tankard Reist

An upmarket Sydney bar has caused outrage after hiring women to lie naked on the table with food on their bodies during a major event - with the models even made to hand feed guests.

People are threatening to boycott Cruise Bar, a popular venue at the Overseas Passenger Terminal in Sydney’s Circular Quay, following the spectacle at their relaunch party on Wednesday night.

Women’s advocate Melinda Tankard-Reist is one of the many objectors and she hopes people take a stand against the bar for ‘objectifying’ women.

‘I hope people decide to boycott Cruise Bar en masse for treating women like trays,’ Ms Tankard-Reist told Daily Mail Australia.

‘It is part of the ongoing objectification of women to use them as serving trays and just part of the buffet,’ said Ms Tankard-Reist.

‘It suggests they are part of the buffet really – saying “help yourself to the women’s bodies”.

The co-founder of Collective Shout hopes the bar faces serious ramifications for the display.

‘Someone has to tell this company it’s the 21st century and this is not appropriate. I hope they’re punished,’ said Ms Tankard-Reist.

‘It’s objectifying (the models) for male pleasure and gratification because I imagine it will be mostly men enjoying that.’

That's just insane, no point to that display except to demean women. Who would enjoys such a thing?' said Adam Thompson on Twitter.

Academic Melanie James said she was both saddened and angered by the nearly nude display, labeling it ‘unacceptable.’ The topless women are allowed only skimpy, skin-coloured underwear.

‘I just feel sick, sad and angry. Confirms why we need feminism,’ the University of Newcastle academic and esteemed author told Daily Mail Australia. Click here to read more. 

Not enough outrage in the room - Matt Bamford's first hand account of the event via Sydney Confidential 

AS a 23-year-old male I suppose I would be in the key demographic organisers of Wednesday night’s Cruise Bar launch were targeting.

Maybe I’m a prude, or naive to the men’s club mystique, but seeing two women laid out on a trestle table naked at the Circular Quay venue, but for strategically placed fruit and a small G-string, my initial reaction was shocked disbelief.

While there has been a widespread public backlash with calls to boycott the venue since photographs emerged on social media tagged “You are scum”, there was a distinct lack of outrage in the room on the night.

It was hard not to stare - but where some took pleasure, I felt shame and a new aversion to tropical fruit.

These women were not waitresses or entertainers — though their role was not ambiguous.

They were less than bodies on a cold hard slab.

They were reduced to being furniture - the very epitome of “objectification” - human objects. Click here to read more