Iowa Patch Poll: Did Bar Have Right to Ban Girl From Dancing on Platform Because of Her Weight?
Jordan Ramos filed a complaint after she said she was insulted about her weight and banned from dancing on a dance platform with friends.
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Jordan Ramos speaks to a reporter during the protest held on the Pedestrian Mall in downtown Iowa City Friday night. Ramos is claiming discrimination occurred when the Union Bar refused to let her dance on a raised platform due to her size.
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You've probably heard about the young woman named Jordan Ramos, who says she was banned from dancing on a platform at the Union Bar in Iowa City after bouncers told her she was not pretty enough to dance there and "obviously pregnant."
The bar apologized, the city of Iowa City forced the Union to dismantle the platform for safety reasons and just this past weekend there was this colorful protest.
There's two good questions from this case, but only room for one poll, although plenty of room in the comment section to discuss both.
- "Did the Union bar have the right to ban Jordan Ramos from dancing on a platform because of her weight?" While certainly tacky, does a private business have the right to decide what happens inside its doors? After all, size isn't a protected class as is gender, sexual orientation, race, etc. This is our poll question.
- The second question is did Iowa City overreact by ordering the Union to dismantle the bar following this controversy?
Maria Houser Conzemius
7:54 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
The platform didn't meet code. It was four feet high, four feet square, and had no railings. That's a go-go girl (or boy) platform. The City of Iowa City did not overreact, but it's unfortunate that the city appears to conduct building inspections on a complaint-only basis. No one was safe on that platform and no one should have been allowed to dance there. The reason the Union Bar gave for not allowing Jordan Ramos to dance on the platform was hurtful, if not technically discriminatory according to local laws. The bar has not done itself a favor by promoting itself as a women-as-sex-objects-only place of business.
MMM
8:32 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
The bar would be liable if she fell so yes they had the right. It is not the physics of her weight but the combination of gravity, alcohol and common sense plus the right to protect the bar owners property.
David Leonard
9:25 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
MMM, all your comments would apply to a person of any weight dancing on that unsafe platform that has been ordered removed, but the bar apparently was just banning girls considered heavy or not pretty enough. That's rank discrimination.
Megan VerHelst
10:09 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
Just a reminder to those commenting on this article, profanity of any kind will not be tolerated. If you try, your comment will be deleted. We encourage intelligent and respectful conversation here. Period.
Jim Zupan
1:25 pm on Monday, May 7, 2012
Not true Megan. If you delete posts based on your own sense of what is right, that is called censorship, which is unfortunate, as I have found no other place to get local Ankeny news. But to promote it as intelligent conversation would not be right by just deleting language you feel is inappropriate. If you want to promote this as a place for intelligent conversations, you would have to remove stupid posts as well. Sorry, but censorship does not sit well with me.
Megan VerHelst
3:21 pm on Monday, May 7, 2012
Jim, I definitely understand your point so I'll drop the word "intelligent" from my previous comment. We don't want to come off as censoring ideas or thoughts here, and what is considered "intelligent" or "stupid", I think we can both agree, is going to vary from person to person. Regardless, comments laced with profanity will still be deleted.
Alex Ramsell
10:24 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
Obviously descrimination. Why tolerate elitism in any form? Why not burn it down? Search me.
Brian Morelli
11:47 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
For what is worth, I walked by the Union on Saturday, and it did not seem like business was suffering.
Jody Gifford
11:39 am on Monday, May 7, 2012
While I think they had the right to ask her not to dance on the platform, I think they could have phrased their response differently.
Jim Zupan
1:25 pm on Monday, May 7, 2012
So if you phrase a fat joke differently, that makes it ok...please.
Erv Server
1:25 pm on Monday, May 7, 2012
A business certainly has the right to do so but the situation could have been handled better. Discrimination of this type is nothing new. Some airlines are forcing fat people to buy an extra seat. How many fat women do you see working at Hooters? Where is the outrage towards these businesses?!?
Jim Zupan
1:25 pm on Monday, May 7, 2012
As a business, they have the right to tell her she can't dance there. She did the right thing by making it known. There are some idiots that would go to such a place, but I am not one of them. I may preach healthy life style, but I in no way could condone such shallow behavior.
Patricia A Glass-Fosseen
2:24 pm on Monday, May 7, 2012
The bar should have considered the safety of all who may want to dance there. Regardless of shape or size. A place of business should not be allowed to have this in their place of business if it is unsafe for any patron. It could be just as unsafe for a 98 pound female as it is for a 130 pound female if one or the other was under the influence of alcohol and would happen to slip or step wrong and fall. Therefore I am against the fact that they discriminated against who was allowed to dance on the platform and the fact that it was even brought into the establishment at all.