Regulator rejects ‘Eggslut’ business name registration

A BRISBANE cafe has had its “offensive” name rejected, despite the usage of the word appearing in the Macquarie Dictionary.

The Eggslut cafe in Los Angeles. Picture: Simon Plant

SLUTWALK, Slutface, “coffee slut”.

How offensive is the “misogynistic slur” when it has entered common parlance — as a women’s rights march, a punk rock band played on Triple J, or a reference to someone who “voraciously” drinks coffee?

That was the question put before the Administrative Appeals Tribunal last month in what deputy president Bernard McCabe described as a case with “something to offend almost everyone”.

Former soldier Peter Coster was seeking to overturn a decision by the corporate regulator to block him from registering the business name “Eggslut” — not associated with the popular US version — on the grounds it was “undesirable”.

Mr Coster, who has already trademarked the term in Australia, said he first got the idea for the name when he realised some patrons at a cafe in the Brisbane suburb of Lutwyche referred to the establishment as “eggslut”, as in “eggs-Lutwyche”.

“The applicant says the addition of the qualifier ‘Egg’ draws the misogynistic sting of the word ‘slut’,” Mr McCabe said. “The applicant argues the expression is a cheeky way of referring (and appealing) to voracious consumers of eggs and egg-based dishes.”

He added that Mr Coster acknowledged the compound word “retains the capacity to startle” and “presumably in the belief that most publicity is good publicity” expected the “residual shock value in the business name will give it a marketing edge without really offending anyone”.

Under the Business Names Registration Act 2011, the Australian Securities and Investments Commission has the power to reject a business name “of a kind that is undesirable”.

A business name is undesirable if, “in the opinion of ASIC, it is likely to be offensive to members of the public or members of any section of the public”.

Former Revenue and Financial Services Minister — and Minister for Women — Kelly O’Dwyer declined to intervene in ASIC’s decision, forcing Mr Coster to take his case to the AAT.

“Conservatives will be aghast at the coarsening of public discourse if the applicant succeeds in registering a business name that incorporates the word ‘slut’,” Mr McCabe noted.

“Many liberals of a classical bent will be troubled by the attempt to regulate unseemly or ugly expression. Progressive types might see the attempted use of a misogynistic slur in a business name as evidence of the need for more stringent regulation of business practices that tend to excess, insensitivity and oppression.”

The name also generated controversy in the US. Picture: Simon Plant

He pointed out that ASIC’s primary role was regulating the financial system.

“That mission would not be fulfilled if ASIC were required to obsess over business names that offered only trivial or largely theoretical offence,” he said.

“Good government would grind to a halt if ASIC were to work on the assumption that the public was intolerant or unduly precious. While it must be accepted that members of sections of the public might have particular sensitivities, ASIC should be wary of ceding a veto over business names to mere cranks. That tells us something about the magnitude of the offence which must be anticipated.”

Mr Coster’s evidence included a Freedom of Information request to the ABC’s youth broadcaster confirming it had not received any audience complaints when it featured the Norwegian band Slutface.

He submitted a statement from an English-language expert arguing the word “slut” might be less exceptional if paired with a commodity such as coffee or eggs.

That was backed up the Macquarie Dictionary, which included as one possible definition “a person who is indiscriminate and voracious in their consumption of a specified commodity: a coffee slut”.

He also noted there was a successful business in the US with the same name. ASIC countered by supplying a news article from the LA Times about the controversy surrounding that business.

“Mr Coster was able to refer to a number of other business names using different but colourful words,” Mr McCabe said. “While I acknowledge some of those business names might raise eyebrows, I can only deal with the business name in front of me.”

While acknowledging the similar word “tart” had “lost some of its power to offend” over time, Mr McCabe said it was possible a word could become “even more offensive over time”.

He cited a quote about the SlutWalk, given to a newspaper in 2011 by a University of Queensland language professor, that described slut as “a bad word that one should avoid … there’s very little to be said in favour of the word”.

“It is difficult to look past the fact the word is primarily used as a nasty slur that is intended to hurt and shame those who are thought to transgress conventions of sexual morality,” Mr McCabe said.

“The use of the word ‘slut’, even in a compound expression where it is qualified, retains its capacity to offend at least a substantial section of the public — most obviously women, or many women, for whom it holds a strong pejorative sting that is not drawn through the use of a qualifier.”

For that reason, Mr McCabe said he was “satisfied the proposed business name is ‘of a kind that is undesirable’ within the meaning of the Act”.

Mr Coster said he was “incredibly disappointed” in the decision — but still intends to use the name “Eggslut”. “I’m just going to do it anyway,” he said.

“I do respect the decision of the tribunal, however I feel bitterly disappointed that other risque names are approved but unfortunately we’re not mature enough to accept that the word ‘slut’ has more than one meaning.

“The ridiculous thing is essentially I can still operate under my trademark. I’m required to display my business name Cavalry Investments prominently (above the door) and on receipts, but my entire shopfront can say ‘Eggslut’.”

Mr Coster, who insists he came up with the idea independently of the Los Angeles Eggslut, planned to run the cafe as his post-military career but it had “been on hold now for 18 months”.

He’s currently seeking investors and hopes to open up in Brisbane or Melbourne within the next year or so. “I certainly didn’t expect to have this sort of pushback,” he said. “I thought it would have been a widely accepted term.”

ASIC declined to comment. A spokesman for Ms O’Dwyer, now Minister for Jobs and Industrial Relations, directed inquiries to Treasurer Josh Frydenberg’s office.

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