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Feminism: Sex and gender discussions

Join me, if you will, in envisaging the feminist pub

307 replies

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 17/09/2013 14:35

Inspired by the obvious thread, I feel we need a fictional pub that's as the same sort of mecca for feminists. The antidote to the classic sexist bloke pub, where the floor is sticky and you can't get to the bar without pushing past three Important Regulars peering at your boobs and making blonde jokes, while the barman asks 'are you sure' when you order real ale and the beer for ladies comes in comedy funny-shaped pint glasses for our wee delicate hands.

In the feminist pub, I want to outlaw stupid jokes, obviously. But I also think the bar needs to be at a height that doesn't put my boobs on pint-level for every bloke there. And I would like it if there were etiquette that, when you've got your pint, you don't sit chatting to the barman and taking up space, you move away (I have never seen a woman sit on the edge of a bar, alone).

And I fancy copies of classics like 'Letters from a fainthearted feminist' standing about dog-earned on the bookcases, in place of old back issues of Spectator or random leather-bound books by dead white men.

Shall I apply for a pub lease then? And what else do we want in the feminist pub?

OP posts:
SinisterSal · 18/09/2013 12:51

Loads of us have mentioned ale above lib. Keep up!

BuffytheReasonableFeminist · 18/09/2013 12:50

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libertarianj · 18/09/2013 12:45

So I will have to make a reasonable one: a feminist pub is any pub where everyone is made to feel welcome, no one has to speak to anyone they don't want to speak to, everyone gets served promptly, plenty of comfy seats, no fights or aggression, clean loos, funky toons (not too loud). Um...
Sounds boring Smile, actually haven't you just described the typical Gastro pub / family pub? which the majority of pubs seem to have turned into these days.

Also why is there no pint of beer smiley mumsnet HQ? Ale drinkers are being under represented, like here and here

So what's everyone's favourite ale/beer then?

ThinkAboutItTomorrow · 18/09/2013 10:13

Had a hilarious conversation with a man High up in one of the big brewers. He was grumbling about 'mixed gender drinking occasions' causing a decline in beer consumption. I suggested it was a trend he might have seen coming and that maybe if the beer industry hadn't spent millions on advertising that suggested women were feather headed sex objects he would have less of a problem. His answer 'it's all very well saying that with hindsight'!Confused

Doraemon · 18/09/2013 09:58

I want to go to the pub now and eat a roast dinner and read the paper. But it is 10 am on Wednesday morning, my baby is asleep on top of me and I have a filthy house to clean :-(

EldritchCleavage · 18/09/2013 09:51

'Cosmopolitan Magazine is a Tool of Patriarchy.

What's in that one then?

BuffytheReasonableFeminist · 18/09/2013 09:50

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WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes · 18/09/2013 09:43

I'd like a dart board and to be able to use it without feeling self conscious that male onlookers would assume I'm crap because I'm female (when in fact I'm crap because I'm uncoordinated).

TravelinColour · 18/09/2013 09:35

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YoniMatopoeia · 18/09/2013 09:29

Yes to creche here. With male staff.

Also all management is female, and all the cleaners are male.

MrsGeologist · 18/09/2013 09:17

FairPhyllis, I worked at a golf club that had a mulled wine tap. There was a box of mulled wine behind the bar and the tap pumped it from the box and it went through a series of tubes which warmed the wine. It was amazing, but sadly not very popular.

FairPhyllis · 18/09/2013 04:22

I want pub cats. And a terrace/garden. And no draughts anywhere. And mulled wine reliably available in months with a R in them. And cider.

Cocktails, if allowed, will have names like 'Enthusiastic, Consensual and Possibly Non-PIV Sex on the Beach', 'Bloody Fantastic Mary', and 'Cosmopolitan Magazine is a Tool of Patriarchy.'

On Wednesday night there will be a pub quiz, which is not mysteriously won by the same team every single week. It will also be the sort of pub where nobody pinches your umbrella while you are not looking, and where there are enough women's loos. The loos are also very nice, but nobody feels the need to congregate in them because the main pub space is friendly.

MrsGeologist · 18/09/2013 00:08

Seven stars*

KaseyM · 17/09/2013 23:18

A pool table where no one ogles your arse when you bend down to take a shot!

MrsGeologist · 17/09/2013 22:58

A few friendly pub cats.

There is a pub called the Seen Stars in London and last time I was there, there were numerous pub cats. The landlady was amazing too.

TalkativeJim · 17/09/2013 22:32

Maybe there would be a winsome Victoriana print in some dark corner of the pub with the legend 'And A Shandy For The Wee Man' beneath it.

Two of the three Brewsters for Mallinson's microbrewery in Yorkshire are female!

tethersend · 17/09/2013 22:16

I do know if a pub with a soft play area.

It's very popular.

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 17/09/2013 22:16

Oh, i do love beagles. They are so nice.

Please don't feel bad - this isn't meant to be that sort of thread!

I had the same experience. To me, nothing is more welcoming in a pub that a nice throng of dogs and people in dog-walking clothes. In fact where I grew up, it'd be a nice mix of gun-dogs relaxing after the hunt, I'm afraid, which I can't square with my feminist principles at all. Blush

Maybe in the feminist utopia all dogs are perfectly trained, never slobber or smell, and excite nobody's allergies?

OP posts:
tethersend · 17/09/2013 22:13

Babycham?

CaptChaos · 17/09/2013 22:03

LRD, fair point. We have beagles, so sort of gunish dogs, maybe I was just reliving a rather idyllic dream of a pub. There was one like that near where I spent parts of my childhood, but looking back, it may well have been as you described. Most adults thought I was a boy for most of my childhood, so maybe that's why I was accepted.

How crap does that feel? Hey ho.

LRDMaguliYaPomochTebeSRaboti · 17/09/2013 21:52

capt - where I lived, what happened to pubs like that was you were only accepted (if female) if you'd live there 20+ years, had three gun dogs, and were able to withhold the hunt good lands if you so chose.

Any other women were very much required to be with blokes.

So I like the idea of a pub where women could be the regulars.

Btw, I would happily babysit. I actually like babies. I think there is a market with those of us who are missing nieces/nephews/grandchildren.

OP posts:
kim147 · 17/09/2013 21:42

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WoTmania · 17/09/2013 21:38

I'm liking the sound of this pub. Definitely a crèche (run by men?) so I can sit and read with my pint of real ale while the wee beasties get entertained.
Beer garden with good play area too for extra peace and quiet on sunny days

SinisterSal · 17/09/2013 21:38

Oooh this is the thread for me.

A real fire
Real ale, the Feminist ale meationed above sounds perfect
Plenty of live music & comedy nights with a feMNist slant
and for the competetive nerds amongst us - Pub Quiz; featuring rounds such as Guess that (Feminist) Quote, What's Wrong With This Picture? and Trolls of the FWR Trivia for fun at the end

EldritchCleavage · 17/09/2013 21:22

No music, please
Dogs in specified areas
A friendly pub cat