Apparently a new pizza joint cropped up, and the guys who work there probably got pretty bored one night. After a long day of mind-numbing pizza flipping and order taking, they must have really needed some extra stimulation. So it only makes sense that they’d change things up a bit and start offering free pizzas for women who flash them.

Wait, what?

That’s right, folks. Drew’s Pizza’s employees find it necessary to entertain themselves by asking women to degrade themselves.

And if you don’t believe me, you can check out some of these (now deleted) tweets from Drew’s Twitter account:

“Pizzas $5 right at Drews or free for titties #uiuc #LATENIGHT 508 e green.”

“Ok now for the next pair #uiuc FREE PIZZA.”

Obviously Drew’s feels no shame despite being called out by multiple news sources since just yesterday they tweeted: “If u got it flaunt it 508 E Green #uiuc #teamdrews #freepizza.”

What are the employees of Drew’s saying about this ridiculous escapade? Well, they seem to be pretty proud of themselves. Huffington Post was nice enough to reference a quote WICD-TV got from one of the employees, Brice Hartman, actually defending their actions (well, at least he’s committed?): “Somebody comes in says, ‘Hey I’m drunk, if I flash you, can I get a free pizza?’ Yeah sure, why not? It makes everybody here happy. It makes the crowd happy.”

Oh, OK. I see now! Were people not happy with just the pizza before? Maybe that’s a sign to close the place down, or the more logical idea, offer pizza for breasts?

Students at the University don’t seem to be amused, Kim Ziolkowski, a junior in Engineering, simply stated: “Well, this pizza better be covered in gold and jewels if they’re asking women to flash them for it.”

Yeah, it’s really not. Not even close.

And what really gets me mad is, yes, OK this is gross. This is degrading. But what about the men? This is unfair. It’s an outrage! Where can men go for free pizza? Is Drew’s also offering free pizzas to men who are willing to flash the goods? Is this double standard fair?

But in all seriousness, women should be offended, and if there are men who care about women, then they should be too. Those men are vile and profane and all forms of the word. But I can’t help but also think of how this whole incident just speaks to a larger problem of our society.

The fact that these employees are capitalizing on drunken women is an issue in itself. Taking advantage of drunken women is unfortunately nothing new, and frankly that’s just disturbing.

As I’m sure many have aptly already pointed out, females under the influence probably wouldn’t think too much about what they’d have to do to get a free pizza. Lots of people are pointing out that these women decided to flash these men by choice, and I completely agree. No one forced them into anything. It’s not so much the action that bothers me, but it’s the principle of the matter. I would hope these women, even when sober, would think twice before lifting their shirts.

I don’t understand why we continue to exist in a world where it is OK or even humorous for men to influence women to expose themselves for a pizza. It forces us to think of what the bigger picture could be: What else will we laugh off as pure “influence?” Will we always write these situations off as acceptable because the women involved “chose” to participate? Drew’s Twitter account and some comments on various articles sprouting up online are accusing people who are disgusted by their behavior as not having a “sense of humor.” Being offended doesn’t mean you’re stuck-up or that you don’t have a sense of humor. It just shows you have a shard of self-respect, and you don’t need to feel validated by men throwing pizza at you in exchange for revealing your boobs. I know for a fact that these men aren’t just some poor souls living a G-rated life. If men want something to look at, there are plenty of other easily accessible outlets. I think the desired outcome here isn’t seeing a chick’s boobs, it’s the fact that girls are essentially flashing FOR these men. (Of course there’s a pizza involved, but who are the ones offering the pizza and the price?) And I think that feeling can give someone a sense of control, which feels good especially when we have these widespread ideas that a girl who strips down is sexy and one who doesn’t is a prude. And a guy who can get her to do it is the coolest kid on the block.

At the end of the day, we have Drew’s to thank for feeling thoroughly disgusted and perturbed. Do we really want to support a small business that doesn’t care about or respect a woman’s body? Even if Drew’s happens to be your favorite pizza place (maybe you just really love their Taco or Taj Mahal pizza), there are plenty of other pizza places to choose from. And they honestly probably taste better and aren’t degrading to women in their business propositions.

Sehar is a junior in LAS. She can be reached at [email protected].