For many young people, this quest for well-being is quite incompatible with nightclub parties, even if the adage says that “without alcohol, the party is crazier”. Added to this is laziness, this mixture of laziness and agoraphobia which pushes some young adults to decline any invitation to go out to a discotheque.
Célia, 27, is one of those cocooning enthusiasts who cannot be dragged into a club. For lack of desire but also for fear of making bad encounters. “I don’t feel safe in that kind of place. I prefer to be accompanied by at least three friends when I go there“.
Same story with Hadjer, 25: “There are many cases of harassment in nightclubs. Some men are very aggressive with girls and come up with different schemes to take advantage of them,” she explains. The “schemes” to which the young woman alludes emerged in the fall under the keyword #balancetonbar. This movement, born in Belgium at the beginning of November, has brought to light hundreds of cases of intoxication and sexual violence suffered in bars or nightclubs.. All describe the same scenario: an outing with friends, a few drinks, unusual physical symptoms and then, the black hole. In question, GHB, also known as “the drug of the date rape“, which the victims ingest without their knowledge.
Faced with the influx of testimonies in Belgium, France and the United Kingdom, nightlife establishments have taken measures to stem this worrying phenomenon. Some have trained their staff to better respond to situations of sexual violence, while others make available to revelers protections to put on the glasses to prevent drugs from being poured into them. The English start-up Where You At also designed an application to allow clubbers to stay in touch with their friends at any time of their eveningeven if they no longer have a network inside a bar or a nightclub.