Lederhosen discrimination
I can't believe I'm about to blog about lederhosen... but I am.
These are German lederhosen (leather pants), traditional dress from Bavaria (south Germany)...
They are typically worn for traditional events, including the famous Oktoberfest which is occurring right now in Munich.
Why am I telling you this? Cause something interesting happened... a couple American friends came to visit me this weekend, my friend Jim from college and his brother Dave, who got a pair so he could celebrate the beerfest in style ;) They wanted to go to the Volksfest in Stuttgart, which is the second biggest German beer festival occurring right now, after Oktoberfest. They convinced me to come out with them... I had never been in one of these beer tents before... wow. "A shit show," as one guys put it... people dancing and singing on tables and drinking ridiculous quantities of beer. At first I thought, "What the hell am I doing at this human circus??" but after one of these...
... I was sufficiently assimilated, and was also singing and dancing on tables.
Anyways... clad in lederhosen, Dave fit right into the beer tent. But after we left there, we decided to go out downtown to some bars... and Dave got rejected from the first place... cause he was wearing lederhosen! I tried to argue with the doorguy... "How can you judge him based on what he's wearing? That's discrimination!" But they insisted that often, people wearing lederhosen get too rowdy and cause trouble.
We got let into the hipster bar nextdoor though (Mata Hari).
Then we tried to go to another one of my favorite locations called Fleisch und Wurst, which used to be a butchery, turned into a club. Sounds gross, but the place is really cool. And he got rejected from there too!! I was like, no way... not this place! Again I was arguing with the doorguy... "Don't you realize what you're doing? This is just like discriminating against black people!" (I was pretty drunk.) And he looked me in the eye and said yea, it IS just like discriminating against black people. I know he was just trying to get me to shut up... but he actually said that.
Finally we went to another one of my favorite locations called Stereo, and we also got let in, no problem (thank goodness). And we had a great time there... usually it's hip hop or funk or soul, but tonight it was 80s night... which I also like. A bunch of super punk goth kinda kids were there... and I befriended the one who had the most impressive mohawk, by far.
So, that was our beerfest-turned-downtown-lederhosen-discrimination adventure. I was just amazed that some bars are so stuck up as to reject people with traditional Bavarian dress... just shows the polarization of culture in this part of Germany.
These are German lederhosen (leather pants), traditional dress from Bavaria (south Germany)...
They are typically worn for traditional events, including the famous Oktoberfest which is occurring right now in Munich.
Anyways... clad in lederhosen, Dave fit right into the beer tent. But after we left there, we decided to go out downtown to some bars... and Dave got rejected from the first place... cause he was wearing lederhosen! I tried to argue with the doorguy... "How can you judge him based on what he's wearing? That's discrimination!" But they insisted that often, people wearing lederhosen get too rowdy and cause trouble.
We got let into the hipster bar nextdoor though (Mata Hari).
Then we tried to go to another one of my favorite locations called Fleisch und Wurst, which used to be a butchery, turned into a club. Sounds gross, but the place is really cool. And he got rejected from there too!! I was like, no way... not this place! Again I was arguing with the doorguy... "Don't you realize what you're doing? This is just like discriminating against black people!" (I was pretty drunk.) And he looked me in the eye and said yea, it IS just like discriminating against black people. I know he was just trying to get me to shut up... but he actually said that.
Finally we went to another one of my favorite locations called Stereo, and we also got let in, no problem (thank goodness). And we had a great time there... usually it's hip hop or funk or soul, but tonight it was 80s night... which I also like. A bunch of super punk goth kinda kids were there... and I befriended the one who had the most impressive mohawk, by far.
So, that was our beerfest-turned-downtown-lederhosen-discrimination adventure. I was just amazed that some bars are so stuck up as to reject people with traditional Bavarian dress... just shows the polarization of culture in this part of Germany.