The rave scene has a gender imbalance problem. Too many guys, not enough women, and that imbalance makes it harder for women to feel safe at raves. This is obvious to anyone who’s been on a dance floor at 3am. It’s less obvious what to do about it.
My solution was to take advantage of it.
La Sindigata de las Nalgoticas started as a private Instagram account and WhatsApp group — women-only. The founding message was blunt: the gender imbalance makes it difficult for women to feel safe at raves, and my goal was to use this group as a bargaining chip with promoters to attract the most exclusive discounts.
Obviously it’s weird that some cis dude started a group like this. The irony was not lost on me. I said that upfront.
The pitch to promoters was simple: I can send goth girls to your parties instead of complete randoms. Promoters need full dancefloors more than they need ticket revenue. An empty floor means nobody comes back. A floor full of women who actually want to be there changes the energy of the entire room.
The group was originally mixed-gender. Then I removed all the guys without warning. No announcement, no transition period. Just woke up one morning and decided the future is female. Their feelings would’ve been hurt less by a silent removal than by a long explanation about why they were being kicked out of a group called “Nalgoticas.”
The account — @la.sindigata.de.las.nalgoticas — became a proto-Rave Pass. Women who followed the private account got discount access at partner events. It predated the formal Rave Pass concept. The first iteration of what became SLIST’s entire guest list infrastructure was a girls-only IG account run by a dude who acknowledged how absurd that was.
The Nalgoticas group became tier one of SLIST’s distribution system in CDMX. About 100 members who got first access to cortesias before the 800-person chisme chat, before the 1,800-person announcement group, before Instagram stories. Each tier earned access through engagement, not just following.
The logic was cold: women enter free or for a dollar. This shapes the room. The room shapes the energy. The energy shapes the reputation. The reputation fills the next event. Everyone downstream benefits from the gender balance at the top of the funnel.
Was it cynical? Absolutely. Did it work? The dance floors spoke for themselves.