“Yeah, Not Tonight:” Plus Size Women Are Being Turned Away At Nightclubs Because Of Their Size

Curve models Gabriella Halikas and Alexa Jay have gone viral on Instagram after they called out a LA nightclub for being fatphobic.

As explained in a recent video, last Wednesday the two women were lining up outside The Highlight Room.

Alexa was with a group of 15 women for a birthday party and says she was definitely the “biggest in the group.”

“So the promoter starts letting in the whole group of girls and right when it gets to me at the front the bouncer puts the rope in front looks me up and down and says, yeah, not tonight,’” says Alexa, “I wanted to make sure he wasn’t confused and he knew that I was a part of the group that he was letting in so I let him know and he looked me up and down one more time and said ‘yeah, not tonight.’”

She says at that point is was clear she was “being discriminated against because of the size of my body.”

Gabriella was also refused entry by the bouncer and without reason told “not tonight.”

She says “this has personally happened to her three other times.”

“The security guard was there and did not help,” says Gabriella, “he was a bigger guy and I looked at him and I said ‘hey you’re seeing what’s going on, you’re a bigger guy you know exactly what’s going on here, are you not going to speak up for us, are you not going to vouch for us on our behalf?”

During the now viral video, both Gabriella and Alexa spoke about their privilege being able to speak about this issue having such large platforms on social media.

Gabriella says this is the “for the girls who don’t speak up and just ignore it, for the girl that was feeling sexy and confident going out to then get publicly humiliated in front of her peers when no one else is standing up for her, for the girls recovering from eating disorders to then getting their whole confidence shattered in the moment of seconds from a man at the door who decided she wasn’t good enough.”

“I know this may sound silly and not ‘important enough’ to discuss,” says Gabriella, “but I have a platform and a responsibility to share my honest thoughts and experiences, and to speak up to the injustices that our curve and plus size community faces every single day.”

In recent days people have since taken to Yelp to express their frustration with The Highlight Room. Source: Yelp

Since posting the video many followers have shared their similar experiences being fat shamed at bars.

One user wrote, “This happened to me in NYC when I went with my skinner friend where he wanted to charge me 20 dollars to go into the club and my friend free. It’s not okay the discrimination based on how you look!!!”

Another user wrote, “This happened to me years ago. I still to this day hate going to clubs and bars because of all the times I went out with friends only to get treated like I was I was the “ugly friend” all night.”

The Hightlight Room have yet to comment on the controversy.

The comments section on their Instagram page has now been limited due to the online backlash.

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